Switching Firmwares Easily On Flipper Zero (2024)

Now I can try out quick builds of various projects and bring it around to test it with no issue, before committing to a design and making it permanent. Here are more examples using this quick prototype module.

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It just cost me a few bucks for the parts and I think it’s time well spent. If you wish to make one yourself, here’s a quick guide below.

Here are the stuff you will need for this project: An 8cm x 6cm double sided prototype board, a 400 hole breadboard, some 25mm male and female header pins, some jumper wires and an AMS1117 5v to 3.3v step down power supply buck. These can be found in Aliexpress, Amazon, Lazada, etc.

First, cut away the connectors on the side of the breadboard just to give it a cleaner look.

Next is to cut the female header pins to the right length, or you can just get the right sizes of the shelf. You need one with 8 pins and another one with 10 pins.

Next, we need to cut the male header pins to length. Again, we need one with 8 pins and one with 10 pins. After that, stick the header pins all the way into a breadboard, then use a ruler/screwdriver to slowly push the plastic thingy holding the pins down until it touches the breadboard.

Use a masking tape to mark the pin at 5mm above the plastic thingy. This is the line where you will bend the pins.

Now use a plier to bend the pins 90 degrees, then cut the pins shorter like below. You can cut the pins after soldering it on to the board, but I find it easier to cut it before.

Next, we work on the power supply step down module. You need to remove the plastic thingy from the pins. Just use a cutter to trim it off, then bend the pins straight.

Now you can solder the male header pins to the prototype board like below. You can also see how the female header pins should be placed on the board.

Bend the legs of the female header pins so that they lean towards the solder points of the male header pins, then solder each corresponding pin to bridge them together.

Now go ahead and also solder the power supply module and wire them accordingly. Note that I also cut a 2 pin female header and I wired both to the 3.3V VOUT from the power supply module.

That’s it! You’re done, and now you have a nifty quick prototyping module for your Flipper Zero that will make your experimenting a lot more enjoyable.

Oh, and just one more thing … I designed and printed some stickers to label the pins on the module. This makes it a lot less likely that you will stick the connections in the wrong holes. You can download the PDF for the stickers here.

Tiktokers and YouTubers doing stupid pranks with Flipper Zero and sensationalising it on social media is giving FZ a bad rap and screwing the rest of us …

BME280 -> Flipper Zero
VIN -> 3.3V (Pin 9)
GND -> GND (Pin 8/11/18)
SCL -> Pin 15
SDA -> Pin 16

Now, we can go ahead and run the Temp Sensors Reader app on Flipper Zero under GPIO category. You can learn more about this app on their Github. Note that where this app is placed on Flipper depends on which firmware you are running. If you don’t have the app, you can always install it.

That’s all there is to it. You can breathe on the sensor to see the temperature and humidity spike up.

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• Unleashed Firmware
• Xtreme Firmware
• RogueMaster

These third party firmwares can have different user interface design, different bundled apps, animations, etc. Generally speaking, they will be a little more complicated than the stock firmware as they are adding more functionality.

Now would be a good time to make a backup of your Flipper Zero micro SD card. If anything bad happens, you can always flash your original firmware again and restore your micro SD card contents and you will be back to where you were, so this is a pretty safe thing to do.

In general, the process to install a new third party firmware is to download the latest firmware from the Github page of that firmware, connect your Flipper Zero to your computer, run qFlipper and use it to install from the file you downloaded. This is the same process regardless of which firmware you choose. There are other ways to do this, but this is probably the most straight forward.

I will go thru the example of installing RogueMaster firmware below, but it’s the same for all the others.

The Steps

First, go to the Github page of the firmware you wish to install. The links are provided above. Now scroll down a bit and look on the right side of the page, you will see a “Releases” section. Click on the latest release. In the next page, you can read thru the list of changes in this version and other information about this firmware. Some firmware might release several variants of the same version, like whether you want the extra apps or animations and such. Scroll down to the “Assets” section and download the .tgz file of the variant you want. In the screenshot below, I chose the RogueMaster firmware that includes all the animations.

You should now see the qFlipper app go through the update process and your Flipper Zero will show that as well. The screen on your Flipper Zero might flash a few times during this process and that’s perfectly normal.

Once the qFlipper app is done uploading the firmware into your Flipper Zero, you still need to wait for your Flipper Zero to complete its part of the process, so don’t disconnect your Flipper Zero just yet, until you see the success screen on your Flipper Zero.

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Here’s another quick and fun build that only cost me like a dollar. It turns your Flipper Zero into an air mouse. You can get the BMI160 module from places like Aliexpress, etc.

All that is needed is to hookup 4 connections from the module to Flipper Zero. I soldered header pins to a prototype board that was cut to the required size, soldered header pins to the BMI160 module, and wired them accordingly. See below for the wiring guide. You can check out this video for step by step instructions and here’s another useful reference.

When completed, it plugs neatly on the Flipper Zero.

Here is a video of me testing out the air mouse. It works fairly decently, though scrolling is a tad too slow.

Build Steps

Start by cutting the prototype board to the required size and the header pins to the correct lengths (8 & 10 pins). Adjust the position of the plastic thingy holding the male header pins, then bend the pins.

After that, we solder all the header pins to the prototype board and also start soldering the required wires. See the references at the end of this post for all the wiring you need to do to connect the necessary pins.

I used four DPDT switches to switch between the 2 modules. All the required connections from Flipper goes to the switches, then from the 2 poles of the switches to the 2 modules. The same with the antenna as well, as I didn’t want to have 2 separate antennas.

Now is a good time to use a multimeter to check all the connections are good and that there no shorts.

Lastly, we use hot glue to hold the antenna cables securely to the prototype board. Here’s what the completed module looks like.

Now we just need to attach the antennas and insert the ESP32 Cam and ESP8266 modules. Oh, and if you have not mod your D1 Mini to use an external antenna, read this. Flash all the required firmware and test!

Next project, designing and 3D printing a case for this module.

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Useful Reference

• esp8266_deauther
• Flipper Tutorial ESP8266 Deauther v2
• ESP32Marauder
• flipperzero-mayhem
• Flipper Zero ESP32 CAM Camera Module
• Flipper-Zero-Camera-Suite

I have compiled a list of useful Flipper Zero links for anyone who is getting started. You can download the file here. This was prepared for members of Flipper Hackers Collective Facebook group, but I thought others might find it useful as well.

Soldered some LEDs together for the spotlights on top of the truck. I used some LEDs that I had lying around, which are not very bright. Will need to get some brighter LEDs and do this again … Haha

I just soldered the LEDs together directly, using the long legs of the LED to hold them in its position, then connect them to a battery pack that holds a CR2032. 3mm LEDs were used.

This fits into the holes behind the spotlight neatly.