Open-source firmware · ESP32-C5

Network Goblin Scout

A pocket goblin that eats radio waves and gets stronger. Carry it around and it quietly listens for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and smart-home mesh chatter. Every new thing it hears goes into the hoard. The hoard gives XP. XP makes the goblin insufferable.

The perfect wardriving sidekick: it never connects, never sends probes, and never keeps the real names or addresses of anything it hears.

Flash it in your browser Source on GitHub

Scout home screen: the goblin, food and fun meters, level 11 and hoard counters

The goblin's powers

Part Tamagotchi, part radio nerd

Dual-band Wi-Fi

2.4 and 5 GHz, passive beacon listening. Spots Wi-Fi 6, WPS, hidden networks and the odd WEP fossil.

Bluetooth

Passive BLE: iBeacons, Eddystone, named gadgets. Rotating phone addresses count as sightings, not trophies.

Zigbee & Thread

The C5's third radio listens to 802.15.4: smart bulbs, sensors, Matter hubs.

Goblin encounters

Two Scouts notice each other, Pwnagotchi-style. Then they sniff each other's hoards: biggest hoard wins.

Tracker alert

If an AirTag, Tile or other tracker keeps following you from place to place, the goblin raises the alarm.

122 achievements

Bronze to legendary, some secret. Plus quests, levels and 17 hats, including seasonal ones.

A goblin with needs

It gets hungry for new devices and bored of the same networks. Keep it happy for bonus XP.

Day & night

Dawn and dusk glow, a starry night sky, and a goblin that naps after 11 pm (and keeps sniffing).

Fully offline

No account, no cloud, no app. Progress lives on the microSD card.

Screenshots

Rendered from the real firmware

These come straight out of the UI code, rendered on a PC. Exactly what the 2.8" screen draws.

New networks banner while scanning — "Mine! All mine!"

Radar screen with live blips — Radar: everything nearby, live.

Tracker alert: something is following you — Something's following you.

Sniff-off between two goblins, with hoard bars — Sniff-off! Biggest hoard wins.

Home screen at night with the goblin asleep — Night shift.

Level up celebration — Level up. Unbearable now.

Share card with QR code — Share card, QR included.

Coming soon

Leaderboards

Soon your goblin can upload a fun summary when it's on Wi-Fi: level, hoard size, trophies, hats and goblin friends. Weekly and all-time boards, goblin profile pages and a goblin of the week.

Only counts are uploaded. Never network names, addresses or locations.

#1your goblin here?— XP

#2…— XP

#3…— XP

Hardware

What you need

An NM-CYD-C5 board (ESP32-C5, 2.8" touchscreen)
A microSD card, FAT32 (the goblin's memory)
A USB-C cable and Chrome or Edge to flash it
Optional: GPS module, speaker, and a battery (wiring guide in the repo) for pocket life

Go to the flasher

Privacy

The goblin's code of conduct

Listening is passive: no probe requests, no connections, no active scans.
Network names and addresses are stored only as salted, one-way ids.
GPS coordinates never leave the SD card.
The only thing it sends is an "I'm a goblin" beacon, with a fresh random address every boot. You can switch it off.