Category: Badges

Posted on

ID Badge Printing fun

So some years ago I picked up a Fargo DTC400e id badge printer at auction. It was cheap, and something I wanted to fool around with. I had already been recreationally fooling around with magstripe and RFID cards, it just seems like a natural progression of interests.

A recent meeting revitalized my interest. There’s a thing the group wants to do and it might come in handy. I was all set to buy a dye sublimation printer and go down that route, either printing direct to cards or to vinyl transfer which would then be applied to the cards, when one of the members mentioned “id card printer” and them I remembered that I had this thing buried in a bin somewhere. I had futzed with it in the past, but did not get good results. Might have been the wrong kind of card to print on, might have been an aged ribbon, I abandoned it back then because “overcome by events” and lack of interest, but here I am looking into it again.

Here’s what I’ve found so far:

  • The DTC400e was a decent card printer in its day. It was likely expensive in its day. Its day has passed. The ribbon cartridges appear to be discontinued, it’s likely that anything I’d be able to find in stock would be old stock. Someone is selling some on ebay that was manufactured in 2011/2012. I don’t think it was meant to last that long.
  • Modern dedicated id badge printers are expensive. The cheapest I’ve managed to find is a very low-end $400 model that only prints on one side. The DTC400e can print on both sides. Most comparable models are over $1,000. For far less than that I could get a decent dedicated dye sublimation printer and do much more than ID cards with it.
  • The DTC400e is used via the Fargo Workbench software. It’s so old that there are no Windows 10 drivers for it available. I even had quite a bit of difficulty finding the Windows 7 drivers for it. Eventually I did, and end up performing a staggering series of sysadmin feats of strength just to get to test mode:
    • Installing Windows 7 via ISO didn’t recognize NICs in my HP ProOne600 G2 All-In-One PCs that I use for group stuff.
    • Installing the NIC drivers after that resulted in an inability to install the workbench software due to dead Windows Update functionality on that obsolete Windows.
    • I had avoided deploying Win7 from my FOG installation because I had broken my FOG installation in 2023 for some reason and didn’t want the extra steps of making that work again.
    • But that’s what I ended up doing. Fixed FOG and deployed a Win7 image I had saved a few years ago. Fargo Workbench installed just fine on that, the DTC400e drivers I found installed fine, and now I have a valid test platform.
    • Is it worth buying a new ribbon for somewhere between $60 and $150? Maybe. If nothing else, just for the experience. I found a YMCFOK ribbon slated to work with this unit for $82. Mostly I had been finding YMCOK ribbons, which would be fine. But the F is exciting:
      • Y=Yellow
      • M=Magenta
      • C=Cyan
      • F=Fluorescing! (security layer only visible with UV light)
      • O=Clear protective overlay
      • K=Black Resin

So that’s where I am now. The printer is reachable by the software on a reincarnated Win7 build from quite some time ago. I’m about to pull the trigger on a new ribbon. And a couple of us are taking a dye sublimation class this evening in case it goes that direction.

Posted on

Custom wings add-on?

Hey, anybody interested in custom wings for your Chakra badge? I mean, some of you are certainly equipped to make them yourself, but say you’re not, or you’re a poor like most of us, but you’re artistically inclined, and you want something really personal on your wings. Hit us up, let us know what you want, and what you think a fair price is, and let’s get to burnin’ some plastic.

Posted on

Chakra Badge Update, 2024-06-11

So the entire early sales allotment sold, and shipped. Sixty badges went out to you lovely people around the planet, and we are so grateful for your support!

For our next feat, we’ll be doing another smaller early sale batch shortly. We’re still having internal conversations about how many to put out there early and how many to hold for DEF CON.

One of the complications of DEF CON delivery is that now that the con is pretty much all in one space, and no longer directly connected to hotels, selling them at con just got much more complicated. Since we’re not allowed to sell in con space, and no connected hotels, we’ll have to be creative to find places to meet within folks’ already chaotic DEF CON schedules.

So all of that is factoring into our decisions.

