rpitx VS mlat-server

As someone with a HackRF PortaPack knockoff I got from ebay, I would agree that SDRs are better and cheaper than ever before. However, I think the average person will struggle with using a HackRF for more complex projects. I've used URH before, and while useful, it can be intimidating for beginners.

Also, while I like the RTL-SDR (and the price tag!), you can't transmit with it. While this isn't a deal breaker to everyone, if you'd like to clone a garage door remote, for example, you need to be able to transmit. While you could use something like a raspberry pi and rpix [0], but I think it is more work than it's worth for many. Also, multiple RTL-SDRs are required for higher bandwidth applications like ASTC TV or trunked radios.

With the flipper, I think the main draw for most is the point-click-done nature. Include the Android/iOS app and it makes it easy to configure on the go without a computer. The expandability is one of the main feature that will increase adoption over time compared to the HackRF+PortaPack which, from what I saw in the past, lacked longer-term support and regular updates and new features.

[0] https://github.com/F5OEO/rpitx

HackRF One is an option. There are a number of others. Legality varies by country/frequency/power level.

Can also make a Raspberry Pi act as a transmitter (https://github.com/F5OEO/rpitx), which could hit the zwave frequency but not the zigbee one. (Also, make sure to put a low pass filter on it.)

The warning at https://github.com/F5OEO/rpitx#hardware suggests a bandpass filter will be needed but has no additional info. https://github.com/F5OEO/rpitx/issues/40 looked promising but is closed.

On a similar path, you might look at: rpitx

RF transmitter for Raspberry Pi With this project you can turn your Raspberry Pi into an RF transmitter with only a filter to avoid interferences.

RPITX is the spiritual successor of your project!

https://github.com/F5OEO/rpitx

And it does work with nearly every RPi.

And unlike only doing FM (97MHz-108MHz), it can emit from an IQ datastream from 10KHz to 1.5GHz.

Hey everyone, I've recently discovered that the Raspberry Pi can act as a radio tranceiver, and am hoping to use it for security research. While projects such as rpitx act as a great tech demo, they don't offer me the modularity/parametrization I was hoping for. Ideally the end state for this would be a cheaper/less effective HackRF.

The RPITX project supposedly can generate signals up to 1.5GHz with an unmodified Pi, though, which is interesting... a true spectrum analyzer needs a receiver end, though.

če si vešč z linuxom (no z GNU-linuxom da ne razjezim folka) pa najdeš en raspberry pi, ti lahk to pomaga https://github.com/F5OEO/rpitx

I would suggest not starting in the 2.4GHz band, the protocols used there (wifi, bluetooth) are very complicated to understand. Get a rtl-sdr and start with something simpler: FM broadcast (my blogpost: https://www.abclinuxu.cz/blog/jenda/2019/11/gnu-radio-first-..., there is even an example capture you can download and replay, so you can start even without the physical radio), police radio (both analog and digital), radiosondes, weather satellites, ISM stuff - temperature sensors, garage and car remote controls, airplane multilateration (https://github.com/mutability/mlat-server)… You can do lot of stuff even with the $10 rtl-sdr, for example I have used it for multilaterating TV and radio transmitters (thesis: https://jenda.hrach.eu/dipl.pdf, unfortunately "layman's explanation" is available only as a lecture in Czech). I know people are even building radioastronomy stuff and passive radars (https://www.rtl-sdr.com/passive-radar-dual-coherent-channel-...) with rtl-sdr.

Once you have basic understanding of the topic, you can get better hardware: AirSpy (the same features as rtl-sdr, but MUCH better signal-to-noise ratio and bandwidth) or bladeRF (costly, but probably the best radio you can get now). For example I'm now building a weather radar based on bladeRF. The bladeRF has a FPGA with open-source HDL, so you can mess even with absolutely lowlevel and bleeding edge stuff.

Going back to your original question:

Most cards load firmware from a file when they are initializing (check "dmesg|grep firmware", on my machine, for example, it says it has loaded /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8153b-2.fw), you are free to modify it. However, all (or maybe almost all) wifi cards have the format of the blob completely undocumented so it would be very hard to make a modification that would allow you to transmit/receive arbitrary signals. Something similar has been achieved with GSM phones (see OsmocomBB), but it requires very complicated reverse-engineering.

Recently, there was a wifi stack released for a SDR, so the other way around: https://www.nuand.com/bladeRF-wiphy/.

I got the code from https://github.com/mutability/mlat-server does anyone know how to get it up and running any assistance would be much appreciated and extremely helpful :)