ON-RAMP

The fastest legitimate path from zero to scoring points on wdgwars.pl. Each level builds on the one before it. Stop wherever the next step doesn’t sound fun yet, come back when it does.

Visual learner? Open Capture flow diagram for the same five-step progression as a flow diagram (capture device → firmware → destination). Renders in Obsidian as a canvas; readable as JSON anywhere else.

The whole ladder at a glance — each rung builds on the one below it. Green rungs are free or near-free, cyan adds a small hardware spend, amber is advanced / lab-scale:

flowchart TD
    s0["Step 0 · What you're doing<br/>Wi-Fi / BT / ADS-B / LoRa capture"] --> s1
    s1["Step 1 · Phone only (free)<br/>WiGLE Android app"] --> s2
    s2["Step 2 · Cross-post to WDGWars (~15 min)<br/>wigle-to-wdgwars"] --> s3
    s3["Step 3 · Dedicated capture device<br/>3a on-device upload · 3b upload from PC"] --> s4
    s4["Step 4 · WDGWars-only slots<br/>ADS-B (Muninn) + LoRa mesh (Heimdall, MeshCore)"] --> s5
    s5["Step 5 · Lab-scale always-on capture<br/>Pi + Kismet + ESP32 fleet"] --> s6
    s6["Step 6 · Portable Linux + RF endgame<br/>uConsole / SDR ladder / HackRF PortaPack"]
    classDef free fill:#063312,stroke:#00e436,color:#00e436
    classDef spend fill:#053946,stroke:#00e5ff,color:#00e5ff
    classDef adv fill:#3a2a05,stroke:#fbbf24,color:#fbbf24
    class s0,s1,s2 free
    class s3,s4 spend
    class s5,s6 adv

Step 0 — What you’re actually doing

Wardriving is capturing wireless signals (Wi-Fi APs, Bluetooth devices, ADS-B aircraft, LoRa mesh nodes) while moving around. The hobby existed long before the game.

You can play either, or both. Same hardware feeds both. The progression below points you at WiGLE first because it’s the lowest-friction entry, then crosses you over to WDGWars without losing the WiGLE captures.

Step 1 — Phone only (free)

The lowest-effort start.

Android user:

1. Install WiGLE Wifi Wardriving from Google Play (the official app, by WiGLE)
2. Sign up at wigle.net for a free account
3. Open the app, grant Location + Wi-Fi permissions
4. Hit the scan toggle, then take a walk or drive
5. The app logs networks; uploads to WiGLE.net when you’re back on Wi-Fi

iPhone user: there is no equivalent first-class WiGLE iOS app. Either borrow an Android device, ride along with an Android-running friend, or skip to Step 3 with a dedicated capture device.

What this teaches: the pace of capture, what RSSI looks like in practice, what “first to see” feels like when you find a network nobody’s submitted before.

Time to first WiGLE points: under an hour if you live near anything populated.

Step 2 — Cross-post the same captures to WDGWars (free, ~15 min one-time setup)

Same captures from Step 1, second leaderboard.

1. Make an account at wdgwars.pl
2. Profile → API Keys → generate a 64-char key, save it
3. From WiGLE Android: Share → save the .wiglecsv.gz file to your PC
4. Install wigle-to-wdgwars:
   • Linux/Mac: ./run.sh --setup
   • Windows: run.bat --setup
   • The wizard prompts for both keys (WiGLE + WDGWars), validates them, optionally installs a daily timer
5. Drop the file in the watched directory, or run with --schedule for hands-off

That’s it — one capture, two leaderboards.

What this teaches: how API keys work, the WigleWifi-1.6 CSV format, that the same data can feed multiple services.

Step 3 — Dedicated capture device (small spend)

A handheld or pocket device that captures continuously without draining your phone battery. Two splits matter when picking:

1. Does it upload on its own, or do you upload from PC? (3a vs 3b below — affects workflow)
2. Does it require soldering, or is everything plug-in? (affects skill / time-to-first-capture)

If you don’t solder and don’t want to learn yet, the solderless paths are: M5 Cardputer + Bruce fork (3a Path A), Pineapple Pager (3a Path C), Raspyjack rig (3a Path D), Apex 5 (3b), Pwnagotchi (3b). The soldering paths add a 4-wire GPS hookup but unlock cheaper hardware — see Shopping list for the matrix.