Also, we’re trying out a new plugin for a birdseye view of all shipped badges, so if you get a NEW shipping notification AFTER you’ve already received your badge, don’t get too excited, it just means we populated a field. 🙂

-baab

Posted on

Shipping updates

Most of the orders from early sales are on their way to buyers! International orders and multi-badge orders take a little longer because they’re outside of the flow zone, but EVERYTHING should be on the way by tomorrow. It’s exciting seeing and hearing reports from the field. Feel free to come into our Discord with any questions or comments.

P.S. we found out that our domain is having SPF/DKIM issues mailing to some domains, and we’re working through that.

Posted on

Early Chakra Badge sales

Because someone took the time to ask, this is not a “presale” for later delivery. These badges are shipping NOW.

The advantages to you, my worthy #badgelife devotees, are many. Mainly that you can fool yourself into thinking this badge is no longer included in your “badge budget” for Defcon. 🙂

Final firmware will be released on day 1 of Defcon, at which point the competition will begin. The firmware that we’re shipping now, which we lovingly refer to as “MVP” (Minimum viable product, I think someone called it?) has demos and other entertaining features. The final firmware will include the competition games. It’s easy to apply firmware later.

You can also use the time between now and DC32 to maybe write your own code and throw it on the badge. The instruction booklet includes pinouts, and help is available in our Discord server if you’re interested in pursuing that.

Posted on

Badge Announcement

Sure, it was haphazard. We shat out a badge announcement tonight. You wanna know why? Because Kevin and Txnner put together such a beautiful intro/promo demo that it just begged for public consumption.

Yes. DC540 has a badge this year. This is the badge that was supposed to happen last year, but us ADHD misfits with demanding day jobs couldn’t get our shit together to complete it in time to release last year. And when we realized that, we relaxed. We were like, “Fuck it, we’ve got time to do it right. Let’s do it right.”

And I, for one, think we did.

So the badge is once again based on the RP2040. But this time, we didn’t use a prefab Pico devboard as a base. We went all out and did all the things we needed to rawdog the RP2040. We have EEPROM. We have flash. We have USB-C. We have Li-Po. We 3D-printed battery covers to protect the Li-Po. We painted and laser engraved and cut acrylic wings, and used sidelights to light them up. It’s fucking glorious. It’s eloquent. I think it’s the most beautiful badge we’ve done yet.

But it’s not just me. Kevin is ejaculating in his pants as well. This is a beautiful fucking badge.

But we didn’t stop there…

We have seven badge challenges this year. And NONE of them will be released before DefCon 32 Day 1. The winners of the challenges will receive beautiful laser-crafted physical trophy awards to commemorate their diligence and commitment to NoVa’s #2 death cult. Something so glorious and displayworthy that we’re not even going to preview it here. The first THREE winners to complete all seven challenges at DC32 in-person will receive a trophy. The first VIRTUAL winner who can’t make it to DC32 will also receive a trophy.

We’ll do presales. We have assembled badges in-hand. We have lanyards. We have packaging. The only thing we don’t have yet is the documentation booklet. And we’re working on that. We’re going to do a limited presale, maybe 25 badges, maybe more, way before DefCon. Those presale badges will not have the final firmware, they’ll have some lovely demos and things you can play with, but they won’t have the badge challenge. Those who pick up our badge at DefCon will have a fully functional badge with the badge challenge loaded.

Those who preorder will have to make do with demos, features and maybe customizing it with your own software while you wait for DefCon Day 1. We’ll publish the pinouts and starter hints in the documentation booklet. On DefCon Day 1, we’ll release the final badge challenge firmware, it’ll be easy to reflash your badge with it.

Let’s be clear. We don’t WANT to do a presale. But we’re pretty heavily out of pocket for creating this year’s badge, and we need to recoup costs, hopefully before we get out to vegas. Not all of us make the big tech bro dollars. But we’re doing it. And we’re almost 100% ready.

You ready for the preview now? Here goes. Make sure you’re in a private place, because regardless of gender or personal junk, this badge might just give you some sort of boner. I present, the DC540 DC32 2024 Chakra Badge.

