Yes. Hicarix Badge uses single-color LEDs, so it will light up only in the color you selected when purchasing (RED, AMBER, YELLOW, GREEN, AQUA, BLUE, PURPLE, or WHITE).

If full-color LEDs were used instead, the available power would not be sufficient.

In addition, Hicarix uses a system that transfers data by having light sensors read flashing patterns displayed on a smartphone screen.
With full-color support, the amount of data would increase by at least three times, which would also make transfer times more than three times longer and no longer practical for real-world use.

The difference comes from the cost of the LEDs (light-emitting diodes) themselves. All colors have exactly the same functionality.

Red LEDs were the first to become practical in the 1960s (GaAsP-based technology). Later, in the 1990s, brighter LED technology (AlGaInP-based) was established, and red and orange LEDs became mature technologies that are now mass-produced at relatively low cost.

Blue LEDs were long considered nearly impossible to make practical. However, in the 1990s, Shuji Nakamura and others succeeded in commercializing them using InGaN-based technology, which later led to the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics. Even today, blue LEDs remain more difficult to manufacture and are therefore somewhat more expensive.

Green LEDs already existed in the 1970s (GaP-based), but they were very dim. After blue LED technology was developed, the same technology could be adapted to create bright green LEDs. Hicarix Badge 2 uses this brighter modern green LED technology.

White LEDs are made by further processing blue LEDs and adding a yellow phosphor layer so they appear white, making them slightly more expensive than blue LEDs.

AQUA (light blue/cyan) LEDs also use blue LED technology, but because the color sits between blue and green, even a slight variation can make them appear too green or too blue. Producing a stable and beautiful AQUA color is therefore difficult. In addition, demand for AQUA LEDs is much lower than for blue or green, so their price is not especially low.

Purple LEDs also use blue LED technology, but because purple light has one of the shortest visible wavelengths, manufacturing becomes even more difficult. In most products, purple is usually reproduced by mixing red, green, and blue LEDs in full-color LEDs rather than using a dedicated single-color purple LED. As a result, true single-color purple LEDs are rarely used in the world.

In fact, purple was not even part of the manufacturer’s standard lineup. The purple LEDs used for Hicarix Badge 2 were specially custom-made exclusively for this product, which is why they are the most expensive color in the lineup.

Yes, they are compatible. The original Hicarix Badge can still be used as well.

Yes, it is safe.

The ferrite rubber magnet used in the Hicarix Badge 2 is not strong enough to affect smartphones.

In fact, many folio-style smartphone cases and tablet covers on the market use much stronger neodymium magnets, and they have been used safely for many years without issues.

No. Hicarix Badge 2 is not rechargeable and uses a commercially available CR2032 coin cell battery. You can easily replace it by purchasing a new battery from hardware stores or other retailers.

Rechargeable batteries (lithium-ion batteries) may seem convenient, but we chose not to use them because they are extremely delicate and require careful handling.

Rechargeable batteries carry a risk of fire if they are overcharged, subjected to strong impacts, or exposed to high temperatures. Preventing such accidents requires complex protection and control circuits. In fact, even products from major global manufacturers have occasionally experienced battery fire incidents. From an engineer’s perspective, it often feels that many people are not fully aware of these risks.

Hicarix Badge 2 is a wearable device. It may accidentally be dropped or exposed to intense summer heat and direct sunlight, so we have placed the highest priority on safety in its design.

Hicarix Badge 2 supports the following 256 playback speed levels. To adjust the speed more precisely in the app, press and hold the playback speed button.

The original Hicarix Badge only supports 16 speed levels from “Fast” to “Slow” because its timer is not very accurate.

FPS stands for “Frames Per Second,” and FPM stands for “Frames Per Minute.” These indicate how many frames are switched per second or per minute. “s” means seconds.

Hicarix Badge 2 does not use wireless communication such as Bluetooth. Instead, it uses optical communication, where data is transmitted by flashing patterns on a smartphone screen and read by built-in light sensors.

By avoiding Bluetooth, Hicarix Badge 2 can operate using a small CR2032 coin cell battery while remaining compact and affordable.

Some people ask, "Wouldn’t BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) work with a small battery as well?" In simple use cases such as tracking tags that communicate only briefly, that is true.

However, for devices like Hicarix Badge 2 that need to transfer a certain amount of data using GATT communication, battery voltage can drop during communication, making stable operation difficult. Using a lithium-ion battery could improve this, but batteries small enough to fit inside the Hicarix Badge 2 would not provide long lighting times and would also introduce safety concerns.

In addition, adding Bluetooth increases component costs and makes manufacturing more complex. In Japan, products that use radio communication such as Bluetooth require official radio certification ("Giteki"), which can cost anywhere from roughly ¥300,000 to over ¥1,000,000.

To officially sell a Bluetooth product, manufacturers must also pay a product registration fee to the Bluetooth SIG, the organization that manages Bluetooth standards. This fee is approximately ¥1.2 million (USD 8,000), which was far beyond what could realistically be afforded for an independently made handmade product.

For these reasons, Hicarix Badge 2 uses optical communication to avoid the cost and power limitations of wireless technology while keeping the device compact, practical, and affordable.

Yes. It's a protective film, so it's okay to peel it off.

No. Because it contains electronic components, it is not waterproof. Please be careful in rainy weather or when it gets wet.

Yes. It comes included, so you can start using it right after purchase.

The app supports Japanese and English as default languages, and also supports Traditional Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean via machine translation.

The “Create Pattern from Text” feature converts text into an 8×8 lighting pattern. In addition to Japanese characters, it supports basic Latin characters such as the alphabet, as well as extended Latin characters used in Vietnamese (including tone marks).

It also provides partial support for Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, and Korean. Characters are added at a rate of approximately 2,000 per year (based on 2025 figures).

* Total character counts are based on the following standards: Unicode (Basic Latin) for Latin letters, numbers, and symbols; JIS X 0208 (Levels 1 and 2) for Japanese; Unicode (Latin Extended with tone marks) for Vietnamese; CNS 11643 Plane 1 for Traditional Chinese; GB2312 for Simplified Chinese; and KS X 1001 for Korean.

The component that serves as the brain of the badge's electronic circuit has evolved over time: PIC-family microcontrollers were used in the early prototype stage, AVR-family microcontrollers were used for mass production, and ARM-based microcontrollers are used in the current version. The programming language used to control these microcontrollers has consistently been C.

The iPhone app is developed using Swift. The Android app was originally developed in Java and is now developed in Kotlin. Features that operate over the Internet, such as the “Community Patterns” posting feature and account management system within the app, are developed using PHP.

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