5 ms·

What are people doing with the Flipper? It seems neat, but I fear I would get one and then forever leave it in a drawer having never done anything real with the

What are people doing with the Flipper? It seems neat, but I fear I would get one and then forever leave it in a drawer having never done anything real with the device.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
bangaladore 2y ago
For 99.99% of buyers, it's a toy. It will be played with briefly and discussed online for more. For a tiny portion there is a legitimate use, however I think its highly unlikely there isn't something that does that use for cheaper, and better.
edm0nd 2y ago
Mainly having fun w the IR blaster and also for NFC/RFID things.
supportengineer 2y ago
Tried to read my dog chip but couldn't find it.
- kej 2y ago
  It can take a lot of slowly moving the flipper around to get it to read a pet chip. Definitely not as straightforward as scanning your office's access card.
- amorfusblob 2y ago
  [flagged]
- actionfromafar 2y ago
  I'm sure your dog will come back when hungry.
a12k 2y ago
I was really excited to get mine! It is neat. I got it and it has been in my drawer almost exclusively. I have done exactly two things with mine: * Opened my friend's Tesla battery charge hatch from a distance for fun (it closes again on its own after maybe 30 seconds) * Recorded a lamp's IR remote on/off/up/down toggles and used the Flipper to turn on the lamp, rather than using the IR remote, to try to debug whether the remote was going bad or if there was a problem with the lamp (it was the lamp itself) And I tried, unsuccessfully, to: * Read my dog's microchip data Otherwise, I haven't found any use for it. I really wanted to like it. I did a search to see if there was anything interesting to do with it that I was missing, and basically it's what I did (or failed to do) above. Some people also use it to change TV channels at restaurants as a prank it looks like.
- xvector 2y ago
  Same experience here. I don't blame the Flipper, though, only my own lack of creativity and energy.
- okdood64 2y ago
  Do you know if I can emulate car keys with it? Say a relatively modern BMW? Or is there some safety mechanism. (Not for nefarious purposes, but just in case I can’t find my keys.)
  - Rebelgecko 2y ago
    IIRC it's somewhat possible but for some cars if you do it wrong it makes the car and key go out of sync which causes a lot of issues
  - dumah 2y ago
    Emulating the rolling code protocol would desync your keys. What ever device you’d want to use as a backup would need to capture information sent from the vehicle during the last unlock.
  - obituary_latte 2y ago
    Not natively. There is other firmware out there, though, that allows such functionality. Depending on where you live, it may be illegal to even try, though, hence the native firmware locking out such use (you can record or visualize but not save/replay).
jmholla 2y ago
I use mine predominantly to write "programs" that control the TV. Namely, I've got a program that changes the brightness and volume of the TV then turns off the bedroom light at night. Then another program that undoes that.
microtherion 2y ago
My current practical use case is that I read our cat's microchip, so when a new device comes, instead of coaxing the cat into the device (e.g. smart cat flap), I just use the Flipper in emulation mode to train the device.
- exe34 2y ago
  idenkitty theft is no joke!
  - microtherion 2y ago
    Yeah, I feel like a copycat when I do this.
pirates 2y ago
I use it as a store for all the amiibo data I might want, as well as a universal remote for my TVs and fan/light in the house. I also use it on the TVs and receivers at work when someone misplaces or loses the remotes, and keep a separate one in the car with a few garage codes for my parents and siblings houses. The wifi board is fun to play with to learn about how some of the more common/basic SSID spoofing and broadcast spam attacks and similar things work. There are some fun HID device attacks you can check out too that are pretty cool. I also used it as a jumping off point to dabble with programming in C and using gdb and stuff like that.
- bigiain 2y ago
  I've just got the wifi board. My initial use case is to see if I can send de-auth attacks to the Ring doorbells overlooking the road/sidewalk in the two new houses just up the street...
notinmykernel 2y ago
you can execute a suite of BLE, wifi, and IR attacks. You can target NFC and RFID. You can add scripts and boards to boost signal and functionality. You know, fun stuff.
schwartzworld 2y ago
It’s sort of like having a leatherman. You almost never NEED it but it feels great when you do. I clone all the remotes in my house for when my kids inevitably lose them.
renewiltord 2y ago
I make keyfobs for my friends' buildings. And I can turn off TVs at restaurants if they're distracting.
Aaronstotle 2y ago
Exactly what happened to mine, or it doubled as a second office badge
- elliotec 2y ago
  And with the latest firmware, can't even do the badge doubling :/
  - stavros 2y ago
    Why not? What happened?
t-3 2y ago
I've used it to inspect RFID tags and such, but the feature I use most often is the infrared reader and universal remote features.
anfractuosity 2y ago
I keep meaning to play with the NFC/RFID API, I got a little eink price tag I'd like to try changing the display of via the flipper zero. I created a very simple attempt at an oscilloscope type program ( https://github.com/anfractuosity/flipperscope https://github.com/anfractuosity/flipperscope ).
bozhark 2y ago
Garage door opener
- gosub100 2y ago
  My apartment has RFID controlled gates. I think I'll get one to clone the card since they charge way too much for a replacement
rockbruno 2y ago
Fun way to learn how NFC / RFID works, not much other than that since all the cool things are also illegal
aftbit 2y ago
The only "real" thing I did with it was use it as an IR blaster and debug tool to remote control my window fan. Once I figured out the IR protocol, I replaced it with a $10 gizmo from Aliexpress that has an ESP32 hooked up to an IR LED. Otherwise, it's kinda fun for scanning credit cards, pet microchips, maybe the occasional NFC or RFID tag. It can clone most hotel keycards, at least to the level required to open your door, although the parking gates tend to use better security. It can also emulate an AirTag, at least on the bluetooth beacon side, which is kinda funny. But yes, mine mostly lives in a drawer.
- A4ET8a8uTh0 2y ago
  Ok, I am intruiged ( and I think wife has an airtag ). Did it work as expected:D?
