Kraken — A modular multi-protocol hardware hacking kit

What is Kraken?

Kraken is an open-source hardware kit that turns the ESP32 into a complete, pocket-sized workbench for hardware hacking, protocol analysis and wireless research — with every module you'd normally have to wire by hand already integrated onto clean, purpose-built PCBs.

It is built on top of the excellent ESP32 Bit Pirate firmware by geo-tp, an ESP32-S3 firmware ecosystem that exposes dozens of wired and wireless protocols (I²C, SPI, UART, JTAG/SWD, 1-Wire, CAN, SPI-flash dumping, logic analyzer, Wi-Fi, BLE, Sub-GHz, RF24, infrared and more) through a serial CLI, a browser Web CLI and a Python scripting lab. Kraken takes that firmware and gives it a body: a main ESP32 board plus a family of snap-in modules.

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Why we built it

The ESP32 Bit Pirate firmware is powerful, but out of the box it's exactly that — firmware. To actually use protocols like NFC, wired Ethernet sniffing or Sub-GHz replay you have to source separate breakout boards (PN532, W5500, CC1101, nRF24L01…), figure out the wiring for each one, handle level shifting, and deal with a mess of jumper wires on a breadboard every time you switch tasks.

We were inspired by the HackerBox 0124: "Bus Driver" kit and wanted something more permanent, compact and reproducible: a single open-source platform where the debugging brain and its most useful peripherals live on proper PCBs, so you can go from "idea" to "probing a target" in seconds instead of re-wiring breakouts. The goals were:

- Integrated, not improvised — the common modules built into clean boards with correct footprints and headers.

- Accessible & open-source — full design files provided for both EasyEDA Pro and KiCad, so anyone can fabricate, study or remix it.

- Beginner-friendly workflow — pair the hardware with a desktop companion app so you don't need to memorize the CLI to get started.

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How it works

Kraken has three layers that work together:

1. The firmware (the brain). The main board runs the ESP32 Bit Pirate firmware, which provides all the protocol "modes" and the CLI/Web interfaces. You interact with it over USB serial, a browser Web Serial terminal, or over Wi-Fi.

2. The hardware (the body). A main ESP32 board acts as the base of the system and exposes expansion headers. Each specialized module plugs in to add a physical interface — NFC antenna + reader, an RJ45 Ethernet port, or Sub-GHz / 2.4 GHz antennas — with the right chip already wired to the correct SPI/I²C/UART pins.

3. The companion app (the cockpit). A cross-platform desktop GUI (Python + CustomTkinter) that connects to the board, gives you a color-coded serial terminal, per-module pin references, one-click access to the firmware's 21 modes, and local or GitHub-based firmware flashing — so newcomers can drive the whole thing without touching a command line.