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l5y.tech
l5y
@l5y.tech
35 followers 37 following 83 posts
security, privacy, peer2peer, operations. radio enthusiast.
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l5y.tech
Reading l33t newspapers. ☕ #1337
Two sections of a newspaper stacked in a way that you see the page numbers 13 and 37 forming "1337" and a cup of coffee in the background.
December 6, 2025 at 7:50 AM
l5y.tech
Just received today. #Meshtastic is headline topic in the German @makemagazin.de. Curious what they will find out.

* Outdoor comms without internet
* Open source, cheap, eavesdrop secure
* For tracking, chat, and sensor data
Photo of the front cover of the German Make magazin. Topic: Introduction to Meshtastic. It shows an offline paper map and various handheld radio devices.
November 26, 2025 at 11:29 AM
l5y.tech
Created a bootable #Archlinux DVD-ROM 202511 on my Thinkpad X220 - just in case!
Screenshot of an Archlinux terminal writing an iso file to a DVD using growisofs. An Archlinux DVD ejected from a Thinkpad X220 drive. You can see the disk titled archlinux_2025.11.01_x86_64 and sha256 checksum written on the disk. You can see also a slim case with handwritten label of all directories with date and size.
November 22, 2025 at 1:42 PM
l5y.tech
Labelled all cables 😌
Two dozen USB cables with colored labels indicating type and functionality of each labeled cable. Photo of a USB cable function identification table provided with the USB cable tester.
November 20, 2025 at 8:35 AM
l5y.tech
Finally added support rendering the power and environmental telemetry data in the frontend of potato-mesh #Meshtastic node dashboard.

github.com/l5yth/potato...
Screenshot of a Meshtastic node detail page rendering telemetry and environmental data such as battery level, channel utlization, or temperature and barometric pressure.
November 16, 2025 at 4:49 PM
l5y.tech
I got myself an USB tester to put an end to the cable mess. Now I can identify data or no data (D+/-)? Power or no power (VBUS)? USB-C power delivery or default (CC1/2)?

Also good to check for broken cables (GND, Shield, etc.)
A USB-tester PCB connected to a USB-C cable. The LEDs light up for shield, ground, power (VBUS), data (D+/-), and power delivery (CC1/2). A USB tester and many sorted cables in three stacks: power only, USB-A data, USB-C data. In the background a Thinkpad X220 running Archlinux.
November 16, 2025 at 1:28 PM
l5y.tech
What the actual ...

@signal.org just tricked me into believing they turned off my backups to channel me into a menu to enable their commercial cloud backups!??

Uploading my messages to the cloud??? Wtf

I'm so disappointed. At least add a button to this page that leads to the offline backups menu!
Screenshot of Signal app offering a free and a paid cloud backup plan, but no longer showing on-device backups. They are now hidden further down a settings menu.
November 14, 2025 at 7:39 AM
l5y.tech
New Portduino 868MHz node.

Raspberry Pi4B
Archlinux btw
Waveshare SX1268 LoRa hat
InnoMaker aluminum case
RAK 868MHz antenna
#Meshtastic 2.7.13 native
Photo of a Raspberry Pi in a large aluminum case that can fit a LoRa hat. On top you see an 868MHz antenna mounted, in the background a desktop with forest deskmat, keychron mechanical keyboard, and white bat audio playing on the screen. Close-up photo of the Raspberry Pi. You can see the wires and the LoRa hat inside and the bottom mount of the antenna.
November 12, 2025 at 4:53 PM
l5y.tech
I use a lock screen that takes a screenshot of my desktop and adds a blur for privacy reasons.

Apparently, running an #SDR on the device is hard to hide with a blur 😂
Photo of a Thinkpad X220. On the screen you can see a waterfall display of a software-defined radio listening to Meshtastic packages. A blurred lock screen is supposed to hide the details of the desktop but the used SDR prints out the frequency and the received packages in such a size that it is clearly visible as numbers and red horizontal lines on the waterfall.
November 11, 2025 at 11:33 AM
l5y.tech
Upgraded the #SteamDeck OLED from 512GB to 2TB. Since SteamOS is a full Archlinux, I didn't even need a computer to mirror and enhance the SSD. I just used a Thinkpad docking station and an M2 case to attach the SSD.
A SteamDeck with SteamOS in desktop mode, showing a terminal running a dd command to mirror the entire SSD. You can see a a lot of cables and power supplies in the periphery. A photo of a WD Black 2TB M2 SSD in a plastic case before being installed. A photo of an external M2 case with small display reading health and other metadata from the inserted SSD while copying the data. Underneath, a Thinkpad docking station and various books on my desk.
November 10, 2025 at 1:06 PM
l5y.tech
Turns out you can fit an optical drive in that cool slice docking station for the X220. So, I went ahead and installed GTA2 from CD-ROM as if it's 1999. 😌
A Thinkpad X220 docked in a slice docking station that has an optical drive which is open containing a disk that reads "GTA2." A photo of the screen, the caja file manager is open and mounted to run/media/GTA2 revealing installation files and autorun.exe A Thinkpad X220 in the dark only illuminated by its integrated top light. On the screen you can see the installation process of GTA2 on Archlinux.
November 7, 2025 at 9:24 PM
l5y.tech
Done.