  - aftbit 2y ago
    I don't have an iPhone so I'm not 100% sure, but one of my friends who has two phones and two Flippers uses it from time to time. It seems trackable within a pretty short range but I don't really understand the value.
ajsnigrutin 2y ago
According to guys on reddit, turn on public TVs in malls so minimum wage workers have to spend a lot of time to find out who actually has the remote to turn it back on, they buy cases for them, new shells, and take photos of them.
- squarefoot 2y ago
  That would be a variant on the old TV-B-Gone prank gadget, which can be easily built with a minimum uC and a few parts, plus firmware. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV-B-Gone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV-B-Gone
tkems 2y ago
As someone in cybersecurity, it is handy as a low frequency RFID reader as Android phones only support higher frequency. Having something compact and in a single unit (compared to a Proxmark) makes it easier to 'grab-n-go'. It is neat to show people how insecure common access control systems are. I've also used it as a universal remote more than a few times on devices that didn't come with a remote. The App running on a phone makes it somewhat easy to transfer new remote templates to the Flipper over Bluetooth. It also comes in handy as a serial adapter as it has GPIO pins you can connect to things (UART headers). The RF transceiver is also cool to capture RF remotes (garage doors, overhead fans, etc.) and replay them.
- waciki 2y ago
  > The RF transceiver is also cool to capture RF remotes (garage doors, overhead fans, etc.) and replay them. Do you mean the non IR kind?
  - ddingus 2y ago
    I am sure they did. Non IR kinds basically are RF (radio frequency) kinds.
  - tkems 2y ago
    Yes, RF (radio frequency) remotes I've seen include my garage door opener, some overhead fans in bedrooms, gates, remote outlet/light controllers.
  - bigiain 2y ago
    Yeah, the Flipper Zero has a "sub 1GHz" transceiver, from memory its a CC1101? It can receive and transmit from about 300MHz to 930MHz (with a few gaps in between). I've used my Flipper to sniff the signals for my wireless controlled projector screen, projector, and home theatre amp. I then used the data I sniffed to program an ESP32 with a CC1101 module attached, so I can roll down the screen and turn on the project and amp via wifi (with Homebridge and iOS Home app). I later sniffed my garage door opener, added that into the ESP32/CC1101 gadget. I needed to add a better antenna to make sure it reliably had range to get to the garage door, but it now works more reliably than the keychain fob, and I can use an "arrived home" automation to have the door open without me needing to stop the motorcycle and take off my gloves and get the key fob out of my pocket. I may replace this with an Arduino/CC1101 triggered by the hi beam switch. The Flipper Zero is a super useful tool when having ideas like this, but like most tools, it really does sit in the drawer most of the time. But I'm glad it's there, I don't regret a cent of it's purchase price.
deepspace 2y ago
I've had mine for a long time. I mostly use it to read and clone 125KHz RFID tags. I have a few ideas to make it more useful, but every time I try to get into developing an app, I get frustrated and give up. It is probably the worst codebase I have ever seen. Just walls of strangely named function calls with no code comments and no documentation whatsoever.
Jestzer 2y ago
I use it to automatically turn my older A/C off and on automatically while I’m not home. When I’m home, my wife and I use it as a universal remote around the house. Admittedly, it’s not what I originally bought it for (like others, I bought it as a toy), but now we depend on it for the former reason mentioned. If you want to see my lousy code I wrote, you can see it here: https://github.com/Jestzer/Flipper.AC/blob/main/ac_app.c https://github.com/Jestzer/Flipper.AC/blob/main/ac_app.c
elliotec 2y ago
That's exactly what happened to mine. They nerfed it real hard early on and killed almost all actual utility of it. You can still find earlier firmware versions that do the old thing but you have to hack the hell out of anything to make it useful.
- curiousgal 2y ago
  What are you referring to?
geocar 2y ago
I use shortcuts on my iphone set so that when carplay activates, or when I get close to home, it tells the flipper to send the gate and garage door codes to my house, so I can leave or get into my home without having to find the commando.
xeromal 2y ago
I use mine to operate my hotel cards lol and other random things like TVs and other appliances when traveling.
Fubwubs 2y ago
My neighborhood has a vehicle gate that is opened by an RF clicker, and a pedestrian gate opened by an RFID tag. I copied both of mine to my flipper. A couple months ago the coin cell battery in my clicker died, but I had my flipper! I also use the cloned RFID tag fairly regularly. There are two RFID tags in the house and more than two people using them, so I use my flipper for that too.
ChuckMcM 2y ago
At the moment it is in my office monitoring a temperature readout that is hosted by a web server and then turning on the ceiling fan if it gets > 80F and turns it off again if the temperature drops below 75F.
web3aj 2y ago
I use mine all the time as a all-in-one key fob and garage opener.
0xEF 2y ago
This is what happened to mine. I flashed Momentum, got Maurader and a wifi dev board, did the "all the pcaps!" thing for a bit, opened some garage doors, then used it to clock in at work for no reason. Then I went to go sell it and found out you can't list them on eBay or FB Marketplace. Not sure how to go about selling or trading one beyond those types of places, either, so I basically have a pricey dust collector in a drawer.
bhaney 2y ago
I use mine to get into my friend's apartment building (after cloning his key fob) so he doesn't need to come let me in. I would have expected the Flipper to be pretty good at that, but it manages to crash while emulating the key fob like a third of the time.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
vaibhavsagar 2y ago
I got one so that I could make copies of my apartment keyfob; I live alone and having a spare keycard that goes inside my phone case has saved me from locking myself out of my building multiple times. For me it's already paid for itself by ensuring my peace of mind. I've also used it to copy my gym tag (NFC), my parents' apartment keyfob (also NFC surprisingly), and multiple office access cards.

