RF Sentinel 2.28.0

RF Sentinel 2.28.0

New: Sentinel Link - phones that share

• Link RF Sentinel phones near each other over Bluetooth: each one shows the same devices on its list, radar and map, whichever phone heard them first, including what any phone's ESP32 board, USB WiFi adapter or RTL-SDR picks up.
• A device another phone heard is marked VIA with that phone's name, its alerts say "via NAME", and the new Sentinels filter chip shows only those.
• To link: Settings > Sentinel Link > Open Sentinel Link. Tap Link up a Sentinel on one phone and Join a Sentinel on the other, check that both show the same 6-digit code, and tap Confirm on both. Linked phones then share while they scan, and find each other again by themselves.
• Encrypted (key agreed through the 6-digit code), no internet. The phones' Bluetooth adverts only carry a changing tag that means nothing without the group's key.

New: Sentinel Link over Meshtastic (not yet tested on real hardware)

• Phones too far apart for Bluetooth can share through Meshtastic LoRa nodes (official firmware, e.g. Heltec V3, T-Beam, XIAO ESP32S3 + Wio-SX1262), one paired with each phone.
• In Sentinel Link > Meshtastic node: turn on Use a Meshtastic node and pick yours (PIN on the node's screen, or 123456). RF Sentinel adds a private RFSentinel channel to the node, keyed from your group, so only your group reads it.
• LoRa is slow: each packet carries the phone's position once and a few devices, watchlist matches first, then flagged devices, then everything else. One packet a minute by default (15 s to 5 min).
• This part follows Meshtastic's phone API and passes its tests, but hasn't been tried with a real node yet. Reports are welcome.

New: snapshots

• Menu > Save snapshot keeps the device list exactly as shown. Look at it again later in History > Snapshots (beside the recorded traces), on the map, or export it.

Driving

• Record a trace in the car (Settings > Auto-start): a GPS trace from the moment the phone connects to your car until you leave, saved by itself.

Lists and watchlist

• Watchlist prefix rules: a slider picks the prefix length, from 24 to 44 bits.
• WiFi devices can leave the list after only 5 s when scan throttling is off, and devices heard only by external hardware have their own list time.
• RTL-SDR and HackRF transmissions show on the radar too.
• Location is off warning: Android gives apps no Bluetooth or WiFi results while Location is off, so the main screen now says so and opens the setting when tapped.

Fixes

• The flagged chip no longer changes size when it turns red.
• The Bluetooth scan restarts when it doesn't resume by itself after the screen comes on.

Which file?

• RFSentinel-v2.28.0-release.apk: the normal build (about 50 MB).
• RFSentinel-v2.28.0-foss.apk: free software only (about 28 MB).

Either file replaces the other, and your history and settings are kept. Detection only: RF Sentinel never transmits to the devices it detects; Sentinel Link sends encrypted messages to your own linked phones and Meshtastic node, only when you set it up.

RF Sentinel 2.27.0

RF Sentinel 2.27.0

New: whitelist WiFi networks by name

• Menu > Whitelist now has a Network names section: Name starts with, Name contains or Exact name. Handy for a router that is on every bus of a fleet, with a new address on each one.
• Networks whose name matches are treated like a whitelisted device: shown as trusted, never flagged, logged or alerted on. Other devices of the same make still alert as before.
• A WiFi device's Whitelist button also offers every network whose name starts like its own (you can shorten the start). Tap a rule to edit it; Remove has Undo.
• Hidden networks (no name) can't be matched by name.

New: sightings map

• On a device's page, a map of every spot that device was heard, joined in time order for each encounter.

Radio signals

• On a radio signal's page, Locate opens the waterfall tuned to its frequency so you can follow the strongest signal, and Watch this frequency adds it to the frequencies to watch. (#6)

Maps

• The main screen's map and the full screen map share their view (place, zoom, heading, tilt, following you), the place card and routes.
• Cameras and CCTV load faster: what's on screen and around you downloads first, and cameras already shown stay on the map while a new download runs.
• CCTV shows again at once when you zoom back in.

Fixes

• The History map no longer crashes every time on some phones.

Which file?

• RFSentinel-v2.27.0-release.apk: the normal build (about 50 MB).
• RFSentinel-v2.27.0-foss.apk: free software only (about 28 MB).

