Portapack Mayhem V2.2.0

A new release of the famous Mayhem firmware for the HackRF + Portapack is out !

https://github.com/portapack-mayhem/mayhem-firmware/releases/tag/v2.2.0

We’re excited to share the latest updates in v2.2.0:

New Applications & Utilities:
– App Manager: A new settings app to manage which applications are visible in the menu.
– Detector: A new wide-band signal detector with a graphical RSSI history to help you find nearby transmitters.
– GFX EQ: A beautiful graphical audio equalizer for the WFM radio.
– Hopper: A powerful frequency hopping utility. Load a list of frequencies and transmit across them in various patterns.
– Level: The popular Level meter is back as an external app.
– Scanner: The frequency scanner is now an external app with improved performance.
– SD Card Wipe: The utility to securely wipe your SD card is now an external app.
– Stopwatch: A handy stopwatch and timer utility.
– WAV Viewer: The WAV file viewer and analyzer is now an external app.
– Antenna Length: The whip antenna calculator is now an external app.
– Playlist Editor: A new utility to create and edit .PPL replay playlists directly on the PortaPack.
– Debug PMem: A new debug utility to dump the contents of the persistent memory to the SD card.

New Games:
– Snake
– Tetris
– Breakout
– Doom
– Blackjack
– Battleship (POCSAG-based multiplayer)
– Space Invaders
– Dino Game (Chrome’s classic, now on your PortaPack!)

New Weather Satellite Decoders:
– WeFax Receiver: A dedicated app for receiving and decoding HF Weather Fax transmissions.
– NOAA APT Receiver: A dedicated app for receiving and decoding NOAA APT weather satellite images.

Enhancements & Improvements
– Analog Audio App:
New Demodulation Modes: Added AM-FM and WFM-AM modes specifically for decoding weather satellite transmissions (WeFax and NOAA APT).
Waterfall Zoom: Added a “ZOOM x2” feature in AM and AM-FM modes for a closer look at the spectrum.
Settings Saved: Your preferred AM mode and zoom factor are now saved and restored on startup.

– BLE RX App:
MAC Vendor Lookup: The app can now use the new MACADDRESS/macaddress.db file on your SD card to identify the manufacturer of BLE devices.
Improved Stability: Refactored to use the new asynchronous USB messaging system, improving stability and performance.
Better Channel Hopping: Channel hopping is now sequential (37-38-39) instead of random, ensuring more consistent discovery.
Accurate Power Reading: The reported dBm value now correctly accounts for LNA and VGA gain settings.
UI/UX: Improved error handling, keyboard entry modes, and list clearing.

– ADSB Receiver:
Enhanced Decoding: Now decodes more frame types (DF4, DF5, DF20, DF21) to extract Squawk codes, more accurate altitude, and callsigns.
True Airspeed (TAS): The app can now calculate and display True Airspeed (TAS) from Indicated Airspeed (IAS) and altitude data.
Improved Logging: Logs now include more detailed information like Squawk, SIL, and vertical rate.
Beep on Packet: Added an option to beep whenever a valid ADSB packet is received.

– Signal Generator (SigGen):
Major Overhaul: The SigGen app has been completely revamped with new modulation types, including BPSK, QPSK, DSB, AM (50% & 100% depth), and Pulsed CW. This makes it a much more versatile testing tool.
Improved UI: The user interface has been updated to logically group modulation and shape options.
File Manager:
Improved Navigation: The directory listing and pagination logic has been completely rewritten for a smoother and more intuitive experience.
Waterfall Gradient Installer: When you open a .txt file from the new WATERFALLS directory, you’ll be prompted to install it as the new default waterfall color scheme.

– Capture App:
Your settings for capture rate, file format, and auto-trim are now saved and restored automatically.
UI & UX Improvements
Customizable Waterfall Colors: The Looking Glass and Search apps now use a customizable color gradient. Create your own waterfall.txt file in the WATERFALLS directory on your SD card to change the look!
New “Dark” Theme: A new theme has been added for those who prefer a darker interface.

– New Settings Menus:
Display: Control the new “Fake Brightness” feature and set your screen type (TFT vs. IPS).
Button Speed: Adjust the repeat delay, repeat speed, and long-press delay for the physical buttons.
Responsive UI: Many applications and widgets now dynamically adjust their layout to better fit different screen resolutions.
Improved Keyboard: The on-screen keyboard now defaults to the most logical mode (Alpha, Numeric) depending on the context.
New Icons: Added a huge number of new icons for all the new apps and features.

