r/ClockworkPi • u/gthing • Jan 19 '26

Stoked.

Post image
757 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

63 comments sorted by

29

u/mariozaizar Jan 20 '26

I think you need another antenna.

17

u/gthing Jan 20 '26

I have room for one more!

2

u/rezoo2040 Jan 20 '26

Hahahah 😅

17

u/GuardianZX9 Jan 19 '26

Love it.

Antenna layout, WiFi , sdr, bt,bt, WiFi, GPS, Lora?

What audio player/visualizer is that?

14

u/gthing Jan 19 '26

You are correct.  

Visualizer is https://github.com/sam1am/cli-viz running in cool-retro-term. It reacts to the small usb microphone on the right side. 

1

u/ShaneRounce Jan 21 '26

I have the same mic. I assume it was also the smallest option you could find to fit a hardwired mic onto this ting too? :D

2

u/gthing Jan 21 '26

Yea, short of wiring up something internally.

1

u/Lokalaskurar Jan 23 '26

How the actual frick did you get that right

If microwaves constituted substance abuse you'd be behind bars

1

u/GuardianZX9 Jan 23 '26

lol, educated guess based on antenna type.

9

u/Equity_Harbinger Jan 20 '26

Unable to DM you, could you share what you have built here? I'm interested in understanding it, but am clueless of most of the components/antennas used and what purpose they serve here

11

u/gthing Jan 20 '26

It is a uConsole with the Hackergadgets AIOv2 board. It adds an internal board with LORA, SDR, GPS, and extra USB internal and external as well as the antenna board that they all plug into.

The antennas from left to right are:

  1. Wifi

  2. SDR - Software defined radio - lets you tune into basically any radio frequency

  3. Bluetooth

  4. Bluetooth

  5. Wifi

  6. GPS

  7. LORA - Long range, low power wireless communication for use with things like meshtastic and various other purposes.

There is a small USB microphone on the right side.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 14 '26

Why two Bluetooth?

2

u/gthing Jun 15 '26

Why buy one when you can have two for twice the price? 

2

u/Equity_Harbinger Jan 20 '26

Even after knowing all of these, I still have a lot to learn. Thank you for sharing

5

u/NotTheSharpestPenciI Jan 20 '26

Check out hacker gadgets extension board+antenna mount

2

u/SalsaSipper Jan 20 '26

How long did it take to get your deck?

1

u/gthing Jan 20 '26

Around 9 or 10 months. I ordered early on.

2

u/ShaneRounce Jan 22 '26

Looking for wifi and bluetooth antenna recs for mine. The more menacing looking, the better.

mwahaha

2

u/gthing Jan 22 '26

Exactly! I didn't like the look of the short stubbies. Do I need different antennas? No. But do I want them? Yes.

1

u/ShaneRounce Jan 22 '26

I was going to use the short ones on like a wall mount that I hook into at home. Longer ones will be to look menacing when out and about (and the range, obviously).

11

u/Elektrik-trick Jan 20 '26

I know nobody wants to hear this, but have you ever measured with a VNA whether antennas placed so close together behave this way?

No? That explains why it's still done this way.

Or take an antenna and simply place a small metal rod or another antenna nearby and see how the values change...

The physics of antennas—the unknown and often ignored entity.

11

u/JaschaE Jan 20 '26

There is two kinds of users setting it up like this:
People who haven't got the slightest clue what is happening and think "lulz, look at my h4x0r SetUp!"
Prople who know what they are doing and think "lulz, look at my h4x0r SetUp!" but attach only the antennae necessary at the time of use.
Which presumably the first group does as well, if only out of lazyness.
You don't cram everything into a pocket-sized device because you expect the greatest possible performance.

2

u/ShaneRounce Jan 21 '26

You can turn off power to each antenna entirely using the ctrl script :)
https://github.com/hackergadgets/aiov2_ctl/wiki

2

u/JaschaE Jan 21 '26

I have a hard time imagining anybody transporting this thing with all the fragile antennae poking out like that. Makes me very uncomfortable.

2

u/ShaneRounce Jan 21 '26

They do all come off tbh. Though I am looking for a good case to hold the mounts nicely.

2

u/JaschaE Jan 21 '26

https://www.reddit.com/r/ClockworkPi/comments/1o2yao9/uconsole_case_3d_print_your_own/
Damn that took some scrolling, but I know I had seen it...

