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Various Projects Find Hidden SDR Capabilities in ESP32 Microcontrollers

288 points · 67 comments · nkw

  1. mallets · · focus · HN ↗
    So many $1 wireless ICs have a powerful "SDR", but will never be documented due to certification/compiliance/export-control reasons. The projects listed here rightly limited the scope to RX-only but Espressif might be forced to "patch" this away if arbitrary TX too is possible (or starts making headlines). Hope it doesn't come to that, more cheap options for RF-to-bits is always welcome.

    On a technical note, not much I can find about the signal quality. Phase noise, images, DC Offset, etc. Have to get my hands on one, ESP32-S31 seems promising.

    1. BlackRabbit1 · · focus · HN ↗
      I'm pretty sure that that WiFi-7 modems/routers have a similar modes up to 320MHz bandwidth.

      The modems could be quite interesting as they are connected via PCIe which can eat a lot of bandwidth.

      But they are very difficult (to almost impossible) to find if there isn't anything left in the firmware blob or device driver.

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