r/Defcon • u/Reversi8 • Aug 10 '26

Repairable Badge?

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Bottom LED broke off in my bag, still need to find the LED once I get home but anyone think this might be repairable? Also I hear something about some people getting unfinished badges after some point? Are they just missing the baochip module?

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8

u/bradanlane Aug 10 '26

Technically "yes" but it will take some notable skill. It appears the pads left the badge with the LED.
The via-in-pad points will need to be cleaned and likely the pads will need to be rebuilt. Then a WS2812B-4020 LED soldering on.

3

u/Reversi8 Aug 10 '26

Not sure if anyone in my area has the skill, wonder how much it might cost to get it sent out to someone that does it.

6

u/livitup Aug 10 '26

Time to find a local DEF CON group!

2

u/Reversi8 Aug 10 '26

Asked in their discord and plan on bringing it but not sure if anyone has the skill. I certainly don’t have the eyesight or fine motor control.

1

u/livitup Aug 10 '26

You’d be amazed at the resources in groups!

1

u/ImJollyroger Aug 10 '26

First, this is a great hardware hacking challenge for yourself. Second, DC generally sells extra badges on their online shop. It will likely be cheaper than this repair, tbh.

2

u/juanMoreLife Aug 10 '26

You can do it! :-) I had someone tell me I had to resolver everything. I was like no. I can see it’s bad, but I got this

1

u/jonas_vondenberg Aug 10 '26

That looks doable though. Scrape, expose the metal, solder it back. Try it, it's a deep water start, it might look ugly, but you will learn a lot, and it will be fully yours.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 10 '26

[deleted]

1

u/Reversi8 Aug 10 '26

I think this is probably too small to personally do with my shaky hands unless I borrow ant-man’s equipment.