3a. Easiest path: on-device upload

Four firmwares verified to upload directly to WDGWars from the capture device. All write WigleWifi-1.6 CSV and POST to /api/upload-csv with your API key.

There is also a fifth path where the phone does the uploading instead of the device:

If you’re picking ONE for a clean newcomer experience, Cardputer + Bruce fork is the most turnkey (built-in keyboard + screen, no external web UI needed). If you like web dashboards over device menus, Piglet on a XIAO C5 is the most modern. If you’d rather carry nothing with a screen and run everything from your phone, the Biscuit route is the least fiddly of all of them, at the cost of closed-source firmware you cannot audit. The Pineapple Pager path is best only if you already own a Pager.

3b. Cheapest path: capture-only, upload from PC

Buy less, do more steps per upload.

• Bare classic ESP32-WROOM, or a Cheap Yellow Display (CYD 2.8” / 2432S028), or an M5 StickC Plus
• Add a GPS module — ESP32Marauder GPS wiki lists two tested ones (Teyleten Robot ATGM336H NEO-6M, DWEII GY-NEO6MV2) with pin-by-pin wiring
• Flash Marauder v1.13.0 for your specific board
• Capture wardrive sessions, pull the SD card to your PC
• Run wigle-to-wdgwars on the SD dump

Critical: Marauder writes WigleWifi-1.4 with only 11 columns (verified at WiFiScan.h:682 — missing the Frequency, RCOIs, MfgrId that WDGWars expects from 1.6). wigle-to-wdgwars handles the padding, so this is not a blocker — just don’t expect Marauder dumps to be byte-compatible with WiGLE web upload either.

Critical: Marauder needs a GPS module attached or the wardrive dumps are empty (verified in source at WiFiScan.cpp:515-551 — the wardrive_line is only written when gps_obj.getGpsModuleStatus() AND getFixStatus() are both true).

If you want a pre-flashed device without doing the GPS mod yourself, the Apex 5 is sold on Tindie at $99 (price per CNX Software, 2026-02-11 — re-check before buying) with Marauder + GPS already configured.

What this teaches: ESP32 flashing (esptool), GPS modules and antennas, the difference between “device uploads” and “you upload from PC”, that not all firmwares produce the same CSV shape.

3c. Already own something else? It probably still plays

The five paths above are the ones with a WDGWars story out of the box. They are not the only firmwares that wardrive, and you do not need to rebuy hardware to join.

LOCOSP’s developer page accepts a raw WigleWifi-1.6 file at POST /api/upload-csv with your API key, and says outright that the CSV route is the recommended one for firmware. So the working rule is: if your firmware writes a WigleWifi-format CSV, you’re one upload away. Pull the SD card, run wigle-to-wdgwars, or drop the file into the upload form on your wdgwars.pl profile.

That covers a lot of hardware people already have on the shelf:

The full catalog, including what each project’s docs actually claim about output format (and where they claim nothing), is in Hardware survey §3e. Maturity signals for the long-running projects are in §10 of the same doc.

Step 4 — Pick up the WDGWars-only slots (aircraft + LoRa mesh)

WiGLE doesn’t track aircraft or LoRa mesh nodes. WDGWars does. These are points only available on WDGWars.

You do not have to install anything to use either feeder. Both ship a browser version that converts your capture on your own machine and hands you a file to upload. Nothing leaves your computer, the conversion runs in the browser:

• Aircraft: yggdrasil-ai-labs.github.io/adsb-to-wdgwars
• Mesh: yggdrasil-ai-labs.github.io/meshcore-to-wdgwars

Drag your capture onto the page, click Download JSON, then drag that file into the upload form on wdgwars.pl. No API key needed for that route. Use the CLI instead when you want scheduled or unattended uploads.

MeshCore and Meshtastic are both LoRa firmware, often on the same hardware, but they don’t talk to each other over the air. As of 2026-08-12 the WDGWars mesh slot accepts records from either network, told apart by a network field. See Hardware survey §1a for the contract. That’s a server-side change; a feeder that speaks Meshtastic natively still needs to be written.

Both feeders also offer the signed-JSON path (HMAC envelope via gungnir) from the CLI, using the same API key as your other uploads.

What this teaches: that “wardriving” is broader than Wi-Fi — radio observation more generally. Aircraft is a stationary capture game; LoRa mesh is mobile. They reward different play styles.

Step 5 — Lab-scale always-on capture

If you got here, you’re not asking how to start. You’re asking how to scale.

