Ultimately, I don't know how much of the learn-to-badge bit happened the first time around. Maybe it'll happen this time. (Well, not the board layout part. Because I did it and it's done now. And probably not much of the code part, because it's a hackjob and nobody has time. Oh well. Maybe after con...)

User Manual

A user manual, if one exists, can be found at trueControl BASIC.

Specifications (HSC 2025 version)

Atmel ATtiny402 (not sure why)
5x reverse mount addressable LEDs
- 3.6V boost converter power gates LEDs when not in use
A whopping TWO LED programs
1x CR2032 power
- No polarity protection! Don't be a dumbass!
Single button program activation
Estimated battery shelf life of a few months to a year

Specifications (DEF CON 34 version)

Atmel ATtiny1616 (still a poor choice but meh)
5x reverse mount addressable LEDs
- Different, more efficient 3.6V boost converter
- External MOSFET power gate
1x red LED in the rear for ambient light detection
2x red LED in the handle to show statusususus us?
Still a whopping TWO LED programs
- Hoping for several more before DC34 starts
Two buttons now!
- one at the base of the handle for program activation
- one behind the wand intended for setup or something
The star is a touch sensor, but it might not work by DC34
Silan SC7A20H accelerometer
- can wake MCU from sleep
- might wake up and do programs on motion detection or tap
1x CR2032 power
- Has polarity protection! Still don't be a dumbass!
Exposed UART pins for hopeful bootloader
- Bring your own USB-TTL UART adapter
Estimated battery shelf life TBD

Some scraped resources

Stole code and ideas from various resources. I can't remember everything I checked. If I remember them, they'll be listed here:

fuck MPLAB X
fuck MPLAB in VScode. way to make things even more opaque and pain in the ass, Microchip.
https://github.com/18252041625/SC7A20 (barebones SC7A20 Arduino lib)
https://github.com/MX682X/ptc_touch (PTC touch sensor Arduino lib)

Code notes / unhinged rant

From hazy memory, the code was rapidly written in PlatformIO with Arduino codebase because Arduino stuff with an ATtiny402 was wanting to be learned. The intent was to use PlatformIO or any other tool with a UPDI programmer to upload the code. I've never physically had the programmer nor wand to test loading the code I wrote. Ultimately there were problems with this for whatever reason, so the code was ported to AS7. Arduino portions were ported to a library in the AS7 project and this library is linked in with the main program. There's still some buggy shit that needs fixed with this solution, as well as shit I'm ashamed of (well, it's Arduino) but the code does function.

Why AS7? Isn't it unsupported now?

Sure, but these chips aren't changing, and AS7 works a whole hell of a lot better than MPLAB X.

Also, MPLAB on VSCode is a disaster. Take all the bits that are already buggy, slow, and hard to find, then mangle them nd hide them further. Require an overweight, multi-solution code configurator just to set fuses, but don't make it easy to discover this - you just have to know what MCC means, find it in the command palette, zoom into the 24 pixel graphical map thing, configure your part then play hide and seek with the hidden Generate button.

Why use any of the MCHP software anyway? Because debug probes. I don't have time to hack on unworking open source dead ends. Shit got done super last minute for The Wand. I needed in 2025, and need now as of the time of writing this, to get this project done ASAP. I'm not presently aware of a solution that will let me debug for ATtiny402 or ATtiny1616 in PlatformIO. AS7 will let me do it without much friction.