Under the Hood & For Developers
– External App Architecture: The firmware now supports loading and running applications from the SD card. This is a fundamental architectural shift that allows for greater flexibility and expansion.
– Build System: The minimum required CMake version has been updated to 3.16.
– Code Refactoring: Many internal apps have been moved to the new external app system, cleaning up the main firmware codebase. The de_bruijn.cpp generator has been removed in favor of more modern methods.

SD Card Content

New Directories:
– WATERFALLS/: Place your custom waterfall color gradient files here (e.g., aurora.txt, flame.txt).
– HOPPER/: Store your frequency lists for the new Hopper app here.
– MACADDRESS/: Place the macaddress.db file here for the BLE RX vendor lookup feature.
– SUBGHZ/: For Flipper-compatible .sub files.

New Files:
– Added example files for the new WATERFALLS and HOPPER directories.
– Added macaddress.db for BLE vendor lookup.
– Cleaned Up: Removed old and unused FREQMAN files.

Don’t forget our various and usefull websites:

Mayhem HUB: https://hackrf.app/

Mayhem Main Repository: https://github.com/portapack-mayhem/mayhem-firmware

Mayhem Wiki: https://github.com/portapack-mayhem/mayhem-firmware/wiki

Mayhem User Provided Freqman Files: https://github.com/portapack-mayhem/mayhem-freqman-files

Mayhem MDK: https://github.com/portapack-mayhem/mayhem-mdk

Mayhem ESP32 Module: https://github.com/htotoo/ESP32-Portapack

Thanks to all the contributors on that release !!

#hackrf #portapack #mayhem

New portapack mayhem app, Level app !

Level app interface

The level app is as simple as possible and allow you to monitor available level meters in a single view.
There is a live graph of each RSSI values and power level.

Link to Documentation

Link to official Nightly build

or click to download compiled version at the time of the post (bin only)

#hackrf #portapack #mayhem #level-app

Edit: it’s the hundredth post of that blog, yay !

HackRF Portapack Mayhem Firmware, Search/Freqman evolution branch

On top of the existing ‘search and stay X seconds after a match’ the SearchApp have been updated with a ‘search and stay’ mode: stay while matching, leave after X seconds of inactivity, reset counters on activity during the wait. mode,
To use it just specify a negative value in the ‘wait’ field using the rotary encoder.

As some have some problems getting the bin back from discord, here you are:

The documentation is on the wiki, here:

https://github.com/GullCode/portapack-mayhem/wiki/Search

Github page:

https://github.com/GullCode/portapack-mayhem

Portapack firmware with Search App and updated Freqman files (based on latest next )

  • I’ve build an up to date firmware with the last updates from next and the last version from search app and freqman enhancements.
  • The Search app is in the ‘receive’ menu
  • The documentation is here : https://github.com/GullCode/portapack-mayhem/wiki/Search
  • -Freqman now do understand freq files with that format:
    f=468000000 f=468000000,d=Single Freq f=468000000,m=AM,d=Single Freq AM f=468000000,m=NFM,d=Single Freq NFM f=468000000,m=WFM,d=Single Freq WFM f=468000000,m=AM,b=DSB,d=Single Freq AM DSB f=468000000,m=AM,b=USB,d=Single Freq AM USB f=468000000,m=AM,b=LSB,d=Single Freq AM LSB a=87000000,b=110000000 a=87000000,b=110000000,m=AM,s=100KHz,d=AM radio search a=87000000,b=110000000,m=AM,b=DSB,s=250KHz,d=AM radio search LSB a=87000000,b=110000000,m=WFM,b=16k,s=50KHz,d=WFM radio search s=50KHz r=430150000,t=430550000 r=430150000,t=430550000,d=HAM radio r=430150000,t=430550000,m=AM,b=DSB,d=HAM radio
  • The freqman GUI have note been improved and may show partial results on new formatted lines
  • Description of the fields:
    f=freq for one frequency or a=start_frequency,b=end_frequency for a range
    m=modulation
    b=bandwidth
    s=step
    d=description
  • All fields except ‘f=freq’ or ‘a=freqA,b=freqB’ are mandatory. If nothing specified actual value is used.
  • As a reminder :
    -Most of the time if the Search app is not working as you expected it’s coming from a SDCARD problem.
    -You need a SDCARD for the Search app to save settings between runs and between settings menu / main gui, and you need a SEARCH folder at the root of it.
    -Don’t forget to check that by default the ‘input: load’ fields in ‘search app -> params -> more ‘ are all checked.
    -You HAVE to click save in ordre to save the settings.