Either file replaces the other, and your history and settings are kept. Detection only: RF Sentinel never transmits.

RF Sentinel 2.26.0

RF Sentinel 2.26.0

New: I saw it

• On a device's page, tap I saw it and say what it is (e.g. "pole camera on the bridge"). RF Sentinel adds it to your watchlist with its exact address and, when it has one, its Bluetooth advert pattern or WiFi probe fingerprint, so you're alerted next time even after it changes to a new random address.
• Patterns that many nearby devices share are refused, since they would match them all. A learned pattern only ever counts as probable, never strong.
• Rename and Add note still just label the device for you; I saw it is what makes the app watch for it.

New: live radio waterfall

• Tools > Radio waterfall, with an RTL-SDR or HackRF plugged in: a live picture of the watched radio bands, one row per sweep, while detection carries on.
• Tap a signal (or Tune to a frequency) to zoom in on about 2 MHz around it in real time. Radio detection pauses while zoomed in, until Back to sweep or you leave the screen. It keeps the zoom when you rotate the phone.
• Receive only, signal strength only: nothing is decoded.

New: probe-rate clue

• With a USB WiFi adapter, a device that probes non-stop from one fixed address backs up a fixed-camera match (the FlipDeFlock behaviour). The device page shows the rate.

Watchlist

• "Name starts with" rules for device names and WiFi network names.
• Search your rules, export the watchlist from its menu, and Undo right after adding or changing a rule.

Match history and screens

• Match history (Menu > History) has a search box (address, label, maker, name or evidence) and chips for Today and each kind of equipment.
• When a filter on the main screen shows nothing, a Show all button brings everything back.
• If Android stops asking for a permission the scan needs, the app offers to open its settings page.
• Settings search hides every setting that doesn't match.
• One text scale, themed secondary text, Material dialogs, Undo after removals, same-size filter chips, and Locate / Watchlist buttons on the device page.

Fixes and smaller changes

• Snooze silences sound and voice only; alerts still show on screen.
• One device heard again no longer counts twice towards a Bluetooth spam flood alert.
• Drone (Remote ID), OUI-Spy and aircraft positions off the globe or at 0,0 are dropped instead of drawn.
• WiFi probe fingerprints no longer change with the frame checksum some adapters keep.
• ESP32 board text with accented or other multi-byte characters split across reads now comes through intact.
• Device history files saved with a byte-order mark import again.
• An odd entry in a Waze reply skips only that entry.
• Memory: long traces let devices that went quiet go, history export streams to the file, and several caches are now bounded.
• Turning Bluetooth off stops Bluetooth scanning; network location no longer overrides GPS; the last part of a trip is no longer lost when scanning stops.

Which file?

• RFSentinel-v2.26.0-release.apk: the normal build (about 50 MB).
• RFSentinel-v2.26.0-foss.apk: free software only (about 28 MB).

Either file replaces the other, and your history and settings are kept. Detection only: RF Sentinel never transmits.

RF Sentinel 2.25.2

RF Sentinel 2.25.2

New: TETRA radios

• With an RTL-SDR or HackRF plugged in, RF Sentinel watches the TETRA handset band (380-385 MHz) used by emergency services in Europe and many other countries. A handset that is transmitting nearby is recognised by its time-slot bursts. Nothing is decoded: only signal strength and burst timing are used.
• On by default where TETRA is the emergency-services radio (EU/EEA, UK, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland). Switch it under Settings > RTL-SDR radio > Detect TETRA radios.

New: HackRF One

• A HackRF One now works as the radio detector, like an RTL-SDR. Receive only: its amplifier and antenna power stay off, and it never transmits.

Snooze like a radar detector

• The speaker button at the top of the main screen is always there now (it no longer hides in the ⋮ menu).
• Tap it to silence alerts for a while, tap again for sound. The minutes left show on the button.
• Long-press for 5, 10, 15, 30 or 60 minutes, or to mute until you turn the sound back on.
• Set the length under Settings > Alerts > Snooze length (30 minutes unless you change it). The Mute button on alert notifications and the snooze in the car use the same length.

