The Wrew: Core Dump

With the launch of Lamplighter for SpectraMesh, I've been asked a few times what the topology of my sensor net looks like to get the coverage that I wanted.

As I've been building things out in preparation for releasing Lamplighter for SpectraMesh (which released yesterday!)

I've only had the sensor net fully live at WrewHQ for a little over a day and it's already yielding fruit!

I’ve talked about Lamplighter, the counter surveillance aggregator that takes reports from sensors and aggregates, processes, and gives you visibility into what surveillance exists around you.

JEFF BEZOS!

DEFCON has started releasing the videos of the various talks that were given during the conference.

I've been working on Steadfast Crypt for a little bit now, building out the monitoring service that collects data from my sensor net (via LoRa) and processes it into information I can use.

It’s been almost an entire week working $newGig and I’m already having more fun at work than I’ve had in a very long time.

This week has FLOWN by!

This week I started the latest chapter of my professional journey - another new beginning.

Typically evolution is referencing biological evolution, the process through which species adapt and overcome environmental factors to survive and - ideally - thrive.

I’ve taken a little time off from working on SpectraMesh to work on some other projects, but am finally coming back to it with the release of the Elecrow ThinkNode M9, a gorgeous handheld mesh communication device that I absolutely can’t wait to get my ha…

JEFF BEZOS - it's finally Friday!

Once we arrived back in Ulaanbaatar from our trip to the north, we weren't exactly sure who our guide was supposed to be - only that we were to meet at the airport.

The first real phase of our trip to Mongolia involved going up north to Moron (also spelled Murun) - which required a short hour long flight to get there.

DEFCON 34 (aka hacker summer camp), was last weekend.

I've mostly updated my photos site with the photos I'll be posting from our epic Mongolia trip, so thought I'd write a little now about the trip itself.

I found this on a t-shirt in Mongolia and had to buy it - in the style of a band tour t-shirt.

I’m sitting in Mongolia as I write this, the end of our trip is in sight, and I am exhausted beyond belief.

No, not THAT D-Day, Departure Day.

Tomorrow starts the latest of my travel journeys.

I've written plenty before about how the tech industry has failed us as a society, having been used for many years as a source of enrichment for a few, at the expense of literally every person on this planet.

I’ve been thinking about the problem of surveillance tech for a while now, as evidenced by the projects I work on, but one thing has been consistently elusive… we can detect their presence but right now, not their specific location (at least not with high…

Things are feeling a little chaotic right now, with lots going on across multiple fronts.

I've finished a first test assembly of the WX-3A "El Duderino" in it's intended housing.

It's been a whirlwind week, with lots of stuff happening, and I completely forgot to post a FYIF post yesterday… whoops!

I got a notice from DHL yesterday indicating that I had a package on the way from JLCPCB - the PCB manufacturer that I use for most of my Wrewtopia Labs devices... and indicating that delivery would be Thursday.

I wrote the other day about hacker summer camp, and it got me thinking about how I've never been.

DEFCON, aka hacker summer camp, is coming up in the very near future - about one month from now give or take a few days.

User Experience, or UX, is something I deal with regularly as a PM.

All about that DUDE The WX-3A El Duderino boards unexpectedly arrived yesterday afternoon.

Yesterday afternoon I received the latest batch of WX-1 boards, revision 5 (hence the E designation).

Prior to the pandemic (and kids) my wife and I traveled to various lesser-traveled places around the world.

A bold statement to make, but no less true.

I'm going to be a little vague in this post for some parts, and for that I apologize but I do have my reasons!

About 10 months ago I heard about a really cool device called a ClockworkPi UConsole.

This weekend we're taking advantage of the Federal holiday on Friday to head to the mountains for a few days.

When I started work on the WX-1 Bit Blaster (the new official name of the CC1101 Module for the Lilygo T-LoRa Pager) I knew I wanted it to use a CC1101 chip, so I looked up the pinout for the CC1101.

Every once in a while (maybe more often than that...)

While attempting to diagnose what’s wrong with the CC1101 boards I somehow managed to get the IMU of the T-LoRa Pager (smart motion sensor, essentially) stuck in a bad state, though technically it’s unclear if it was the IMU that was stuck or the IO Expan…

I eagerly tore into the package, ripping the box open like a kid tearing into a Christmas present… they had arrived and I was sure THIS TIME they would work.

In a group chat about hax - basically a place to talk about the things we’re working on project wise - a fellow hacker said to me this week (paraphrasing) “you really are a mad scientist!”

As I've grown in my abilities with electronics hardware design - recognizing I'm still a neophyte - I've started thinking up new gadgets I wish I had.

Manufacturing of the CC1101 boards rev 4 has completed and the boards have shipped.

I received my ESP32S3 based programmable smart watch on Monday, but didn't have a lot of time to really mess with it until yesterday.

I spent some time yesterday troubleshooting the CC1101 module for the T-LoRa Pager.

A thorough review of the kicad files for the cc1101 module revealed… nothing wrong with it that I can tell.

Today has been a good day for gadgets.

After a little bit of soldering, it was time.

I'm a nerd (or geek, if you want - I use them interchangeably) - and a hacker - and if you've ready ANYTHING on this blog you know I'm very much an electronics and tech tinkerer.