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Comment by jgrahamc | Hacker News Reader

I have a Flipper Zero and I've used it... occasionally. Like that one time controlling the Taylor Swift Eras tour wristbands: https://blog.jgc.org/2024/05/controlling-taylor-swift-eras-t... but it's mostly sat around being an odd device.

I duplicated a couple of RFID things, used the IR for some stuff, and once in a while used the radio receiver, but mostly it looks pretty.

I'm not sure what I'd do with a Flipper One, but I guess I've done a lot of things with Raspberry Pis so... maybe?

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I had similar feelings but the comments below about adding an SDR to it with an M.2 slot got me looking a little closer. This has an 8-core Rockchip A72/A53 processor and 8GB of RAM. This is not an incremental improvement over the Flipper Zero, this is something else entirely. Hmmmmm...

It's more like a portable Raspberry Pi with better efficiency and more IO. And hopefully even better mainline Linux support out of the gate.

The key question will be how much it costs. Beyond $250-300, it's a lot more of a niche product. Below $250 would be very interesting. I don't think it will be below $300. With current memory and storage pricing, probably $350-400 is more realistic :(

Does it need to be so cheap? With these specs it would make a decent replacement for a low end general purpose computer. The older NUC I use for a lot of stuff has similar-to-worse specs than this thing does.

If it’s not cheap, then what differentiates it from a $150 Linux laptop and $30 dongle

That's exactly my point! It's a low to midrange computer with extremely high portability including a grayscale display. Where else are you going to get that functionality combined as a single unit?

I've been eyeing the MNT Pocket Reform for a while:

https://shop.mntre.com/products/mnt-pocket-reform

Considering this is 6.1 inches wide and 1.6 inches thick, I think I'd be happier with a GPD that's 6.8 inches wide and 1.0 inches thick. And I can put the screen into grayscale mode if I want?

When you say "GPD", are you speaking about these?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPD_Win

Moreso the entire company and its variety of models, but yes. Especially when running Ubuntu. I think they have two models of the size I mentioned right now, one around $600 and one more expensive.

I have a $140 Lenovo education market laptop I got from their site, new. It doesn’t have a built in Ethernet port but I taped an L shaped usb dongle to the back.

I use it as a terminal mostly.

So I feel like if this costs more than $400, it’s DOA

A steam deck maybe?

See the Mecha Comet

A mobile phone?

There are not so many running mainline Linux with all free drivers.

Chip intended for this thing is also heavily blobbed. Even the creator lists "Push vendors to open up their existing closed-source code and ditch binary blobs entirely." as one of the goals as if small niche gadget had any chance of erven nudging the needle.

We are talking Rockchip, company mired in numerous GPL violations with latest nuking their github repository early this year.

And yet a smartphone running an FSF-endorsed distro does exist, so it's possible: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Librem_5. Not free of firmware blobs though.

Smartphone

This is not a general purpose computer though. There is no keyboard and you would need to start adding stuff. The volumne then would be bulky as hell. Any small form factor laptop would be cheaper and easier and also has better specs.

A cheap laptop with display and keyboard, which would be capable of all that stuff the flipper can do, starts at 200 Euros.

Its got 8gb of ddr5 in it. That's already a huge chunk of $300 - I'm not even sure they will get the BOM down to $300.

I'm guessing it'll be $1000 or so. (Which is good for me. Well above my impulse buy threshold. I don't regret buying my Flipper Zero, because it was within my impulse buy and not regret it threshold.)

I forgot it has a battery as well, so add on the extra power and charging circuitry. Yeah, probably north of $500, but I can't imagine it being closer to $1000 :/

That extra circuitry is like a dollar retail. That should not be a significant impact on the price. For the battery itself, three 18650s would add $5 to the BOM so I'm not expecting a huge difference from that either.

At the scale they have, prices probably not quite so low, but the power stuff would be more if they use higher quality parts and factor in the integration / firmware bits.

>better mainline Linux support

haha

for reference

https://www.tomshardware.com/software/chinese-semiconductor-...

https://securityonline.info/open-source-standoff-github-free...

https://hackaday.com/2026/01/05/github-disables-rockchips-li...

https://legal.gpl-violations.narkive.com/gAoCqXFb/rockchip-r...

https://mastodon.social/@geerlingguy/113698847221483936 "I was told Rockchip no longer considers RK3588 to be an “open source” chip"

Oh what is it? A powerbank? No a Router! No its Batman

sry had to do this...

I'd love to have a "shit hit the fan" style computer (like a cyberdeck), but also be able to do radio communications stuff as a hobby. But there's no ready-made cyberdeck as far as I know; I feel like Flipper has enough mindshare to be able to lead a project like this.

