Bornhack 2026 badge
Introduction
The BornHack 2026 badge is the Cyber Ægg. It is an egg-shaped, low-power hacker badge, inspired by the Tamagotchi of the 1990s. One battery charge runs the badge for the full BornHack camp. A long-range LoRa mesh keeps you connected to everyone else on the field.
Under the playful shell is a serious radio computer. A Nordic nRF52840 drives a 1.54 inch black, red and white e-paper display. The badge talks Bluetooth Low Energy to your phone, and it emulates an NFC tag on its back. A dedicated SX1262 LoRa radio connects the badge to the wider MeshCore network. Between messages, BornPets entertains you. BornPets is a virtual pet with a set of mini-games.
Front (display and buttons) and back (nRF52840, USB-C connectors, NFC coil).
Expansion connector pinout
The board has an I²C expansion connector of the QWIIC type. We made a design mistake: the 3.3 V and the GND signals are swapped. Before you connect a QWIIC peripheral, make a corrected cable and use that.Features
- Egg-shaped badge, inspired by the classic Tamagotchi
- Nordic nRF52840 microcontroller (BLE, USB and NFC)
- 1.54 inch 152 × 152 black, red and white e-paper display
- SX1262 LoRa radio, part of the MeshCore mesh network
- Bluetooth Low Energy companion connection to the MeshCore app
- NFC tag on the back, for location games and station taps
- 5-way joystick,
Select,ExecuteandCancelbuttons, RGB LED and a piezo buzzer - USB-C for charging and for file transfer with drag and drop
Start with the Getting started guide. The Games page describes the virtual pet. The Hardware page tells you what is inside the badge.
Update your badge from the browser
The Flash page installs the firmware and the badge’s asset files from a Chromium-family browser over USB. You need no toolchain and no command line. The page offers the standard firmware and the Community Edition, a fork with more BornPets mechanics.Source code
The Cyber Ægg is open source. The hardware design and the firmware are on Codeberg:
- Hardware (KiCad) — Ranzbak/bornhack2026-hardware
- Firmware (Rust / Embassy) — Ranzbak/bornhack-firmware-2026
The Flash page also offers four alternative images. Each image has its own home:
- Community Edition — ShadowSquad-org/BornHack-Cyberegg, a fork with more BornPets mechanics
- DOOM — rarenerd/cyberaegg-doom, a bare-metal port of the DOOM engine
- CircuitPython — rarenerd/cyberaegg-circuitpython, to program the badge in Python
- Bad Apple!! — annejan/aegg-apple, the animation on the e-paper panel with the tune on the buzzer
Hardware sponsors
- Nordic Semiconductor sponsored their low power yet very capable and fast NRF52840 microcontroller with Bluetooth Low Energy and NFC, making it possible for us to build a device that runs on one battery charge, the whole camp long!
- ALLNET China is our production partner, they take care of sourcing most components and oversee the production process in China, saving us a lot of work and potential headaches and allowing us to focus on the product!
- Procolix sponsored the SX1262 LoRa radio chips, converting the badge into a capable LoRa communications device. Check out their managed hosting solutions for a truly sovereign cloud built on European open source solutions!
- deFEEST sponsored part of the badge hardware, helping us get the components we needed to build it. Find out more at defeest.nl!
- Mollerup Automation sponsored the 3D printed housing for the badge. They are automation, robotics and PLC specialists from Odense, Denmark — see mollerup.info!