QuadRF: A Handheld Phased Array That Spots Drones and Sees Through Walls
QuadRF can spot drones and see WiFi through my wall
I tested the QuadRF, a handheld phased-array radio built around a Raspberry Pi 5, and was amazed by its ability to track drones and visualize WiFi signals through walls. While the user interface still needs refinement, the device successfully streams high-bandwidth data via MIPI connections and offers a unique augmented reality view of the RF environment. Despite some rough edges, this open-source tool reveals the incredible potential of accessible radio technology for hobbyists and security researchers alike.
If the open source community can come up with something like this, just imagine what governments are capable of.
- mrtnmcc
QuadRF creator here. Happy to answer questions!
We have a quick demo video as well: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QvniJk3uNyA
Along with a deeper dive video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zdJ9Tbm8ALg
We didn't give Jeff great direction on camera alignment calibration or setting the radio gain but he seemed to mostly figure it out. We're improving the UI based on his suggestions (it's open source so you can customize it too)
The RF augmented reality is just one of many applications of this brand new 4x4 MIMO software-defined radio built from the ground up. The AR uses a web app to stream RF points that your phone/laptop browser then live-merges with your local camera in the browser. I've been obsessed with low latency and high frame rate to make it a truly AR experience. More technical details at https://QuadRF.com/
- noduerme
Funny, in the "imagine what governments are capable of" vein, I just read this[0] a few minutes ago before coming over to HN to find this post trending.
[0] https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-future-takes-fl...
- piinbinary
One day I want to build something like this, except for sound. It would be great to get a heading and distance for where a sound is coming from.
This could be both for small scale things (e.g. which part of this is squeaking?) or large scale (e.g. is that booming noise coming from the construction a few blocks away?)
- mschuster91
> It sounds like they had to reverse-engineer the MIPI protocol used on the Pi 5 to do this (since it goes through the RP1 chip), and the way it's architected, you can daisy-chain multiple QuadRF modules together, letting each module calculate it's own phase shift.
How are they planning on distributing a shared, highly precise clock for that purpose? That's already a PITA if you do QO-100 modes that need high precision, but usually there it's enough to have one good clock that you feed to the LNA... but here? Every single one of these modules needs a very precisely identical timing signal and the kind of chips you can use to multiplex a reference clock signal are pretty expensive.
- mlfreeman
The visualizer reminds me of my thermal camera.
I have heard claims of devices (mostly TVs) supposedly coming with secret 5G cell uplinks built in [never heard a specific model mentioned though].
If there were more variants covering more commonly-used RF bands, people could walk around and literally check for once.
(incidentally i'm sure three letter agencies have had this sort of tech in their bug-detecting toolkit for a LONG time)
- tamimio
It should be more specific, it spots RC drones operated on ~5.8ghz, it won’t spot RC on 900mhz, nor cellular enabled ones.
- RobotToaster
Build this into smart glasses and it would be fascinating.
- fierycatnet
I just kinda skimmed through it, so it detects drones in sky? Am I understanding this correctly? That might have some defense application considering what's going on in Eastern Europe right now.