(Clockwork comes close: https://www.clockworkpi.com/, as do these tiny handheld laptops with network and serial ports like GPD's Micro PC)

As someone else mentioned in another thread, this could be what you’re looking for. Unfortunately it’s above my impulse budget https://shop.mntre.com/products/mnt-pocket-reform

I used it to scan my cat's microchips which let me catch that my recent adoption had the wrong number registered and correct it.

Today I used my swiss army knife for the first time in a year because I needed a narrow flathead in a pinch. Not all tools need to be used everyday. I can't remember the last time I used my 3/8" wrench.

> Not all tools need to be used everyday. I can't remember the last time I used my 3/8" wrench.

Now our 10mm sockets on the other hand, would be used everyday if we could ever lay our hands on one when we need them.

> I can't remember the last time I used my 3/8" wrench.

Yeah, I always lose my 10mm as well...

Huh, now I feel like I should scan my dog.

Thank you.

Heh... I used Flipper Zero to clone RFID tags for all the neighbors to T5577 rings, pins, sticky pads and whatever not for our gated community.

If you are adventurous, many ski stations have low-tech cards as well, although they also tend to have human controllers once in a while.

And, finally, kids like running around with Flipper Zero opening power taps on Teslas.

> And, finally, kids like running around with Flipper Zero opening power taps on Teslas.

one time I parked in a tesla near to a bank of superchargers.

every time someone hooked up their car to charge (pressing the button on the charging cable), my charge port would swing open.

every minute or two...

A friend of mine has a HackRF in his car continuously transmitting the charge-port-open command. Sometimes he sends me videos of the "salutes" he gets from them.

I was skiing in Mammoth a few months ago and one day they disabled the automated readers on all the lifts and began manually checking the RFID lift ticket/cards. I suspected somebody had cloned a pass to save money for their group.

Yeah each pass will have a unique code for every user, if they find the same user entering multiple times in a short amount of time it will flag up. I gathered they use facial recognition too so if they see the same card with different faces it'll flag up as well. They don't fuck around.

(granted, facial recognition in a ski resort is uh. an interesting challenge)

Pretty sure the most use I've got out of mine is using it as a tv-b-gone.

Are smartphones not capable of cloning RFID tags?

They can clone NFC tags, if the phone hardware, drivers and software permits. It really depends on how smart the chip inside the smartphone is and how locked down its drivers are. I still keep around a Galaxy S3 because its reader does not complain when writing to UID fields of a NFC tag. Saved a lot of friends exorbitant second keyfob landlord fees.

NFC yes, RFID I don't know.

https://github.com/nfcgate/nfcgate

Typically the hardware is capable of it, but the drivers aren't.

I had plenty of fun reverse engineering a 433.92 MHz protocol curtain motors at my house use. Once that was done and I taught first my Flipper Zero, then a RPi with a C1101 to actuate the motors, the Flipper is sitting idly in the drawer.

I use mine all the time, in that it has a subGhz app that queries a raspi for the room temperature and if it gets above 78 degrees F it sends the 'on' code to the ceiling fan, above 85 degrees and it sends a couple of speed up codes. When the temperature reverse it sends slow down and then off codes.

I've always wondered what could be done with Flock-style cameras (that I own, of course).

I've had more success. Flipper taught me about sdr, and I was able to reverse quite a lot from my garage door pilot. Then I went on an adventure of cracking Keeloq cipher, and I haven't stopped since.

Mine got me an angry email from IT once because I accidentally plugged it into my work laptop instead of the charger. Two black cables right next to each other. Oops.

I have done exactly the same type and amount of stuff with my flipper zero, probably in the target demo. still, no complaints! I think the one is a cool toy that I will one day (if I’m lucky) use as the perfect solution for a problem. If I can do that just once, it’ll be worth the price for me.

Im the same way. Ive used it maybe twice to change tv channels. I mostly got it for the novelty value, probably gonna sell it.

Ive been more excited for this https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/interrupt/ interrupt-linux-powered-hacking-gadget/description. I used to have a One Plus One with Nethunter. That was a lot more useful as a hacking device. The only issue is that it required external adapters for things like wifi deauth, ir remote, e.t.c. But the ability to customize things on the fly was way better, compared to Flipper which you really can't do.

I've been happy with my Zero, cloned some friends apartment building door fobs, and using it for missing remotes for TV's and fans. But that damn dolphin is always angry with me for not using it enough.

You can turn that off in the settings.

It's about time someone rolled out a watch that has these capabilities.

Now that's a good idea

https://www.reddit.com/r/respectthreads/comments/11f8ruz/res...

https://tenor.com/view/brain-blast-jimmy-neutron-jimbo-gif-2...

I used it almost exclusively to give my nieces virtual amiibos when I come over to their house

You can also duplicate RFIDs with like a $5 scanner from Amazon (which is probably overpriced).

I plan on using it to create a backup password/2FA device... eventually

I have most often used it to be every amiibo that exists.

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