We Built 2,000 Custom Electronic Badges for Our Developer Conference, Replay (Here's How)
summary
Temporal builds and ships 2,000 hackable conference badges with custom PCB, joystick, monochrome display, IR multiplayer games, Doom, a MicroPython Tamagotchi and over‑the‑air firmware updates, validated by a QA firmware and on‑site bulk flashing that handles USB port reassignment. Backend workflows use Temporal for build and flashing orchestration; a Rust SDK experiment runs workflows on-device. Manufacturing required splitting batteries and on‑site assembly after customs delays. booping contacts, flashing 32 devices in parallel, open‑sourced KiCad and firmware
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chapters (13)
- 0:00Introduction and inspiration
- 1:01Hackable badge concept explained
- 4:31Project timeline and challenges
- 8:01Badge hardware and design
- 10:05Badge features and games
- 13:10Favorite badge feature
- 18:47Manufacturing in China
- 21:14On-site badge assembly party
- 22:15Badge launch at Replay
- 24:21Advice for future badge projects
- 26:50Team effort and gratitude
- 29:14Future plans and Temporal integration
- 32:20Project impact and thanks
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