Hi, I’ve been interested in ESP32, Arduino, PCBs, IoT, etc. for a while now… And in portable hacking tools and other cool projects. I’m a total novice but I want to build my own portable hacking tool, but solderless since I don’t have the skills yet. So everything plug and play. Can you tell me if I’ve done enough research and gathered the right components to make my DIY device work properly and correctly? Or that I missing some components or tools, screws, tape, whatever. All do’s and don’ts are welcome.
nrf24 cannot take 5V and the C1101 cannot take 5V and the ESP32-C5 3.3V regulator cannot power them, so you need either AMS1117 for each of them or better idea is a TPS63020 buck-boost for 3.3V
You need capacitors across on the NRF24 power pins. 10 - 100uF 16V and 100nf ceramics or films
I want to build my own portable hacking device like the Flipper Zero, BLE Nano Shark, or m5Stack Stick c3. Not a clone of it or anything, but with similar functions by flashing Bruce firmware onto it. I absolutely do not intend to use it for any malicious purposes and only want to test it at home. I just think it’s a fun gadget. Can you give me a link from AliExpress for the correct components you just mentioned? And could you perhaps make a wiring diagram? I’ve wanted to undertake this as a project for a while, so thanks in advance if you or other forum members are willing to help me with it. And is there anything else I need to purchase that I might have forgotten, such as screws, glue, or specific tape?
Building is great but you should learn to solder first or just get an ESP32 with a display to figure out how it works before trying to put all these modules together. Of course you can do it piece by piece also, but it will be more work. I can try and help either way.
Okay, good to know! Yes, I initially wanted to get that T embedded plus, but I got a good idea to do a DIY project, gather my own research and info, and ask questions on ChatGPT. But ChatGPT didn’t get it quite right either. I was searching on Google and came across the Marauder V8, and that appeals to me; it’s fully pre-installed. Is that perhaps a good option? Or the BLE Nano Shark, or the M5Stick? I also really want to learn to solder; any suggestions for a budget-friendly beginner soldering station? And maybe suggestions for videos/channels I should watch on YouTube, for example?
Start small. The great thing about ESP32 and other SoCs is that you can reuse them so you aren’t wasting money with things you are buying just to learn. Here is a list of things I use all the time:
Extra money spent on these is worth it for quality:
63/37 Sn Pb solder with rosin core
Desolder braid
No-clean gel flux
22ga stranded, tinned, copper wire with silicone insulation
Cheap is fine with these:
OLED display, single color, I2C, 128x64 or 128x32 with SSD1306 chip
ESP32-S3 (ESP32-WROOM) dev boards with breakout board
Bread board
Dupont jumper wires
Pin headers
Protoboard, different sizes, with plated through-holes
Hot glue gun
Needle files
Hobby knife + blades
Heat shrink tube (assorted)
E12 resistor set, 1% metal film, 1/4w, 10ohm to 1mega ohm
The parts lists above cover the hardware side well, so one thing I’d add is about the firmware/board choice, since that tends to bite first on a solderless build. The ESP32-C5 is quite new, and community firmware builds usually target the S3 or the classic ESP32 far more reliably, so if you pick a board nobody in the project has a build config for you’ll spend your first weekend fighting toolchains instead of testing radios. Checking which chip variants your chosen firmware actually ships prebuilt images for, before ordering, saves a lot of pain.
On assembly order: bring one peripheral up at a time rather than wiring everything and flashing once. Get the board booting on its own, then the display, then the SD card, then each radio, testing after each step. When the CC1101, the nRF24 and the microSD all share one SPI bus you need a separate chip-select line for each and only one asserted at a time, and SD cards are the usual culprit for locking the bus if their CS is left floating - a pull-up on each CS helps. Dupont jumpers also make poor SPI wiring; keep them as short as you can and run the SPI clock slow at first, then raise it once things are stable, otherwise intermittent glitches look like bad code when they’re really the wiring.
Also worth knowing before you build: transmitting on those sub-GHz and 2.4 GHz modules is legally restricted in most places, so keep tests receive-only or into a dummy load until you know what your local rules allow.