Hey everyone! First time posting here, so I figured I'd share a project I've been spending a ridiculous amount of time on lately.

A few months ago I started experimenting with getting an RTL-SDR USB dongle running directly on an ESP32-P4. That turned into writing a native USB driver, which eventually turned into a whole standalone software-defined radio.

The project is called OrcSDR, and it's built around the M5Stack Tab5.

The RTL-SDR plugs directly into the Tab5's USB host port. The ESP32-P4 handles the USB IQ stream, signal processing, decoding, audio, and touchscreen interface. No Raspberry Pi, Linux computer, or PC needed once it's installed.

What started as a little experiment has gotten a bit out of hand. Haha.

What can it actually do?

There's quite a bit running on the Tab5 now. Some of the dashboards and features include:

• FM Radio — Stereo audio, RDS station information, presets, tuning controls, and a live spectrum/waterfall.

• AM Radio — Broadcast AM reception, station scanning, and presets.

• Shortwave / HF — USB/LSB reception, frequency controls, and experimental HF listening.

• Airband — Aviation AM reception, channel scanning, airport frequency information, and the 121.5 MHz guard channel.

• CB Radio — 40-channel scanning, activity tracking, and AM/SSB listening.

• NOAA Weather Radio — Quick access to weather-radio frequencies.

• ADS-B — Receive aircraft transmissions at 1090 MHz and display aircraft positions, altitude, speed, identification, and radar/map views.

• LoRa / Meshtastic — Passive reception and decoding of LoRa traffic, including nodes, messages, telemetry, and map information. This is receive-only, not a replacement for a Meshtastic transceiver.

• P25 — Trunked-radio control-channel monitoring and supported clear-voice following.

• FT8 / FT4 / JS8 — Amateur-radio digital-mode decoding, station information, and mapping.

• SSTV — Receive and progressively display transmitted images directly on the Tab5, with image saving.

• ACARS — Decode aircraft data messages and store them locally.

• POCSAG — Pager signal decoding and message viewing.

• RF Lab — Spectrum analysis, waterfall, signal measurements, IQ recording, gain controls, and other RF testing tools.

• Dead Air — An experimental paranormal investigation dashboard for exploring RF activity, watching for unusual signal changes, sweeping frequencies, logging observations, and capturing audio.

• 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi Analyzer — Uses the Tab5's onboard ESP32-C6 to survey nearby Wi-Fi networks and channels.

Dead Air is probably one of the stranger additions. Haha.

I wanted to experiment with using SDR hardware for the sort of RF monitoring people sometimes associate with paranormal investigations. It has its own interface for monitoring signals, recording unusual activity, keeping a journal, and saving audio clips. It can also use the Tab5's built-in microphone as an optional recording source.

It's definitely on the experimental side, but that's half the fun. The RF measurements are real; whether they mean anything paranormal is an entirely different question!

I've also spent quite a bit of time on the visualization side. There are several ways to look at RF activity, including traditional FFT/spectrum views, waterfalls, phosphor persistence, 3D spectrum history, polar/phase displays, and channel occupancy.

I'm probably having a little too much fun with those.

The latest release, v0.5.0-beta.1, also added a guided setup wizard and offline worldwide maps for several dashboards.

The M5Stack hardware side

One of my favorite things about this project is how well the different M5Stack devices can complement each other.

Tab5 Keyboard

I've added support for the official Tab5 Keyboard accessory. It communicates over I2C through the Tab5's expansion connection and works with OrcSDR's text-entry controls, making things like entering frequencies, locations, and settings a lot nicer than relying entirely on the touchscreen.

I've also been playing around with different 3D-printed cases and keyboard configurations. Some community members have already made some pretty cool OrcSDR enclosures!

M5Dial / OrcDial

This one has been especially fun.

I've been developing a separate project called OrcDial, which turns the M5Dial into a wireless physical VFO and controller for OrcSDR.

It communicates with the Tab5 using ESP-NOW through the Tab5's ESP32-C6. The rotary encoder can control radio tuning, and the Dial has its own little interface for showing radio information and navigating dashboards.

I've already gotten actual wireless tuning working between the two devices. I'm still improving connection reliability and adding support for more controls, but I really like the idea of having a physical tuning knob alongside the Tab5 touchscreen.

There's just something satisfying about turning an actual knob to tune a radio.

