How we made the Supabase Select 2026 badge

Supabase Select 2026 in San Francisco distributed programmable badges based on the Pimoroni Tufty 2350, featuring an RP2350 microcontroller, color display, rechargeable battery, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and five configurable buttons. Although the badges served as animated name tags with schedules and games during the conference, preparing 800 units proved difficult after a firmware bug drained their batteries in transit, requiring extensive charging, firmware updates, and individual schedule synchronization; venue Wi-Fi also failed, preventing planned synchronized animations, announcements, and leaderboards. Despite these challenges, attendees and remote participants repurposed the devices for projects including a flight tracker, restaurant finder, arcade games, and locally run language models. Supabase encourages further development through USB-based guides, browser-based virtual badges, AI-assisted project tooling, and options to work in C or Rust, while offering a contest for projects shared with the #SelectBadge hashtag.

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