What are people doing with the Flipper? It seems neat, but I fear I would get one and then forever leave it in a drawer having never done anything real with the device.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

bangaladore 2y ago

For 99.99% of buyers, it's a toy. It will be played with briefly and discussed online for more. For a tiny portion there is a legitimate use, however I think its highly unlikely there isn't something that does that use for cheaper, and better.

edm0nd 2y ago

Mainly having fun w the IR blaster and also for NFC/RFID things.

supportengineer 2y ago

Tried to read my dog chip but couldn't find it.

kej 2y ago
It can take a lot of slowly moving the flipper around to get it to read a pet chip. Definitely not as straightforward as scanning your office's access card.
amorfusblob 2y ago
[flagged]
actionfromafar 2y ago
I'm sure your dog will come back when hungry.

a12k 2y ago

I was really excited to get mine! It is neat. I got it and it has been in my drawer almost exclusively. I have done exactly two things with mine: * Opened my friend's Tesla battery charge hatch from a distance for fun (it closes again on its own after maybe 30 seconds) * Recorded a lamp's IR remote on/off/up/down toggles and used the Flipper to turn on the lamp, rather than using the IR remote, to try to debug whether the remote was going bad or if there was a problem with the lamp (it was the lamp itself) And I tried, unsuccessfully, to: * Read my dog's microchip data Otherwise, I haven't found any use for it. I really wanted to like it. I did a search to see if there was anything interesting to do with it that I was missing, and basically it's what I did (or failed to do) above. Some people also use it to change TV channels at restaurants as a prank it looks like.

xvector 2y ago
Same experience here. I don't blame the Flipper, though, only my own lack of creativity and energy.
okdood64 2y ago
Do you know if I can emulate car keys with it? Say a relatively modern BMW? Or is there some safety mechanism. (Not for nefarious purposes, but just in case I can’t find my keys.)
- Rebelgecko 2y ago
  IIRC it's somewhat possible but for some cars if you do it wrong it makes the car and key go out of sync which causes a lot of issues
- dumah 2y ago
  Emulating the rolling code protocol would desync your keys. What ever device you’d want to use as a backup would need to capture information sent from the vehicle during the last unlock.
- obituary_latte 2y ago
  Not natively. There is other firmware out there, though, that allows such functionality. Depending on where you live, it may be illegal to even try, though, hence the native firmware locking out such use (you can record or visualize but not save/replay).

