About
What to Expect
We help you make your own use for things. DEF CON provides the tools and supplies for your hardware hacking pleasure; our volunteers help facilitate that. We might not have every tool under the sun, but we can help cobble something together in order to break, make, and repurpose. We host a number of talks and small workshops showing off real-world exploits. Additionally, we put on challenges to teach various hardware hacking concepts. See the schedule for more information on both of these.
Like other DEF CON villages, we are a place to share knowledge. Our goal is to have you walk away having learned something new or having taught someone else. Come strike up a conversation and be a good neighbor!
The Village Itself
The HHV was started back in 2008 for DEF CON 16. It was once a small room filled with people and solder fumes and has since exploded in size and number of people that come through. We are always working to generate a comfortable atmosphere for learning, one that sparks conversations and helps build a community.
We are currently two halves that come together: the Hardware Hacking Village and the Soldering Skills Village. Both are managed and staffed by the same team, but they serve separate roles at DEF CON. The HHV strives to provide hardware hacking resources, tools, and knowledge to the Humans of DEF CON. While the SSV focuses on soldering and making anew. Between both villages, you will have the necessary resources to break things apart and create something new from the pieces.
Volunteers
None of this would happen without our volunteers. These are the people that spend countless hours outside of DEF CON to plan and maintain the village. These are the people who come to DEF CON and spend their time guiding the HHV attendees. We talk, host contests, create puzzles and challenges, put together displays and information. Interested in being a volunteer? Head over to the CFP page to get in contact with us.
A special thanks to SynShop, the Las Vegas Hackerspace. They have given us so much of their time and effort over the years!
Donors
Some of our tools, many of our giveaways, and nearly all of our prizes are made possible thanks to generous donors who give to the Hardware Hacking Village and the Soldering Skills Village.
All donors, past and present (in alphabetical order):
| Circuit Specialists | Hackaday | HackerBoxes |
| Hack The Box | Hak5 | iFixit |
| JLCPCB | OSHPark | Pololu |
| SparkFun | Tindie | UAT |
Interested in becoming a donor? Contact us! Send an email to l33tbunni (at) dchhv.org
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First and foremost, if you are considering donating to the HHV and/or SSV, THANK YOU! Your donations to us go directly to the attendees in order to give them something to play with or hack on during DEF CON. We make sure it gets in their hands as giveaways or as prizes for contests and events that we run. All items that we give away to attendees are directly from donors.
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Donated items can, of course, have logos, stickers, or brand names on them. You donated them and we want our attendees to know they came from you! However, please refrain from donating items that are purely promotional or advertising materials.
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If you decide to donate, we will be happy to also put out small promotional items like stickers, buttons, badges, or discount coupons on our main table (if they are provided to us).
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Finally, if your donation will contain text specifically stating the item was for the HHV and/or SSV, please use the phrase: “Donated by <name> to the <HHV and/or SSV>.” or “Donated to the <HHV and/or SSV> by <name>.”
Website
This website is based on the Jekyll “Hacker” theme, modified to fit our needs. We’re mostly electrical/embedded software engineers, but we try to make do. We would appreciate any contributions you can make to the Jekyll backend!