wavelens.local:8080 — the Scanner's admin page, for Wi-Fi, logs, settings and updates from your phone

3 Nov 2026 · 5 min read · Scanner · Raspberry Pi · Admin · Wi-Fi · Updates

Until today, anything beyond pairing a Scanner meant SSH. Most people who buy one will never open a terminal, and they shouldn't have to. So the Pi now runs a small admin page alongside the bridge. It is plain Python, no framework, started by systemd with the bridge, and it listens only on the Pi's own network interfaces.

Opening it

On a phone or laptop on the same Wi-Fi as the Pi, go to http://wavelens.local:8080. If your phone can't resolve .local names (some Androids can't), the Companion screen in the app shows the Pi's address in the hardware line, like admin http://192.168.1.42:8080. The first visit asks you to set a password; after that it's a login.

What's on it

• Status — the version, whether the bridge is running and for how long, whether a phone is connected, the hardware line (which dongles, which roles, a HackRF if there is one, anything missing), the Pi's temperature, disk and uptime, and a banner when an update is waiting.
• Logs — the bridge's journal, live, with the high-volume lines filtered out and a download of the last five thousand. This is the page to open when something doesn't lock on.
• Settings — the radio's advertised name and the bridge flags from /etc/default/wavelens-bridge (RadioReference packs, counties, trunk timers), with the comments from that file as help. Saving restarts the bridge.
• Update — Check, Install, Roll back, each with its log streaming onto the page, and a switch for automatic overnight updates. See the updates post.
• Wi-Fi — the networks the Pi can see, join one, forget one, rename the Pi (which changes the .local address).
• Spotter — plug a Spotter into the Pi's USB and flash it with the firmware the Pi already has, download the latest, or upload a .bin of your own.
• Power — restart the bridge, reboot, shut down, each behind a confirmation.

What it is and isn't

It is a page on your local network, with a password, over plain HTTP. It is not reachable from the internet unless you go out of your way to forward a port, which you shouldn't. The one thing that travels unencrypted is the Wi-Fi password you type into the Wi-Fi tab, so do that on your home network rather than a café's. Forgot the password? sudo wavelens-admin --reset-password at the console, or delete /etc/wavelens/admin.json on the SD card.

Every Scanner we ship from today has it installed and the hostname set to wavelens. On a Pi you built yourself, companion/pi/install-service.sh installs it together with the bridge and the updater; the doc is companion/pi/ADMIN.md.

Next: Build log, 3 November: updates for life, an admin page, corrections that teach the app, and P25 for very little money · all articles