Posted on

DC540 December Giveaway

We’re eight classes in on our MicroPython & PCB Design series, and I got the urge to give some stuff away to drive more eyeballs to our content. So from now until the end of December, I’m tracking new subscribers to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbN6uet3koyKkKs5W8CoCxQ

Five of you will win prizes:

(1) Tarot Badge from DC30
(1) Tree of Life Badge from DC29
(3) Random DIY PCB kits from our collection

Maybe you’ll even learn something!

Posted on

Tonight: MicroPython & PCB Design Class: Catching Up

What better way to spend Black Friday evening than cozying up by the fire and tuning into DC540’s catch-up class on MicroPython & PCB Design. We’ve done 7 classes so far of a planned 6-class series, and last week we started in fabrication prep. Enough people are traveling this week that we decided not to take the class forward this evening, but enough people are around that we’re going to hold “class” anyway, and dig deep in whatever direction folks want to explore.

No promises about next week. I’m having minor ear surgery next Friday morning. We’ll see how it goes.

7:30pm on Zoom.

Posted on

MicroPython & PCB Design Class update

So I finally caught up with all the last few weeks of class videos, and they’re all out there on the YouTube playlist. We’re having such a great time working through this process, dealing with real-time mistakes, and just going through the grind of designing a board and getting it fabricated. It’s a group class, so it’s very conversational, and the group is comfortable together, so it occasionally gets irreverent and mildly sarcastic.

Here’s the YouTube playlist link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvHfoRwREM9NEh0unEx78AdT5MzEejzg7

I expect we’ll have one or two more classes before we wrap this series up. Hit us up on all the platforms if you find it useful.

Posted on

We worship at the cult of efficiency

Quite a while back, I posted an article about networking a scanner with a Raspberry Pi. At some point I added an inkjet printer to that configuration using cups, because the color laser in the house has a roller-induced wrinkle that I can’t seem to get rid of.

Yesterday, I received a Rollo 4×6 shipping label printer. The truth is, it’s about damn time. For years, I’ve just been printing labels on regular (sometimes with a wrinkle) printer paper, and painstakingly taping that folded piece of paper on outgoing packages. This would be fine if I was a normal citizen and my outgoing packages were limited to the occasional friends and family care package. But they’re not. My home is the nerve center of a group that creates electronics for distribution. In addition, I have a number of ever-morphing hobbies that have me buying and selling on ebay monthly at a minimum. So there are always packages coming and going, sometimes 20-30 at a time.

So a member heard that I’d been doing that and suggested the thermal label printer. Just print, peel and stick. Saves a lot of time, and a lot of tape, because with this, the tape is only used to seal the package.

I started with one of the Chinese knockoffs. The price was certainly right, and I picked the one with the lowest percentage of negative reviews. But either the reviews are stacked or I got a dud, because it makes spotty, unusable labels. It would be fine if it was just for print, but these labels have to have their barcodes scanned. I can’t be printing labels with spotty barcodes. So I ordered the Rollo, which is twice the price of the knockoff, but came well recommended.

Unsolicited recommendation: Rollo commercial-grade thermal 4×6 label printer

I don’t have a dedicated PC for shipping. My daily driver is a Macbook. The printer is not wireless. I had to figure out the best strategy for accessing it from the Macbook, while leaving open the possibility of accessing it by other means. I started down the path of sharing the printer from a gaming PC, but man, Windows printer sharing is ugly and painful without a domain.

Then I remembered the raspberry pi with the scanner and DeskJet attached. I determined that it still had a USB port free, and that Raspberry Pi drivers were available (WOW!) for the Rollo. I installed the drivers and plugged in the printer. I remembered that cupsd was already running to support the DeskJet, so I browsed to the cups interface and quickly added the printer and made it shareable. The MacBook immediately saw it via Bonjour and I printed my first label. I’m sitting here in awe thinking about how much time this is going to save in my upcoming shipping adventures, in which I’ll be shipping dozens of badges over the next couple of months.

New Store Who Dis Dismiss