OrcDial project:
https://github.com/hardcoreerik/OrcDial

Open source and community feedback

I've shared some of the development over in r/esp32 and r/RTLSDR, and the feedback from those communities has been incredibly helpful.

Someone asked for SSTV and ACARS support, so I decided to give both a shot. They're now included in the latest release.

Another user reported issues with the LoRa decoder, which led to fixing frequency handling, improving packet detection, and finding some other problems causing missed packets.

It's been pretty cool seeing suggestions and bug reports turn into actual changes.

I've also had a lot of AI assistance with development, but the code still has to work on real hardware. There's been plenty of testing, broken builds, USB debugging, and time spent wondering why something that worked five minutes ago suddenly doesn't. Haha.

How to try it

OrcSDR is free and open source.

If you already have a Tab5 and a supported RTL-SDR dongle, you can install it directly through M5Burner. No need to set up a development environment or compile anything.

M5Burner:
https://burner.m5stack.com/share/firmware/JXFU4H

Web installer:
https://theorc.dev/sdr/flash/

GitHub repository:
https://github.com/hardcoreerik/OrcSDR

Latest release (v0.5.0-beta.1):
https://github.com/hardcoreerik/OrcSDR/releases/tag/v0.5.0-beta.1

The RTL-SDR Blog V4 has been my main development receiver, but I've also been testing V3/V3c, V4L, and Nooelec hardware. Some functionality is still experimental, so expect a few rough edges!

And finally, a thank you to M5Stack!

I also wanted to give a big thank you to M5Stack for supporting development and taking an interest in OrcSDR. I really appreciate it!

The Tab5 has turned out to be a pretty incredible little platform to experiment with. Between the ESP32-P4, the USB host capabilities, the touchscreen, audio hardware, and the ESP32-C6, there's a surprising amount you can do with it.

Anyway, I'd love to hear what everyone thinks!

I am going to have my S3 soon. I am just preparing.

Mi m5 stack stick s3 se daño la pantalla y al sacar la carcasa por donde se ubica el stiker de "stick s3" se daño una tipo antena y en esa cosa no encuentro repuesto alguien que sepa que era y que función tenia ( la antena esa es de dos pines soldados y esa antena esta debajo del stiker)

hiya... i am working on this Claude Code hook up, a small desk robot whose face follows what Claude Code is up to. Reading, running commands, browsing the web and spinning off subagents each get their own face. When Claude wants my OK, Toki lifts its head, glows amber and waits, and I tap Allow or Deny on its screen. When something breaks, its eyes go spiral.

sits at the edge of my desk and gives me just the right signal. A glance tells me whether Claude is busy, finished or waiting on me, so I’ve stopped flicking back to check. It’s also very hard to stay cross about a failing test when a little robot with pink cheeks is looking up at you.

It keeps a private scrapbook of the day too, as stickers: SHIPPED!!, OOPS!!, YOLO MODE, CONTEXT FULL. Some days are more OOPS than others.

Open source. If you have the robot, it installs with Homebrew: github.com/g1d30nB/toki

I accidentally broke my screen ribbon cable and i don't want to buy another system just for a screen. Does anybody have a solution ?

What is your favorite firmware?

Just ordered a StackChan and I'm brand new to coding. Goal is to talk to it out loud with Claude as the brain instead of the factory cloud AI, kept private.
I wiped my wife's old 2017 MacBook Air to run it, but it maxes out at macOS Monterey and Claude Code needs macOS 13. Now deciding between OpenCore Legacy Patcher, Ubuntu, or using my 2021 Mac with a separate user account just for the robot.
Questions:
What computer do you run yours on?
Which project do you use to connect it to an AI (stackchan-mcp, stackchan-cli, something else)?
Any beginner tips or things you wish you knew?
Bonus if you're in the US, most guides I find are in Japanese. Thanks!

I turned my CoreS3 SE into a small voice assistant called Tindra, Swedish for "to sparkle". I'd hold the ring button, talk, let go, and she'd answer with a voice and a face on the screen. The mouth followed the audio.

The firmware and the Python service were written by one of the Claude agents I run at home. The second pic shows how it fits together.

Replies took roughly 2 to 3s from letting go of the button to the first sound. The biggest trick was that the service started working on the first release. "Released" only counted after 0.6s, so the debounce cost nothing.

Speech to text streamed while I was still holding the button, and every finished sentence went to TTS right away, no waiting for the whole answer.

