Community Hacks

If you test one of these hacks yourself and it still works, it’s extra nice if you update the Last Tested On table for that particular hack and note any minor adjustments you may have had to make to the instructions to make it work with your particular Pwnagotchi setup. ❤️

• Screens
  • Waveshare 3.5” SPI TFT screen
• Software Mods
  • Static RDNIS gadget to avoid reconfiguration everytime you plug it to the computer
• Hardware Mods
  • Adding an external antenna to the RPi0W
  • RPi0W with Waveshare V2 “Slim-agotchi”

Screens

Waveshare 3.5” SPI TFT screen

Some of this guide will work with other framebuffer-based displays.

• First: SSH into your Pwnagotchi, and give it some internet!
  • Don’t forget to check your default gateway and apt-get update.
• Follow the guide here: www.waveshare.com/wiki/3.5inch_RPiLCD(A)#Method_1._Driver_installation
  • At the step with ./LCD35-show, add lite to the command prompt (e.g., ./LCD35-show lite).
• Reboot.
• As root, make three symlinks:
  • cd ~
  • ln -s pwnagotchi.png pwnagotchi_1.png
  • ln -s pwnagotchi.png pwnagotchi_2.png
  • ln -s pwnagotchi.png pwnagotchi_3.png
• apt install fbi
• Change display type to inky in config.toml
• Add modules-load=dwc2,g_ether to your kernel command line (/boot/cmdline.txt) or it will break!
• Also must add dtoverlay=dwc2 to the bottom of (/boot/config.txt)
• Edit /etc/rc.local and add: fbi -T 1 -a -noverbose -t 15 -cachemem 0 /root/pwnagotchi_1.png /root/pwnagotchi_2.png /root/pwnagotchi_3.png &
• Reboot.

And you should be good!

Software Modifications

Static RDNIS gadget to avoid reconfiguration everytime you plug it to the computer

You can execute these two commands and then each time you connect the pwnagotchi to your computer, the interface will be ready and configured:

export RDNIS=' g_ether.host_addr='$(dmesg | awk '/: HOST MAC/{print $NF}')' g_ether.dev_addr='$(dmesg | awk '/: MAC/{print $NF}')
sudo sed -i '$ s/$/ \'"$RDNIS"'/' /boot/cmdline.txt

Hardware Modifications

Adding an external wireless antenna to the RPi0W

Step-by-step guide to soldering an external antenna to your Pwnagotchi’s RPi0W. It can improve the signal by ~6-8 dB. (Please note: If you implement this, you will no longer be able to use the RPi0W’s built-in antenna.)

(Contributed by @Mastblast09.)

Parts needed:

• Connector (example)
• Coax cable (example)
• Antenna (example—but any SMA antenna should do the trick)

Tools needed:

• Soldering iron OR (if you have access to one, but not necessary) hot air rework station
• Solder
• Flux
• Magnifying device (having a stereo microscope is ideal, because the components are VERY small)
• Steady hands!

Please be aware that if you modify your Pi, you will invalidate its FCC certification (if that matters to you).

I used the following guide for the great images that they were able to take: briandorey.com/post/raspberry-pi-zero-w-external-antenna-mod

• WARNING: If you do not have soldering skills OR don’t have the correct tools for this mod, you will damage your Pi.
• This can be done very quickly with a hot air rework station, but not many folks will have a hot air rework station—so I did it with my soldering iron.
• You will need some sort of magnification device (whether a jewelers loupe or a stereo microscope) when it comes to the moving of the 0ohm resistor. It is VERY small.

RPi0W with Waveshare V2 “Slim-agotchi”

If you want to slim down the thickness of your RPi0W for a slim Pwnagotchi, it can be done by removing the 8-pin header on the board and slimming down the thickness of the screen. This hack involves removing the 8-pin header using a simple soldering iron and braid wick, then snipping header pins and inserting them through the RPi0W and soldering.

(Contributed by @Mastblast09.)

Tools needed:

• a soldering iron
• flux
• copper braid wick
• side cutter

Parts needed:

• a RPi0W
• a Waveshare V2 e-ink screen
• some kapton tape

Instructions:

1. Place some flux on the wick.

2. Place some flux on the connector pins.

3. Set your soldering iron to around 300˚ C; you want it hot enough to flow solder into the wick.

4. Place the wick above the pins and heat with the soldering iron.

5. When you get to the side pads, you can use a side cutter like this one if you need to cut the pins. (Sometimes these are difficult to remove because of the size and solder amount.)

6. When finished, your pads should look like this:

7. Apply some Kapton tape to the back to prevent any shorting and isolate the board:

8. Now it’s time to make some pins to use in your thruhole RPi0W. You can cut these headers and use the pins like this:

9. Finally, place the pins in the screen and set your RPi0W on top; then solder the pins onto the RPi0W.

10. And you’re finished!