BSidesIowa 2019 Badge

The badge for BSidesIowa 2019 conference is a penny piano running on an ESP32 microcontroller running micropython. This badge is fully rechargeable and all that is required to program it is a micro usb cable.

Micropython

The micropython REPL prompt can be accessed using a serial console running at 115200 baud. Documentation for micropython can be found here, https://docs.micropython.org/en/latest/esp32/quickref.html

To program

The badge can be programmed directly through the REPL prompt on the serial console. To load new files onto the ESP32, first access the serial console and press Ctrl+C to end the running program on the board. Then, exit the serial console and use ampy.py to load new programs. Instructions to install ampy can be found here, https://learn.adafruit.com/micropython-basics-load-files-and-run-code/install-ampy

Common ampy commands:
To program the board: ampy -p /dev/ttyUSB0 put main.py

Troubleshooting

If you encounter problems programming the badge using ampy it may be because the badge is in sleep mode. Press any penny to wake the badge up and then you should be able to program.
Note: sleep mode has a polling interval of 1 second, there may be a delay of up to 1 second before badge responds.