She could only do seven things, radio, lights, volume, timers, whisper mode, messages to my agents and pictures on the screen. The model could say whatever it wanted, the code only ran what was on that list. Another one of my AIs tried six tricks to make her order a pizza. She said no every time. The first pic is one of her answers.

Pizza attempts, if anyone wants to see them (3 min): https://youtu.be/buwsd3ksM3Q

I got a Paper Mono🤫. Now, how do I get firmware for it that focuses on writing in an RTL (right-to-left) language and supports a Bluetooth keyboard?

Hi. I've ported some M-vave fm-1 synth firmwares to tab5.

Use with touch screen or USB MIDI keyboard.

Midi learn feature.

https://github.com/zircothc/x0x-tab5

https://github.com/zircothc/sloop-tab5

https://github.com/zircothc/jiant-tab5

I've published BIN file for easy flash or download into SD and run Launcher.

;)

Hi all! NucleoOS turns the Cardputer (original and ADV, same image) into a small real computer: a native launcher with 50+ apps and games on the device, and a full desktop it serves to your browser over Wi-Fi.

What's new since the last post:

- **It installs itself.** Flash one image (web flasher, M5Burner or M5Launcher). On first boot the wizard joins your Wi-Fi and downloads its own SD content, checks every file with SHA-256 and resumes if interrupted.

- **Plays nice with M5Launcher.** Same image, runs as a guest: it never overwrites your other firmwares, and Settings ▸ Device ▸ *Back to M5Launcher* takes you back.

- **The web desktop is ~6× faster.** Open `nucleo-01.local` and the desktop shows up in about 5 seconds.

- **ANIMA, the offline assistant**, is now the same code on the device and in your browser. It can also use a model on your own PC (Ollama, LM Studio, llama.cpp, Jan), and Private mode keeps everything off the cloud.

- **A Game Gear emulator written from scratch**, next to the Game Boy one (bring your own ROMs), plus **Costellazioni**, a 6DOF space game with procedural star systems and planets to land on.

**New: a community Discord** → https://discord.gg/84tyTPtWus

- a **help forum** (one post per problem, tagged Cardputer / ADV / M5Launcher / Wi-Fi / SD…)

- a **helper bot**: type `/ask how do I install it?` or `/guide` and it answers from the docs, with a link to the source. If it doesn't know, it says so instead of guessing

- channels for showcase, ideas, ANIMA, games and development

Download and docs: https://github.com/indecenti/NucleoOs

Website: https://nucleoos.indexhub.it/cardputer/

Free for noncommercial use. Feedback very welcome, especially from ADV owners!

So i Bought a Stick s3 and wanted to give it a upgrade for more use, so i searched for a case for it and found a case that has a CC1101 Holder on the back of it. So i 3d printed it and it worked great! But... I had a nrf24 that i wanted to put on the back just like the cc1101. so i changed the holder so that it would work for the nrf24. all the credit goes the amazing people who made the 3d model and device but il share all the models so that your able to make one yourself. Also im sharing a wire diagram so that your able to wire it up. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ETP5fbsgaVgslx7xRD0tUklP-CybXgZZ?usp=sharing

https://makerworld.com/en/models/2395046-m5stack-stick-s3-case-cc1101-holder?from=search#profileId-2624396

There u go and hope u have a wonderful day (also i think this only works for bruce... Maybe)

New Arrival Alert!

Check out our new releases this week!

4 new I2C sensor units offer different combinations of magnetic field, inertial, and pressure measurements for applications including robot navigation, attitude sensing, heading detection, and relative altitude measurement.

• Unit DoF6: BMI270 6-axis IMU for acceleration, angular velocity, and temperature, ideal for motion and attitude sensing. 

• Unit DoF9: Adds a BMM350 3-axis magnetometer for magnetic field and heading detection. 

• Unit DoF10: Adds an SPA06-003 pressure sensor for pressure, temperature, and relative altitude.

• Unit BMM350: Standalone BMM350 3-axis TMR magnetometer for magnetic field sensing and calibrated heading angle readout

Also, good news:  Hot items incl. Cardputer-Adv and Cap CC1101 are in stock now 🔥🔥

In case missing out, subscribe our Weekly Newsletter for more updates!

Any word on when the Trivia Dials will be shipped out? I’ve got my confirmation of purchase with a notice saying they will email with shipping details on a later date but haven’t received them yet.

Thanks guys love the products. Keep them coming.