jmholla 2y ago

I use mine predominantly to write "programs" that control the TV. Namely, I've got a program that changes the brightness and volume of the TV then turns off the bedroom light at night. Then another program that undoes that.

microtherion 2y ago

My current practical use case is that I read our cat's microchip, so when a new device comes, instead of coaxing the cat into the device (e.g. smart cat flap), I just use the Flipper in emulation mode to train the device.

exe34 2y ago
idenkitty theft is no joke!
- microtherion 2y ago
  Yeah, I feel like a copycat when I do this.

pirates 2y ago

I use it as a store for all the amiibo data I might want, as well as a universal remote for my TVs and fan/light in the house. I also use it on the TVs and receivers at work when someone misplaces or loses the remotes, and keep a separate one in the car with a few garage codes for my parents and siblings houses. The wifi board is fun to play with to learn about how some of the more common/basic SSID spoofing and broadcast spam attacks and similar things work. There are some fun HID device attacks you can check out too that are pretty cool. I also used it as a jumping off point to dabble with programming in C and using gdb and stuff like that.

bigiain 2y ago
I've just got the wifi board. My initial use case is to see if I can send de-auth attacks to the Ring doorbells overlooking the road/sidewalk in the two new houses just up the street...

notinmykernel 2y ago

you can execute a suite of BLE, wifi, and IR attacks. You can target NFC and RFID. You can add scripts and boards to boost signal and functionality. You know, fun stuff.

schwartzworld 2y ago

It’s sort of like having a leatherman. You almost never NEED it but it feels great when you do. I clone all the remotes in my house for when my kids inevitably lose them.

renewiltord 2y ago

I make keyfobs for my friends' buildings. And I can turn off TVs at restaurants if they're distracting.

Aaronstotle 2y ago

Exactly what happened to mine, or it doubled as a second office badge

elliotec 2y ago
And with the latest firmware, can't even do the badge doubling :/
- stavros 2y ago
  Why not? What happened?

t-3 2y ago

I've used it to inspect RFID tags and such, but the feature I use most often is the infrared reader and universal remote features.

anfractuosity 2y ago

I keep meaning to play with the NFC/RFID API, I got a little eink price tag I'd like to try changing the display of via the flipper zero. I created a very simple attempt at an oscilloscope type program ( https://github.com/anfractuosity/flipperscope https://github.com/anfractuosity/flipperscope ).

bozhark 2y ago

Garage door opener

gosub100 2y ago
My apartment has RFID controlled gates. I think I'll get one to clone the card since they charge way too much for a replacement

rockbruno 2y ago

Fun way to learn how NFC / RFID works, not much other than that since all the cool things are also illegal

aftbit 2y ago

The only "real" thing I did with it was use it as an IR blaster and debug tool to remote control my window fan. Once I figured out the IR protocol, I replaced it with a $10 gizmo from Aliexpress that has an ESP32 hooked up to an IR LED. Otherwise, it's kinda fun for scanning credit cards, pet microchips, maybe the occasional NFC or RFID tag. It can clone most hotel keycards, at least to the level required to open your door, although the parking gates tend to use better security. It can also emulate an AirTag, at least on the bluetooth beacon side, which is kinda funny. But yes, mine mostly lives in a drawer.

A4ET8a8uTh0 2y ago
Ok, I am intruiged ( and I think wife has an airtag ). Did it work as expected:D?
- aftbit 2y ago
  I don't have an iPhone so I'm not 100% sure, but one of my friends who has two phones and two Flippers uses it from time to time. It seems trackable within a pretty short range but I don't really understand the value.

ajsnigrutin 2y ago

According to guys on reddit, turn on public TVs in malls so minimum wage workers have to spend a lot of time to find out who actually has the remote to turn it back on, they buy cases for them, new shells, and take photos of them.

squarefoot 2y ago
That would be a variant on the old TV-B-Gone prank gadget, which can be easily built with a minimum uC and a few parts, plus firmware. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV-B-Gone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV-B-Gone

tkems 2y ago

As someone in cybersecurity, it is handy as a low frequency RFID reader as Android phones only support higher frequency. Having something compact and in a single unit (compared to a Proxmark) makes it easier to 'grab-n-go'. It is neat to show people how insecure common access control systems are. I've also used it as a universal remote more than a few times on devices that didn't come with a remote. The App running on a phone makes it somewhat easy to transfer new remote templates to the Flipper over Bluetooth. It also comes in handy as a serial adapter as it has GPIO pins you can connect to things (UART headers). The RF transceiver is also cool to capture RF remotes (garage doors, overhead fans, etc.) and replay them.

