making a better flipper zero (cancelled)

[solar pike]

Hello everyone ive had a lot of ideas for how the flipper zero could improve and i am going to start prototyping a better flipper zero i will keep you updated with what is planned to come and what my progress is at

[mortal wolf]

Thanks

[bleak nova]

Hmu if you need help

[solar pike]

Fo sure

Eberyone it would be really helpful if you wrote down what you dont like about the flipper, what you do like, what you thimk should be changed, and what should be removed

[bleak nova]

I feel like the iButtons are kinda unnecessary

[mortal wolf]

Do you have ideas to improve the iButtons to make them necessary?

[bleak nova]

just remove it

[mortal wolf]

But I think I think it’s always nice to have something, that you can use, instead of not having it (even if it’s unnecessary)

[bleak nova]

it would make the flipper look cleaner

[gaunt quail]

If it’s unnecessary it’s unnecessary to have it.
In the space of the iButton you could had e.g: Antenna adapters where you can switch between internal or external antennas.

[solar pike]

YEah i dont really like the ibutton either ive never even seen them used before

Everyone i am up to step one of this project which is making a list of things to add and program in also it would be very helpfull if you would right down any ideas thanks

[mortal wolf]

Ok that’s a great idea! I would really like antenna adapters

[wet finch]

The ibutton pcb I believe is a separate part from the main flipper

You could redesign that using the original schematics

It's also on the same board as the sub ghz antenna I think so you could very easily have an antenna connector broken out there

[prime kernel]

Keep ibutton as bottle opener

[lilac seal]

just got mine today but first impressions... would require some sort of standard i bet, but a latch interface built into the case that goes over the dev pins to accept manufactured add-ons without straining the pins would be cool.

[bleak nova]

Add a beer cap remover

[bleak nova]

and cheaper

What would be good is like more durable buttons or just make the buttons touchscreen, so when you have to rapidly press buttons to change to the right frequency it doesn't waste them

[mortal wolf]

Touch screen would be awesome!

[bleak nova]

yea fr

remove iButton and add touchscreen

but having touchscreen wouldnt make it feel "retro"

[mortal wolf]

That’s true. But I think we can accept that

[bleak nova]

yea lol the buttons are super not durable

i used it for a day and buttons are already wearing

mostly the down button

[gaunt quail]

Touch screen is a non-sense on such a small device lol

[bleak nova]

this

if yall are gonna change screen add rgb backlight or greyscale screen

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32858822471.html?

[bleak nova]

Can’t you just do that with qflipper by deleting the file?

If you don’t like iButton so much then why complain and do nothing?

Physically remove it

[solar pike]

The better flipper zero im working on will include a touch screen

[formal locust]

Is this project going to be based off of a raspberry pi? If so Zero 2Ws would be nice but they are quiet hard to find

[solar pike]

The final result will be made wih custom pcbs

[bleak nova]

How are you going to manage this what is the budget

[formal locust]

sounds good

[solar pike]

No budget really set at the moment but i should have enough money though

[split topaz]

Get rid of 2-core main MCU that cannot be over or underclocked or put in deep sleep, instead use main MCU and another one for Bluetooth and radio stuff. Faster MCU, I think Cortex M7, with variable clock speed to save the battery. 16 (or up to 128) MiB of external RAM through EMC (no damn QuadSPI, it is too slow and shitty; EMC uses full data/address bus so there would be a ton of wires but it is worth it). Better display, I think about the one Playdate uses. This would make the device bigger so maybe 2 versions: one with current screen and one with bigger one. Also I am not sure how SD card is connected rn, but connect it through native 4-bit bus interface to improve read/write speed. I think that's all.

[thorny lagoon]

The ibutton is not necessary in my opinion. You can just use two wires in the right gpio pins to use them as probes anyway. An sma connector under a small hood would be 1000x better

Rgb backlight would be cool.

Why not a small laser pointer to use it as a bluetooth PowerPoint controller more effectively ? And play with cats..

A magnetometer/accelerometer would be cool to have a podometer and have a small magnetic fields measurement function (smartphone allready have that, tho..)

As other said grayscale screen would be cool.

Having a dac and/or adc on a pin could be cool, or posibility to use the flipper as a basic multimeter/oscilloscope (like pokit) would be amasing.

Maybe the same function as these component detectors you can buy on aliexpress

And why not some kind of clips to really secure external modules when plugged in.

[split topaz]

rgb backlight yes, but at the same time you can just use color lcd, it would drain more power though
laser nice
magnetometer/accelerometer nice
grayscale screen based, but the closest I found is winstar mono 3.5" with 16 shades
you already have ADC pins and can have 10 bit "analog" signal with PWM on many pins (60 kHz PWM rate, plays 44.1 kHz audio very clean, signal to noise ratio around 80 dB)
iirc there already is some component tester, because Flipper HAS ADC pins, you have some oscilloscope too. There also is in development fap for flashing 8-bit ATMega/ATTiny MCUs hey (with fuse bits and EEPROM)!
clips totally yes

[thorny lagoon]

Oh I didn't knew about the adc. A real dac would be cool for an accurate function generator

[split topaz]

You can sacrifice bit depth. At 8 bit you have max sample rate of 250 khz. at 7 bit you have 500 khz etc. You can make external module with MHz range precise signal generator.

