DCZia's 30-in-One Badge, Built for DEF CON 30, Is a Throwback to Classic Educational Circuit Kits
Driven by a Microchip ATSAMD21, this smart badge kit aims to teach you core electronic concepts in the Radio Shack spirit.
Pseudonymous maker "Hamster" of the DCZia "group of hackers" has put together a badge for the DEF CON 30, and it's something a little special: a throwback to the days of "30-in-1" educational electronics projects kits for kids.
"Do you remember Christmas morning, opening up your presents, and finding a Radio Shack 100-in-One kit there? Maybe I'm showing my age, but for me that was one of the best gifts," Hamster recalls. "When designing this badge, I really wanted to bring that feeling of discovery back. What I really wanted was spring terminals too, but I didn't manage to make that happen…"
The core concept of the kits — a series of components pre-fitted and wireable in a variety of ways to build up the projects listed in the bundled manual — is brought across to the chunky badge, though with a slightly smaller but still impressive 30 predefined projects with which to play. These projects are, as with Radio Shack's originals, detailed in a printed booklet — teaching the reader about schematics and components as they go hands-on building up their circuits.
"A diagram showing how all the wires need to hookup is set opposite the schematic," Hamster explains of the book's contents. "A description of why the circuit is interesting is presented, along with some questions to help you learn how to take your new knowledge and run screaming into the woods with in some new fashion."
The badge itself is sold as a kit, with the surface-mount components including the Microchip ATSAMD21 microcontroller, which powers the device already installed but the through-hole parts remaining to be installed — something that may put off those truly at the very start of their journey into electronics education, but which is supported by detailed tutorials and video guides.
The DCZia 30-in-One badge is available to order in kit form from the Snurkle Engineering Tindie store at $85 during a time-limited 15 percent off sale; the design itself is fully open-source, with the hardware, software, and booklet available on GitHub under the permissive Unlicense license.