Pocket Prowler Manual

01

What It Is

PocketProwler turns a LilyGO T-Display C5 into a handheld WiFi and BLE field scanner with a built-in screen, two top buttons, and battery readout.

WiFi view shows SSID, RSSI, channel, band, security, and crowding hints.

Battery voltage and percentage stay visible in the WiFi view header for field checks.

BLE view shows nearby advertisements, names when available, signal, address details, and manufacturer data.

02

Install Firmware

The easiest path is the release image. It includes the bootloader, partition table, and app, so fresh installs and updates both flash at offset 0x0.

No-build flashing

pip install --upgrade esptool
esptool.py --chip esp32c5 --port /dev/ttyACM0 write_flash 0x0 firmware.factory.bin

Step	Action
1	Download `firmware.factory.bin` from the latest GitHub release.
2	Connect the LilyGO T-Display C5 with USB-C.
3	Run the flash command using your serial port. On Windows it may look like `COM5`.
4	If upload does not start, hold BOOT, tap RST, release RST, then release BOOT.

For development builds, use pio run, pio run --target upload, and pio device monitor from the project folder.

03

Button Map

Two top buttons control everything. The selected row wraps back to the first item when you reach the end of a list.

Control	WiFi Mode	BLE Mode
Tap upper	Select next access point	Select next BLE device
Tap lower	Cycle RSSI history, BSSID detail, and full AP list	Cycle RSSI history, address detail, manufacturer data, and full BLE list
Tap both	No action	Toggle passive or active BLE scanning
Hold both for about 700 ms	Switch to BLE mode	Switch to WiFi mode

04

WiFi Scan

WiFi mode is the startup view. It passively scans nearby access points and keeps the screen focused on the strongest and selected networks.

Field	Meaning
SSID	Network name, or a hidden-network marker when the name is not advertised.
RSSI	Signal strength in dBm. Less negative values are stronger.
Channel / band	Radio channel and 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz band when available.
Security	Open, WPA, WPA2, WPA3, or mixed security labels.
BSSID count	Same-channel crowding hint used instead of unreliable raw bandwidth data.

Tap lower button once for the RSSI graph, again for BSSID detail, and again for the full access-point list.

Changing the selected access point clears the old RSSI history so the graph can refill for the new BSSID.

05

Bluetooth Scan

BLE mode listens for nearby advertisements from phones, watches, earbuds, sensors, tags, smart-home devices, and other small broadcasters.

Field	Meaning
Name	Advertised device name, when a device chooses to share one.
Address	BLE address. Some devices rotate this for privacy.
Address type	Public, random, public identity, or random identity.
Seen	Age of the most recent advertisement.
Manufacturer data	Vendor-specific advertisement bytes, shown as a company hint plus length when recognized.
Service UUID	First advertised service UUID, with a count when more are present.

Passive scan listens quietly. Active scan asks for scan-response data and may reveal names that passive scan misses.

BLE devices stay visible for about 60 seconds after their last advertisement, which keeps intermittent devices from flickering away too quickly.

06

Read Signal

Signal strength is useful for rough proximity, not exact distance. Walls, antenna orientation, body blocking, and device transmit power all change the reading.

RSSI Range	Field Reading	Practical Use
-30 to -50 dBm	Very strong	Likely nearby or line-of-sight.
-51 to -67 dBm	Strong	Good quality signal for most scanning and identification work.
-68 to -80 dBm	Moderate	Usable, but movement and obstacles may matter.
Below -80 dBm	Weak	Farther away, blocked, or low-power broadcaster.

Use the RSSI history view when walking around. The trend is often more useful than one instant reading.

07

Battery

PocketProwler reads the AXP2602 PMU for voltage, current, and state of charge. Voltage is the best quick truth check when charging or near full.

Voltage	Meaning
4.18 V to 4.20 V	Effectively full.
4.16 V to 4.17 V	Very close to full.
4.10 V	High, but still charging.
4.04 V to 4.05 V	Not full. Try a different cable, charger, or port if it stays here while plugged in.
3.40 V to 3.50 V	Low enough for a battery learning-cycle discharge target.

The lightning bolt appears only when measured charge current is above the firmware threshold.

Small one-percent changes are intentionally smoothed so the header does not flicker while scanning.

08

Case And Ports

The optional printed case adds room for an internal LiPo, power switch, and button caps while keeping the USB-C port available.

Connector	Pins	Good For
Left near USB-C	GND, 5V, 3V3, TXD, RXD	UART devices such as GPS, serial sensors, or test readers.
Right near USB-C	GND, 3V3, SDA, SCL	I2C sensors such as BME280, SHT31, BMP280, BH1750, SGP30, SCD40/SCD41, RTC modules, and Qwiic or Stemma QT boards.

GPIO logic is 3.3 V. Do not feed 5 V signals into ESP32-C5 GPIO pins.

Exploded render of the LilyGO T-Display C5 case

Case Downloads

Print the PocketProwler enclosure with room for the board, internal LiPo, power switch, and control buttons.

MakerWorld Printables Thingiverse

09

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Try This
Upload will not start	Use the BOOT and RST sequence, then retry upload.
No BLE names	Switch BLE to active scan. Some devices still stay unnamed by design.
Battery percent looks stuck	Watch voltage instead. Percent is smoothed to avoid flicker.
Weak or jumpy RSSI	Move slowly, rotate the scanner, and compare the trend over several samples.
Serial output needed	Run `pio device monitor` at `115200` baud.

For firmware work, pin definitions live in include/pin_config.h and the main app logic lives in src/main.cpp.