Laser* Tag Badge DS

Introducing Laser* Tag Badge DS from dani.pink, an all-new** revamped Laser* Tag Badge!

*no actual lasers, just invisible somewhat-focused IR beam 

Discord server (to get more info and coordinate pickups): https://dani.pink/discord

Compared to DC33 version:

• Infinity times as many LoRa radios! (1 instead of 0) -- this should enable automatic score syncing (more real-time), and to enable the badge to receive player name definitions from the leaderboard server, so your badge can say the names of the people who tagged you. I also want to try and do things like time signal syncing and possibly scheduled announcements, we'll see though.
  
• Twice as many screens! (2 instead of 1) -- so there is a screen facing the user to show tag information, a partial leaderboard, and more
• Twice as many RGB LEDs! (60 instead of 30)
• An extra photoresistor on the back -- the idea is to try and use this to detect changes in light implying the user has lifted up the badge, and then adjust back screen and LED brightness + LoRa radio state accordingly, but I don't know yet if that part will work out well.
• One half as many SAO ports! (1 instead of 2) -- sorry
• Marginally higher IR power/tagging range

PCB color, antenna model, bodge jobs, silkscreen, etc subject to change!

Full Info:

Game

• Wear badge during Defcon.
• Earn points by firing at other people you encounter wearing the badge.
• Score more points for tagging more unique other people each hour (you can tag the same person up to 5 times per hour)
• Scores should be synced to online leaderboard automatically over LoRa radio.
• At-home mode allows for use after the convention, with no centralized scoring.

Hardware

• RP2350 (on Waveshare RP2350-Zero daughterboard)
• EByte E220 LoRa Module
• External SMA 915MHz antenna
• 2 screens! 1.28" round GC9A01 240x240 LCD on front, 0.96" SSD1306 OLED on back.
• VSLY5940 narrow-beam IR emitter + generic IR receiver
• 60 RGB LEDs
• Photoresistor for automatic LED brightness control
• 5-way directional switch + separate sync and rear display mode buttons
• Rechargeable 18650 battery
• Vibration motor
• Piezo buzzer
• 1x SAO port (unkeyed), with power and I2C but not GPIO connected.

Caveats

Not as good as real laser tag because:

• Badge has no visible laser dot to help with aim
• IR beam is not as narrow as real laser tag (to make up for lack of visible laser dot)
• LVCC is not as good as a real laser tag arena due to: 1) ambient light, 2) reflective surfaces. The increased ambient light makes the maximum overall shot range less (especially around sunlight), and the reflective surfaces make it so shots at short range may "hit" even if the aim is bad.
• My LoRa scoring setup and base stations haven't been tested in the LVCC--range might not be as good as I hope (in which case, QR code syncing like last year will be needed)

Options:

There are three options for what you can buy:

• Just the Laser* Tag Badge
• OUT OF STOCK BUNDLE! The Laser* Tag Badge, plus the super cool Monorail Badge (with 3 included SAOs for lights and sound and hall effect sensors to detect the little plastic monorail's position), created by Zach Resmer - resmer.co.za/ch (discounted relative to buying both separately). More info: https://zachs-hacks.myshopify.com/products/monorail-badge.
• SUPER SPONSOR a.k.a. pay extra for not much benefit. This is for the Laser* Tag Badge (only), plus (if you want it) opportunity to set up a one-time pre-scheduled message that will get spammed out to all Laser* Tag Badge DS devices in range of a base station at a given time during DEF CON and shown on the badge screens. Subject to 60-80 character limit (alphanumeric plus certain symbols only) limit and my approval! Message delivery is very far from guaranteed. I'll also put your name/handle on the About page of the website, and give you a special icon next to your name on the leaderboard (just let me know after you set your name). Not expecting many (any?) people to choose this but I am greedily putting it as an option...

This is an order to PICK UP a badge in-person in Las Vegas!

Pickup options locations/time will be shared later as they are determined!

NOTE FOR PEOPLE OUTSIDE THE US:

If you get an error saying "No stores available with your item", press "Change location" and set your pickup location to Nevada, US and you should see "DEF CON Pickup" as an option. You can still use your billing address from outside the US.

**technically we did something similar last year, and others have as well, just mostly on a smaller scale without the centralized scoring