Fixes and smaller changes

• Trip distances follow your units: the recording banner on the map, the saved trace, the Traces list, and aircraft and drone details now show miles when set to imperial.
• The full-screen map keeps the heading, zoom and follow mode of the map on the main screen instead of turning north.
• The recording banner and scan warnings can be hidden with ✕.
• Fewer "Bluetooth scan restarted" stalls: no restart on repeated start commands, which ran into Android's limit of 5 scans in 30 seconds.
• A VeryFit IDW26 watch, which uses TASER's Bluetooth ID, no longer shows as Axon gear.
• "No signal" readings no longer log as +127 dBm.
• The FOSS build is now reproducible: F-Droid's build of it matches ours byte for byte.

Which file?

• RFSentinel-v2.25.2-release.apk: the normal build (about 50 MB).
• RFSentinel-v2.25.2-foss.apk: free software only (about 28 MB).

Either file replaces the other, and your history and settings are kept. Detection only: RF Sentinel never transmits.

RF Sentinel 2.25.1

RF Sentinel 2.25.1

Fix: fewer false patrol-vehicle alerts

• A label printer (Zebra, Brother) and a cellular router (Cradlepoint, Sierra Wireless, and others) seen together, as in a stockroom or a delivery van, no longer read as a possible police vehicle. Thanks to @Sid3b00m for the report (#3).
• Printers now only add to a group, like breath-screening devices and remote-starter modules. A two-way radio or a vehicle router needs the other one, or a police-specific role such as a body camera, plate reader, police radar or lightbar.
• A radio together with a router still forms a group, as before, and a printer seen with them adds to its score.

Which file?

• RFSentinel-v2.25.1-release.apk: the normal build (about 50 MB).
• RFSentinel-v2.25.1-foss.apk: free software only (about 28 MB).

Either file replaces the other, and your history and settings are kept. Detection only: RF Sentinel never transmits.

RF Sentinel 2.25.0

RF Sentinel 2.25.0

New: a visual style

• Nine screens get a visual style with counts, dials and charts: the main screen, device details, satellites, cell towers, Waze status, aircraft, recorded traces and more. The list style is still there: switch per screen from its menu.
• Main screen: the device counts sit on the filter chips (All, Flagged, Bluetooth, WiFi and Cells first), and the external hardware folds into one thin strip you can tap open.
• Themes with a banner tuck it under a see-through title bar. The doubled title is gone, but the shell text stays on DedSec and fsociety.

Aircraft

• New Aircraft filter chip. Police aircraft show in the main list, and every aircraft shows under the chip.
• On the map, the Aircraft filter zooms out to show every plane clearly.
• The main screen and the map now share one filter.
• Radar labels show each plane's distance and altitude, and no longer overlap.

Your own names and notes

• Rename starred navigation places with the pencil beside their star, in search or on the map's place card.
• On a device's page, Rename gives it your own name, shown in the list, on the map and in history. Add note keeps a note with it.
• Named or noted devices are kept when old history is cleaned up. Both come along in history export and import.

Fixes

• RTL-SDR: unplugging the dongle clears its status, and plugging it back in starts it again without restarting the app.
• OUI-SPY over Bluetooth: Pair OUI-SPY board now looks for the board's Bluetooth service itself, so scanning needn't be running. If no board is found, it lists what to check.
• Antenna check: chain bars, difference and history lines, and an automatic strongest-network reference.
• Waze "only ahead" stays quiet while there's no driving direction yet. The map's CCTV "zoom in" banner is gone, and the Mapbox credit line is tidier.

Which file?

• RFSentinel-v2.25.0-release.apk: the normal build (about 50 MB).
• RFSentinel-v2.25.0-foss.apk: free software only (about 28 MB). The map is always OpenFreeMap.

Either file replaces the other, and your history and settings are kept. ARM phones, 64-bit and 32-bit. Detection only: RF Sentinel never transmits.

RF Sentinel 2.24.0

RF Sentinel 2.24.0

New: a FOSS build

• RFSentinel-v2.24.0-foss.apk (about 28 MB) contains only free software, for F-Droid and anyone who wants that. The map is always OpenFreeMap; the optional Mapbox map stays in the normal build. Either file replaces the other, history and settings kept.
• In the FOSS build, the RT3070, MT7612U, MT7921AU and RTL8812BU / 8822BU USB WiFi adapters ask before downloading their maker's (non-free) firmware once from the Linux firmware repository on kernel.org, checked against a fixed fingerprint. The other adapters and the RTL-SDR need nothing.
• The in-app updater keeps each build on its own APK, and leaves a copy installed from F-Droid to F-Droid.