waciki 2y ago
> The RF transceiver is also cool to capture RF remotes (garage doors, overhead fans, etc.) and replay them. Do you mean the non IR kind?
- ddingus 2y ago
  I am sure they did. Non IR kinds basically are RF (radio frequency) kinds.
- tkems 2y ago
  Yes, RF (radio frequency) remotes I've seen include my garage door opener, some overhead fans in bedrooms, gates, remote outlet/light controllers.
- bigiain 2y ago
  Yeah, the Flipper Zero has a "sub 1GHz" transceiver, from memory its a CC1101? It can receive and transmit from about 300MHz to 930MHz (with a few gaps in between). I've used my Flipper to sniff the signals for my wireless controlled projector screen, projector, and home theatre amp. I then used the data I sniffed to program an ESP32 with a CC1101 module attached, so I can roll down the screen and turn on the project and amp via wifi (with Homebridge and iOS Home app). I later sniffed my garage door opener, added that into the ESP32/CC1101 gadget. I needed to add a better antenna to make sure it reliably had range to get to the garage door, but it now works more reliably than the keychain fob, and I can use an "arrived home" automation to have the door open without me needing to stop the motorcycle and take off my gloves and get the key fob out of my pocket. I may replace this with an Arduino/CC1101 triggered by the hi beam switch. The Flipper Zero is a super useful tool when having ideas like this, but like most tools, it really does sit in the drawer most of the time. But I'm glad it's there, I don't regret a cent of it's purchase price.

deepspace 2y ago

I've had mine for a long time. I mostly use it to read and clone 125KHz RFID tags. I have a few ideas to make it more useful, but every time I try to get into developing an app, I get frustrated and give up. It is probably the worst codebase I have ever seen. Just walls of strangely named function calls with no code comments and no documentation whatsoever.

Jestzer 2y ago

I use it to automatically turn my older A/C off and on automatically while I’m not home. When I’m home, my wife and I use it as a universal remote around the house. Admittedly, it’s not what I originally bought it for (like others, I bought it as a toy), but now we depend on it for the former reason mentioned. If you want to see my lousy code I wrote, you can see it here: https://github.com/Jestzer/Flipper.AC/blob/main/ac_app.c https://github.com/Jestzer/Flipper.AC/blob/main/ac_app.c

elliotec 2y ago

That's exactly what happened to mine. They nerfed it real hard early on and killed almost all actual utility of it. You can still find earlier firmware versions that do the old thing but you have to hack the hell out of anything to make it useful.

curiousgal 2y ago
What are you referring to?

geocar 2y ago

I use shortcuts on my iphone set so that when carplay activates, or when I get close to home, it tells the flipper to send the gate and garage door codes to my house, so I can leave or get into my home without having to find the commando.

xeromal 2y ago

I use mine to operate my hotel cards lol and other random things like TVs and other appliances when traveling.

Fubwubs 2y ago

My neighborhood has a vehicle gate that is opened by an RF clicker, and a pedestrian gate opened by an RFID tag. I copied both of mine to my flipper. A couple months ago the coin cell battery in my clicker died, but I had my flipper! I also use the cloned RFID tag fairly regularly. There are two RFID tags in the house and more than two people using them, so I use my flipper for that too.

ChuckMcM 2y ago

At the moment it is in my office monitoring a temperature readout that is hosted by a web server and then turning on the ceiling fan if it gets > 80F and turns it off again if the temperature drops below 75F.

web3aj 2y ago

I use mine all the time as a all-in-one key fob and garage opener.

0xEF 2y ago

This is what happened to mine. I flashed Momentum, got Maurader and a wifi dev board, did the "all the pcaps!" thing for a bit, opened some garage doors, then used it to clock in at work for no reason. Then I went to go sell it and found out you can't list them on eBay or FB Marketplace. Not sure how to go about selling or trading one beyond those types of places, either, so I basically have a pricey dust collector in a drawer.

bhaney 2y ago

I use mine to get into my friend's apartment building (after cloning his key fob) so he doesn't need to come let me in. I would have expected the Flipper to be pretty good at that, but it manages to crash while emulating the key fob like a third of the time.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

vaibhavsagar 2y ago

I got one so that I could make copies of my apartment keyfob; I live alone and having a spare keycard that goes inside my phone case has saved me from locking myself out of my building multiple times. For me it's already paid for itself by ensuring my peace of mind. I've also used it to copy my gym tag (NFC), my parents' apartment keyfob (also NFC surprisingly), and multiple office access cards.