CapibaraZero: A cheap alternative to FlipperZero based on ESP32-S3

A good PCB design + a few STL files and this would truly be marvelous. I do own a flipper zero(I was one of the first backers so I've had it for a while). Admittedly it's a bit over-hyped and I never saw it as an rf swiss army knife because of it's limitations and shortcomings.

The two shortcomings I saw were the price and the lack of WiFi built in. In reality, if this project gets paired with a single board computer, this would truly be a match made in heaven. An 18650 lipo battery to power them on, a cheap stl file for a 3d printed case and you have a disposable one-off hacking device(as in drop it somewhere for a one time task and do everything remotely over ssh and a proxy like ngrok or bore).

Admittedly I started working on something of the sorts a while back though I never really got anywhere due to the lack of time. I actually wanted to include LoRa to the equation to make it truly off the grid. I got as far as writing some boilerplate code for the project and it's been collecting dust ever since... "Someday" as we all like to say...

Push it!

I can happily pick up the torch on everything except the PCB design.

Well the PCB design isn't my strong side either - I am completely self-taught in that regard and I'm sure people who have studied that will tare me apart for any decisions I've made(also valid for all of my projects involving PCB's in the past, even more so considering I make the PCB's at home with a diode laser). Likewise, software is my domain.

There are PCB designs linked (maybe not good?) and an STL for a case. Just didn't know if you had missed those.

I was not able to find a photo of the finished device.

There are many ESP32 boards with a SubGHz radio. But they are either ESP32 with a SX127x or ESP32S3 with a SX126x. A lot of them come with built in battery support.

The next problem with this project is the used radio: The SX12xx series from Semtech is good but lacks a lot of features like the CC1101 as used in the Flipper Zero.

I really like the idea of using an ESP32 but the choice of the used radio is a bit akward.

why do you say this? I find SX1276 a perfect replacement for CC1101( that have problems with shared SPI bus). Also SX1276 support LoRa and have a wider frequency range than CC1101.

I will upload photo and a guide soon

I see several boards with ESP32 + SX1276 built in for a couple tenners so they might do. I have to check still which ones work.

Edit: They are not ESP32S3 as other commenters have mentioned :'(

The SX127x doesn’t have the same features and CC1101 has way more options to fine tune any aspect of the radio.