u/Runaque

I had an original Raspberry Pi (the very first model, from 2011, 512Mb) sitting in a drawer from a past of being an XBMC player (streaming torrents), and instead of letting it collect more dust, I gave it a new purpose, keeping an eye on my home network (~40 clients).

What it actually does

Every few hours, it quietly checks every device on my Wi-Fi, from laptops, phones, the smart TV, printers, game consoles or whatever's connected and asks two simple questions:

1. Is this a device I've seen before, or is it new?
2. Has anything about it changed since the last check (a new open "door" into it, a software update, etc.)?

If the answer is "yes, something's different," it shows up on a simple webUI dashboard I can check from my phone or laptop. If nothing changed, it stays quiet. That's the part I like most, it doesn't drown you in noise or alerts, it just tells you what's new the moment you log into its dashboard.

Why bother?

Most of us have way more devices on our home network than we think: phones, laptops, smart TVs, game consoles, that random smart plug from three years ago. Every one of them is a small door into your home network, and most people never check whether those doors are locked. This little Pi checks for me, automatically, and tells me the moment something changes, a new device joining the Wi-Fi, a service turning on that wasn't there before, and so on.

It's already been useful. It flagged an old server on my network still running an operating system that stopped getting security updates a few weeks ago, something I'd genuinely forgotten about. It also caught my smart TV quietly running a wireless-streaming feature I wasn't using, so I turned it off.

The fun side project

Since the Pi was just sitting in an old enclosure, I also 3D-printed it a new case and wanted to go for a bit of a Cyberpunk theme, so purple top and yellow bottom it was, both held together with a couple of self tapping screws. It wasn't really a necessity, but as a maker it gave me a good excuse to power up my 3d printer and it made the whole thing feel like a finished little gadget instead of a device you'd rather like to forget.

Who this is for

You don't need to be a network expert to get the idea, it's basically a smoke detector for your home network. It doesn't fix problems for you, but it makes sure you actually know about them instead of finding out the hard way. If you've got some old hardware gathering dust, it can always be turned into a nice weekend project.

List of components of my EDC :

- Microsoft Surface Go 1st gen with Kali Linux
- Verbatim Store 'n' Stay NANO USB Drive - 64Gb (permanently mounted)
- DockCase external SSD with WD SN740 NVMe Gen4 - 256Gb
- 3D printed "The Joker" knife (holds a Stanley 1922 blade)
- Tab5 Wardriver (project of mine)

This is usually packed and carried around in my camo backpack.

Making an older wallet RFiD/NFC skimming proof is something that takes very little time and is as effective as those more expensive wallets that block RFiD/NFC so your cards are protected against skimming.

I know that many may think "What does this have to do with hacking?", but in the broader infosec community, applying low-level technical principles, modifying hardware, and understanding signal propagation to defend against vulnerabilities is the very definition of hardware hacking.

What you need is just Aluminum foil, tape and scissors!

I would recommend to go for four layers of Aluminum foil folded to the size needed. Tape all sides with tape against you cutting yourself and trust me, this foil is sharp as hell.
Merge the two pieced of 4 layered Aluminum foil and tape them together so it functions as a folding joint.

The remaining two images are a demonstration with the Flipper Zero on a Gametown card to show it won't read through the four layers of Aluminum foil.

While stopping RFID/NFC skimming is the main goal, a proper Faraday-style foil lining does a few other things depending on how well-sealed the edges are:

• Blocks Contactless Tracking / Telemetry: It stops cards from responding to any RFID interrogation, meaning your transit cards, credit cards, or ID chips can't be remotely pinged or tracked while sitting in that pocket.
• Reduces Electromagnetic Interference (EMI): It offers a degree of shielding against stray electromagnetic fields that could theoretically cause data corruption on older magnetic strips (though modern chips are mostly immune).

... after starting this print yesterday evening.

I always postponed it because I thought I'd be organizing my pile of discs anyway, but never did. So after tripping so often over some scattered discs, or tipping a pile of them over, I decided to commit to this print that took nearly 13 hours on my Ender 3 S1.

So now my Saturday morning will be filled with sorting out discs and organizing them whilst having a coffee.

In case anyone is looking for this model, the link below gives you three options of organizers.

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/gadget/minidisc-holder-racks-10-20-and-40-slot-mini-disc

Some months ago I saw someone on Reddit sharing their "Tab5 Smart Terminal" project with still had limited functionality and seeing this device kind of pulled me in to order one myself! It wasn't that easy to get your hands on such development device, but I managed to put in an order and had to wait for the restock.
Halfway through May it arrived and I started the same day working with this device trying to make a portable "Wardriver" out of it combined with the M5stack SMA Antenna (AT6668).

I thought I was prepared for the journey, but I wasn't! I had to work around quite a lot of quirks and limitations of the device and this ended up in a submission to the "M5Stack Global Innovation Contest 2026" and of which I already made it to the next round.

More of this project you can find and read through this link on Hackster.io.

https://www.hackster.io/Runaque/tab5-wardriver-a-custom-gps-enabled-wardriving-platform-d5948a

I just snapped off the print and the support trees were left at the printing plate. It cannot be more satisfying than this.

The model I've printed was the following one:

https://www.printables.com/model/1538630-the-ultimate-tentacle-stand-ps5-xbox-switch

Currently, we are in the midst of a heat wave in Belgium with temperatures running up close to 40°C, and the heat inside is quite hard to deal with. Since we don't have enough fans at home, I decided to design a stand in Tinkercad for our Rolfstone Air Sublime to have it sit sideways, transforming it into more than just a good-looking room air purifier.

The design is simple, and I had to experiment with different ways to ensure it was as stable as possible (which you might see in the included images). Ultimately, it serves one main purpose: stabilizing the Rolfstone so it won't roll away.

I will be uploading this model tomorrow to Printables and will share the link here once it is live!

EDIT : I just uploaded the project to Printables and you can find it through this link.

https://www.printables.com/model/1765852-rolfstone-air-purifier-horizontal-stand

It has been in backorder for a bit, but last Saturday it was delivered and I got to work immediately with it!

The plan was to build a wardriving capable device like my esp32 Marauder can. During development of the program I ran into a serious flaw that prevents me from writing away the data to the micro SD card and even a dozen of iterations further I concluded that this is an issue on M5stack their side in the firmware. So like any decent developer, I reported it to their GitHub.

👉 https://github.com/m5stack/uiflow-micropython/issues/94

Now this didn't stop me from moving further! I decided to build-in a file limit to write away the .CSV file with the registered networks onto the device itself. I limited it to 9.5mb since the total memory on it is 16mb and this would leave plenty of overhang towards the software I was building.

I'm still awaiting the arrival of the GPS module, but that didn't held me from testing it in the field already to see how capable it already was and turned out to be.

I was working on something for a bit. Throw all written things into an AI and asked to compile something out of it and for now it is a 98 page long book about the esp32 Marauder. Not sure which way I'll be going with it, but it was a pretty great experience to have made my own knowledge base into an e-book of some sort.