You’ll Always Have a Joker in Your Deck with This Electronic Badge
Magic Stone Tech’s Joker Card electronic badge is purely for fun, and you can purchase it through Tindie.
Some of our best ideas as makers seem to come from absolutely nowhere. They aren’t inspired by anything we can identify, and don’t solve any problems in our lives. They just seem like something interesting to tackle. While most electronic badges are designed for a specific purpose — or at least a specific event, Magic Stone Tech’s Joker Card electronic badge is purely for fun, and you can purchase it through Tindie.
Magic Stone Tech has designed other electronic badges, including the fantastic SAW: The Badge we covered a few months ago that was created for DEF CON 27. But this Joker Card electronic badge wasn’t designed for DEF CON or any other conference. It is simply the result of an interesting idea. It looks like the joker that you’ll find in most decks of cards. One side has a smiling joker with happy star lights, while the other half of the card has a grinning joker with sinister pentagram lights.
The badge is driven by a 32-bit SAM D21 microcontroller, which is Arduino-compatible. It’s powered by a 3.7V 400mAh LiPo battery, and has built-in LiPo charging circuitry. A total of 29 LEDs are placed across the board. Most importantly, there is a sensor to detect which half of the card is pointing upwards. The MCU will automatically activate the LEDs on that side. That means you can simply flip the badge over to let passersby know what kind of mood you’re in at any given moment. If you want your own Joker Card badge, they cost $50 plus shipping.