[bleak nova]

RGB backlight is unnecessary

[split topaz]

it is nice for matching custom color cases
or for visual effects in games or notifications

[mystic jacinth]

Add a oled screen to have more visual quality

[thorny lagoon]

Wireless and/or solar charging could be fun.. just charging leaving it on your desk. IDK if it's doable tho

[split topaz]

Doable with ultra deep sleep. Current Flipper can't do it because it has 2 core MCU and second core can't exit deep sleep properly, also it doesn't like when CPU frequency changes (to the point of burning the core)

[tawdry tusk]

beter speaker, for useing nuit and 8ghz for shopping cart locks

deeper and stronger key ring attachment for keyring or cable lanyard or carabiner

emotional flipper personality, (buthurt would make him act out and tx random known frequencies, be that ir power button or garage opener) toggleable obviously

a simple flashlight would be useful too

maybe a simple 4mp camera

oh and gyroscope, and compass

also smart card reader pins, could look similar to iButton but all 6 pins

like a sim card or bank card/ smart card. could also intigrate a wwan card for use with LTE GSM instead of wifi

[signal hound]

Maybe making the flipper more durable? I don’t know if it’s just me but I’m a bit worried about carrying it around without a heavy case of protection, so maybe a screen that’s more durable and making it drop or water proof?

[smoky falcon]

What would be the purpose of the camera?

[tawdry tusk]

to have a camera, lots of things you can do with a camera, see ir light, use it as a sensor for detecting light variables, exc.4

[smoky falcon]

You don't need the camera though, you just said you can do it with sensors, no need to have it work in the way phone cameras work for example, no?

[split topaz]

camera can be used to read QR codes

[tawdry tusk]

if we are talking about features that would be useful i believe a simple camera would be useful, so would a mic and better speaker

[smoky falcon]

Yeah Ig

[smoky falcon]

Mic and speaker would definitely be a lot better, its just that something like the esp-32 camera is less useful than most ideas mentioned here imo

[split topaz]

You can also add like a built-in chip catalogue so camera would read marks on chip and tell you what chip it is

[formal locust]

^^^^^^^^^^ this

needs to be added

[brazen lark]

read hid iclass

[bleak nova]

loving this thread cant wait to see a final product

i agree with getting rid of the ibutton

and love the laser pointer idea

[tawdry tusk]

Magstripe encoder module, could be fit under where the gpio pins are

[drowsy spoke]

use magic reader

[brazen lark]

What is magic reader

[drowsy spoke]

check the applications section, look around

[drowsy spoke]

SORRY I HAVNT USED MY FLIPPER IN A WHILE I MEANT PICOPASS

it can read but not emulate, so you need a seprate blank card to write to

[tawdry tusk]

flipper really needs to have OTG ability, from use as a power bank, or better, connect to other components via usb, like idk, a Proxmark3?

concept idea

[plush yacht]

I saw this

[onyx bay]

the most important thing you should add is screws that dont strip soo easy

[dapper pebble]

Thats pretty cool tbh

I might mod my baofeng radio to look like that

[winged urchin]

@solar pike any progress

[drowsy nimbus]

integrate esp32-c5 - but nevermind, this ain’t going nowhere

[dapper pebble]

Where did you see this?

[plush yacht]

in creative

i think

[high violet]

More feature rich GPIO manual control please.

second USB port to use with badusb for easy exfil

[high violet]

agreed, please no touch screen.

The certainty of hardware buttons is required for things that have such low margins for error/risk

if the next flipper zero has a fucking touchscreen I will not buy it

a lot of these suggestions are cosmetic ones that sacrifice a lot of the slickness and functionality of the device

OH

the little hook in the corner for a lanyard? Too narrow.

[solar pike]

sorry guys i have spent a lot of time trying to figure out how i will make this work but i just dont have the knowledge im sure you guys can team together to make something quite cool but i cant do this sorry guys

making a better flipper zero (cancelled

making a better flipper zero (cancelled)

[solar pike]

i really like this you guys in here should work together to make this happen

im sure you can use parts of a real flipper zero to make it

[split topaz]

antenna sticking isn't good

[quasi pewter]

Let's revive this project.
@bleak novaylem what knowledges are you missing?

What is the problem? The PCB design? Enclosure? I'm sure that there's someone here that can help.

You could simply get a dev board, maybe from M5Stack or Lilygo and create a module. Or pick a device like M5Stamp and build a PCB with a 3D printed case so instead of making a finished product you could simply make it Buildable-at-home.

[tulip walrus]

Just build a pwnagotchi bruh

[rain lantern]

i buttons are useless

[quasi pewter]

Ok.
Improvements:
-no ibutton

[fast belfry]

Internal nrf24?

Mcu capable of sdr radio?

[opaque swan]

is there anyone here who uses ibutton?

their only use for me is to collect dust and dirt with that odd shape

[quasi pewter]

Yes, true

Ok.
Improvements:
-no ibutton
-nrf24

The screen? Leave LCD or go for a more cool and energy saver e-paper display?

[fast belfry]

No epaper but oled

[tulip walrus]

🇷🇺 common in apartment buildings there

Also security guards use them on patrols