Which file?

• -release.apk: the normal build (about 50 MB), as before.
• -foss.apk: free software only.

ARM phones, 64-bit and 32-bit. Detection only: RF Sentinel never transmits.

RF Sentinel 2.23.0

RF Sentinel 2.23.0

New

• ADS-B aircraft receiver: an RTL-SDR on 1090 MHz decodes the aircraft around you itself (position, altitude, speed, call sign), with no internet. Police aircraft go through the same checks as the online feeds, show on the map and in Android Auto. Settings › RTL-SDR radio.
• Online aircraft feeds can be turned off, so police aircraft come only from your RTL-SDR and nothing leaves the phone.
• Camera direction cones: plate, speed and red-light cameras show which way they face. A camera facing across your road no longer warns; set the direction yourself when it isn't mapped.
• Drone Remote ID over Wi-Fi Aware on phones that have it.
• Follower alerts for a flagged device that keeps turning up at 3 or more places within 2 hours, not only one that stays with you.
• Probe shape of devices heard by a USB WiFi adapter, with FlipDeFlock's candidate Flock shapes as weak hits; any probe shape can be watched.
• Two new fake-cell signs: a never-seen cell far stronger than the last while you stand still, and an area code none of the neighbours share.
• Trackability now says what was seen: the same address over several days, or a rotating address linked to the old one.
• Ambulance gear (ZOLL, Stryker, LIFEPAK), IP-camera setup networks and mesh radio nodes are recognised; train WiFi no longer triggers following alerts.
• Antenna check in the tools menu compares a USB adapter's antennas.
• Android Auto lists police aircraft overhead in Threats.

Fixes

• A raw GPS backstop keeps fixes coming when the fused location goes silent.
• A throttled Bluetooth scan is restarted.
• USB WiFi adapters back off on bursts of empty transfers; the MT7612U says when it came up uncalibrated, and every driver gives a clear unplug / plug back in message.
• MT7921AU covers the 6 GHz channels more evenly.
• An unavailable cell signal reading no longer counts as a strong 4G cell.

Thanks

• Wardrive Go by RocketGod inspired the antenna check, the GPS backstop, the Bluetooth scan restart, the USB robustness work and the new detection categories.
• OpenDroneID receiver-android (Wi-Fi Aware Remote ID), Chasing Your Tail (multi-place following), FlipDeFlock (probe shapes), SkyPulse, dump1090 and The 1090 MHz Riddle (ADS-B), AIMSICD and SnoopSnitch (fake-cell signs), and MetaRadar (trackability).

ARM phones, 64-bit and 32-bit (about 50 MB). Detection only: RF Sentinel never transmits.

RF Sentinel 2.22.0

RF Sentinel 2.22.0

New

• SignalSweep signatures: Flock wildcard probes and newer Flock modules, Axon pairing networks, Karma / WiFi Pineapple fake access points, fake-tracker floods and a deauth alarm.
• Very weak Flock name prefixes are listed but never alert on their own.
• 3D cars on the Mapbox map, lit by the map and turned with your course.
• OpenFreeMap follows your position as soon as the map opens.
• The map and the scanner share one GPS source.
• One Units setting for distance and speed.
• Classic navigation marker option.
• 32-bit ARM phones are supported again.

Fixes

• Phones without Vulkan start the map on OpenGL instead of crashing once.
• Karma watch stays bounded during a fake-network flood.

ARM phones, 64-bit and 32-bit (about 50 MB). Detection only: RF Sentinel never transmits.

RF Sentinel 2.21.1

RF Sentinel 2.21.1

New

• RTL8812AU USB WiFi adapters (experimental): ALFA AWUS036ACH, TP-Link Archer T4U / T4UH, Netgear A6200v2, ASUS, Edimax and about 30 other RTL8812AU dongles now work in monitor mode over OTG, no root, hopping 2.4 and 5 GHz. Receive only: the adapter never transmits. Written from Realtek's driver and not yet tested on a real adapter - if you have one, the USB log (Settings > External hardware) helps.

Fixes

• RTL8812AU: receive pauses while the band changes, 5 GHz listens for OFDM only, and 2.4 GHz signal strength uses the 8812A's own gain steps.

arm64 phones only (about 34 MB). Detection only: RF Sentinel never transmits.