Agency Wand

✨ Agency Wand

The Agency Wand is a project that I started with an idea in 2025 to make a badge shaped like a wand. With the help of TrueControl, this vision came to reality for HackSpaceCon 2025. This summer at DefCon 34 I will be dropping the new iteration of this badge which I am calling the 'Agency Wand' in correlation with this year's theme.

This project would not have been possible without the wonderful people in the badge maker community willing to help me along this path.

Current specifications and functionality may be variable upon release as they are being fabricated and will be under development soon. More pictures to come!

Core Hardware

• Atmel ATtiny1616 microcontroller
• 5 reverse-mounted addressable LEDs
• SC7A20H accelerometer
• Efficient 3.6V boost converter
• External MOSFET power gate
• 1 rear red LED for ambient-light detection
• 2 red handle LEDs for setup-mode feedback
• 2 physical control buttons
• Capacitive-touch star hardware
• 1 CR2032 battery
• Reverse-polarity protection
• Exposed UART pins for firmware updates

The five addressable LEDs shine through the front of the PCB, producing animated lighting effects and user-selected colors.

Programs and Configuration

The upgraded firmware includes approximately five or six lighting programs, depending on the final release.

Users can configure:

• A favorite color
• Random or sequential program playback
• Whether the motion-based program is enabled

The built-in accelerometer can wake the Wand when movement is detected, allowing optional animations to activate while it is being moved.

Controls

The Wand includes two buttons:

• A handle button for activating lighting programs
• A rear button for entering setup and configuration modes

Power and Firmware

The Wand runs on a single CR2032 battery. Its boost converter and MOSFET power gate reduce unnecessary power use by disabling the addressable LEDs when they are inactive.

Firmware can be updated through the exposed UART pins using the built-in XMODEM bootloader. Advanced users will need their own USB-to-TTL UART adapter and an XMODEM-compatible terminal application.

This project was created in partnership with TrueControl. Full documentation and technical resources are available at:

View the Agency Wand documentation