WavelensReady-made companion radios: Spotter and Full Spectrum
A companion radio gives Wavelens a second radio with a real antenna: it hears further than the phone, it picks its channels, and with an SDR it hears bands a phone can't hear at all. Every companion can still be built from the open guides. But not everyone wants to flash firmware, image an SD card and chase USB drivers, so you can now buy one ready to go.
What "ready to go" means
- Works out of the box. Flashed with the current firmware or bridge and tested before it ships. Plug it in, tap Find and Pair in Wavelens, and it's listening.
- Set up for your area. At checkout you tell us the city, state or province and country you'll use it in. We load the right local pack before it ships: local band names, the tyre-sensor and remote frequencies used there, and km/h or mph.
- No tools to install. No Python, PlatformIO, drivers or SD-card imaging.
- Tested together. In the full kit, every radio has its job assigned and is checked working with the others before it's boxed.
Two tiers
Updated 8 Nov 2026: the Spotter now ships in its enclosure, and the Raspberry Pi is sold as part of Full Spectrum rather than on its own.
Spotter: $64, cased, shipped free in the US
A pre-programmed ESP32 in a black enclosure, with a low-profile stealth antenna. The antenna mod swaps the tiny antenna printed on the board for an external one, so it hears Wi-Fi and Bluetooth further out than a phone in your pocket, where your body and the car soak up the signal. It parks on the channels body cams and in-car hotspots use, and runs off any USB port.
Full Spectrum (recommended): $499
Everything: a pre-programmed Raspberry Pi 4 that decodes tyre sensors, key fobs and remotes by name and runs the scanner and trunking, two RTL-SDRs (one for sensors, one for the scanner), each with its own antenna, and the ESP32. All of it set up and tested together, so the phone, the Pi and the ESP32 listen at once, from sub-GHz to 5 GHz.
Add-ons
- Protective cases. Each checkout offers the case for what you're buying: Raspberry Pi case with heatsinks and a quiet fan, $25; padded RTL-SDR sleeve, $12. The Spotter already comes in its enclosure. The full kit offers one case set for $99: all of those plus a hard carry case with cut foam for the whole rig.
- Directional antenna for the RTL-SDR, $59. A 9-element Yagi on an SMA lead with a bracket. It points the scanner dongle one way and adds gain there: a fixed plate reader or hotspot becomes audible blocks sooner, and you hear less to the sides. Best parked, at home, or roof-mounted facing forward.
- Car roof antenna kit, $49. A wideband mag-mount antenna on a 3 m SMA lead, and a free tube of silicone sealant for the cable entry. SMA fits the RTL-SDR, a HackRF and any receiver with the same socket; the Spotter uses its u.FL pigtail. On the roof is where any antenna hears furthest.
- USB extension cables: 1 m $8, 2 m $10, 3 m $12. Data cables, so a dongle or the ESP32 can sit by its antenna and away from the Pi.
- Extra RTL-SDR, $40, antenna included, on its own for a Pi you already have.
Ordering and shipping
Checkout is by Stripe. Shipping is free in the US and $25 flat everywhere else, already included in the outside-US prices. See the shop, or the details on the companion page.
Everything we sell is for listening: it hears radio around you and talks only to your phone over Bluetooth. Wavelens itself still has no internet permission. Please follow the laws where you use it.
Rather build your own?
The firmware, the Pi bridge and the protocol stay open. Programming the ESP32 and the Raspberry Pi setup walk through it step by step.
Order it today, drive with it this week
Every unit is flashed, set up for the area you give at checkout and tested before it ships. Free shipping in the US, $25 flat everywhere else, updates free for life. The Spotter ships cased; Full Spectrum is the whole car in one box.
Shop companion radios Join the free Android beta
Open firmware and bridge on GitHub · receive only · every command on this blog is copied from a Pi we run