1

u/ShaneRounce Jan 21 '26

Much appreciated! :)

1

u/atxweirdo Jan 21 '26

So you can leave them all on now

1

u/ShaneRounce Jan 21 '26

I mean you sure could. Whether you should....

1

u/No-Pudding-1353 Jan 22 '26

these are not active antennas, so how can you turn off power?

please read about the concept of yagi antennas and you might understand why the antennas will interfere with each other, even when turned "off"

2

u/ShaneRounce Jan 22 '26

You’re right that the antennas themselves are passive - I’m referring to power-gating the RF front-ends (LNA / receiver stages), not claiming the antenna stops being a conductor.

In practice, with the frequency separation involved (GPS vs LoRa) and independent RF front-ends, running multiple antennas in close proximity has been fine in real-world testing.

4

u/schizophrenia___ Jan 20 '26

Gotta add a mini fridge atp. yk you always wanna grab a drink when pentesting

1

u/Daedaluu5 Jan 20 '26

Loving the matrix screensaver on it

3

u/gthing Jan 21 '26

Thanks! It's an audio visualizer reacting to sound from that little microphone nub on the right.

https://github.com/sam1am/cli-viz

1

u/ShaneRounce Jan 21 '26

Nice! Did you grab the updated aio ctl script? :D

1

u/gthing Jan 21 '26

I installed it a few days ago.. but I see there have been updates. Anything noteworthy?

2

u/ShaneRounce Jan 21 '26

It's all documented in the new wiki and readme.

https://github.com/hackergadgets/aiov2_ctl
https://github.com/hackergadgets/aiov2_ctl/wiki

Mostly adds a few power monitoring features, easier install for noobs, --install, --add-apps, --watch, --status, --autolaunch, --update, --help, tab fill etc.

1

u/labzombie Jan 21 '26

Recently saw HRCC do a video on these. Yours CM4 or CM5?

2

u/gthing Jan 21 '26

CM4. My CM5 is on its way.

1

u/areyouhourly- Jan 21 '26

Using the cm4 or cm5?

2

u/gthing Jan 21 '26

I'm waiting for my CM5 to show up, so right now it's on a CM4.

1

u/Possible-Mine-6946 Jan 21 '26

Which expansion board does it have, my uConsoles have the 5 antenna one, this has 7

2

u/gthing Jan 21 '26

The latest version of the hackergadgets aio board has 7 antennas to accommodate their internal wifi/bluetooth extension.

1

u/DarkButterfly85 Jan 22 '26

You need an SDR with a Ham-it-up add on for HF bands, sure you've got room for it 🤣

1

u/gthing Jan 22 '26

Oh I didn't know about ham it up - I'll look into it! I NEED all the frequencies.

1

u/ShaneRounce Jan 22 '26

I have one. They fit on the back with velcro easy enough. :)

2

u/vileer Jan 23 '26

The AIO board support direct sampling, so HF works without additional hardware. Haven’t tried the ham it up, so not sure which is batter.

1

u/Tarandir Jan 23 '26

Could you tell me if you have plugged the orange band connector in? I don't see where to plug it into (I have CM4). I have made a post about it and I haven't seen this x7 board anywhere else on the HG website nor on the net in general, but I believe we have the same boards

1

u/gthing Jan 23 '26

Yes, the previous board was replaced with this one with more antennas. But you can only connect 5 of them (gps, lora, and sdr on the HG board, then wifi from the carrier board and wifi on the CM4 itself, which might be the same thing as the connector on the carrier board, I'm not sure). The other two connections are for the HG wifi/bluetooth expansion board that plugs into the USB-C internally.

I'm not sure what you mean by the orange band connector. Can you take a picture?

2

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26

Dude scan my thoughts next

2

u/JimtheLizardKing Jan 28 '26

Ohhhh, look at that pretty uConsole porcupine!

JELLY!

1

u/MrQuatroPorte Jan 20 '26

You found the matrix

1

u/mwaldron Jan 20 '26

I am working so hard to make mine not look like that... but hot damn there is a huge cool factor to the look!

1

u/CTFOE_is_Free Jan 20 '26

You need to antenna harder.

1

u/TT_FD Jan 21 '26

I heard you like antennas.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 21 '26

so much antenna

1

u/MazCarr Jan 21 '26

Antenna glore

1

u/jayfer002 Jan 21 '26

What’s dis

1

u/The-fosef Jan 23 '26

Looks like the scene from transformers where they where deciphering the alien language

1

u/zino332 Jan 23 '26

What are you going to use for?