www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/s...
November 2, 2025 at 5:41 PM
l5y.tech
I removed the proprietary BIOS from my new Thinkpad X220 and flashed #coreboot with SeaBIOS. I also neutralized the Intel Management Engine. Bonus: I had spare space on the firmware chip, so I also added Tetris and Doom which I can play now even without any operating system.
Booting the Thinkpad X220 now shows the coreboot logo splash screen instead of Lenovo's. The logo is a white rabbit running to the right on top of a coreboot wordmark on black background. Testing the new coreboot firmware. You can see the Thinkpad has a keyboard loosely attached for testing and the screen shows the SeaBIOS boot prompt. The Raspberry Pi 4B is sitting disconnected on the side. A Raspberry Pi 4B next to an open Thinkpad X220. It is connected directly to the BIOS chip with 8 jumper wires to allow flashing the firmware. An 8-pin SOIC clip directly attached to the Thinkpad X220 BIOS chip. It allows reading out the firmware with a Raspberry Pi.
November 2, 2025 at 12:06 PM
l5y.tech
Built my first federated app. Each new publicly hosted instace announces their existence, and if correctly configured, will be accepted into the mesh of the meshes ... already seeing eight instances in different regions.
October 19, 2025 at 3:38 PM
l5y.tech
"EVE Offline" (War for New Eden)

Hell of a Game 10/10
October 9, 2025 at 7:41 AM
l5y.tech
The modded Casio F-91W by N-O-D-E with inverted display and white backlight.
October 8, 2025 at 4:51 PM
l5y.tech
Added neighbor info to the meshtastic explorer dashboard. You can see the actual mesh now. Each line is a direct connection.
October 6, 2025 at 8:50 PM
l5y.tech
Demo gods were not with me but had a lot of inspiring conversations after.

homestead.social/@tbsprs@chao...
October 1, 2025 at 2:18 PM
l5y.tech
It's packed today! Coorganized by @dod.ngo.
September 28, 2025 at 2:28 PM
l5y.tech
I bought a #Thinkpad X220 (again) as if it was 2012. This is the rare version with USB3 and an Intel Core i7-2460M. It is also in a fairly good condition.

I'll max out the RAM to 16GB and add two SSDs to 512GB + 2TB. And I'll swap out the TFT screen with an LG IPS display.
September 27, 2025 at 5:43 PM
l5y.tech
I looked up the specs of the Waveshare SX1268 #LoRa hat which is intended to be mounted on a Raspberry Pi through a 2x20 pin header. I did some research and thought it would be feasible to map the pins to a 2x12 pin header of the Odroid H3+.
September 27, 2025 at 1:59 PM
l5y.tech
Charging the #meshtastic solar batteries to 100% before the winter hits. Let's see how long we can stay online.

RAK outdoor antenna 868/+5.8dbi
RAK surge protector (GND)
RAK WisMesh solar battery light
RAK WisMesh repeater
September 25, 2025 at 6:15 AM
l5y.tech
The RAK WisMesh Tag with keychain arrived today. It has a great form factor and works really great with #Meshtastic out of the box. Did some testing in the neighborhood.
September 18, 2025 at 9:36 AM
l5y.tech
I built a #meshtastic dashboard for local communities over the weekend. It has a chat and map view.
September 17, 2025 at 9:29 AM
l5y.tech
The incredible Berlin ICC opened for 49h this weekend. Designed like a spaceship, served as congress center for 20k people in the 1970s. Today, there is no plan or idea what to do with it. But it's so pretty.
Blue spiralling neon lights show the way to the conference room number 6. A 50 years old display showing remains of a program for conference room 5. Here, the neon lights are red and serve as orientation in the massive building. The centerpiece of the congress centrum is an installation where the red and blue neon lights meet. Here, seen from the café on the 2nd floor. The massive security booth near the entrance features one large desk and dozens of screens arrange like a bridge module on a spaceship.
September 14, 2025 at 3:23 PM