• Raspberry Pi 4 + Kismet with a monitor-mode USB Wi-Fi adapter for best capture quality
• A fleet of ESP32s on different channels and bands (mix of Bruce, Piglet, Marauder)
• Stationary ADS-B with an outdoor antenna for hundreds of nautical miles of range
• Multiple WDGWars API keys for split-driver attribution (one key = one driver — same key on two devices counts as one driver with two feeders)
• Alternative firmwares to test: Evil-M5Project, Bruce upstream, Ghost_ESP
• Custom feeders for sources nobody’s built yet (see Hardware survey §9 for the gap list)

For the full chip × firmware support matrix and the complete community tools catalog, jump to Hardware survey.

Step 6 — Portable Linux + RF endgame

If you’ve gone through Steps 1–5 and still want more headroom, the hobby has two further directions. Both are optional and neither replaces Steps 1–4.

Run the game + capture on the same handheld. The LOCOSP WatchDogsGo game frontend is open source and the repo description names the ClockworkPi uConsole as a target platform. Pair the uConsole with a monitor-mode USB Wi-Fi adapter, a USB GPS receiver, and Kismet, and one handheld covers both sides of the hobby. A Steam Deck in Desktop Mode does roughly the same job if you already own one; a ClockworkPi DevTerm is the same compute platform in a keyboard-forward form factor.

Upgrade the RF chain. A bare RTL-SDR + the included whip antenna typically maxes out around 20–50 nm of ADS-B range. A real outdoor antenna (FlightAware 26”), an LNA mounted at the antenna, LMR-400 coax, and a lightning arrestor push that into the hundreds of nautical miles. The computer-attached SDR ladder runs AirSpy R2 / HF+ Discovery → SDRplay RSPdx-R2 / RSPduo → ADALM-Pluto → LimeSDR Mini 2.0 / USB → bladeRF 2.0 micro → Ettus USRP B200mini, with TX capability appearing from the Pluto onward. KrakenSDR + its 5-antenna array kit is the dedicated direction-finding option.

Go handheld with the HackRF PortaPack. A HackRF One in a PortaPack H4M / H2M shell with Mayhem firmware becomes a standalone capture + TX tool across 1 MHz–6 GHz with no computer attached. It doesn’t upload to WDGWars on its own, but SD output flows to Muninn or wigle-to-wdgwars on a PC afterward.

See Shopping list Tiers 6–8 for the gear list at each step (including discone, log-periodic, Yagi antennas, RF filters, GPSDO, and DragonOS Focal for the software side). The associated form factors are also in Hardware survey §6.

Common newcomer pitfalls

Where the actual rules live

This guide is a community onramp, not the rulebook. The authoritative pages are /rules and /help on wdgwars.pl, and both need you to be logged in, so sign up first and read them there. /rules#uploads and /help#daily-cap are the sections worth reading before your first big upload.

One page you can read without an account is the changelog. It is the best public record of what changed and when, and the two pitfalls above were both announced there.

Communities and creators

Wardriving is mostly figured out by talking to other wardrivers. The fastest way to get unstuck is a Discord; the fastest way to see what a rig looks like in motion is a YouTube channel.

Where to ask

Discord invite links rot. When one is dead, the project’s GitHub README is the durable place to look up the current invite.

Creators worth following

Wardriving content is sparse on YouTube compared to nearby hobbies, so the short list below covers most of the active English-language signal. Watch one device comparison before you buy anything: it is cheaper than a wrong purchase.

A longer list of channels, plus specific videos worth the click, is in Credits under “YouTube and video coverage”.

LOCOSP also maintains wdgwars.pl/press for content creators covering the game, which is the canonical place to discover new WDGWars-specific coverage as it ships. Making videos yourself? Put #wdgwars in the title or description and LOCOSP’s tracker auto-features them on the game map and the press page (RSS polling, roughly every 30 minutes, no approval step). One manual step first: DM @locosp on Discord or GitHub to get your channel added to the tracker, since only tracked channels get scanned.

Community shops

The manufacturer storefronts already linked in Shopping list are usually cheapest and most direct. These resellers are worth knowing for pre-assembled or curated wardriving / red-team kits, or for region-specific shipping:

For Cheap Yellow Display boards there is no canonical reseller. The community hub is witnessmenow/ESP32-Cheap-Yellow-Display; the boards themselves are sold through AliExpress, Amazon, and eBay.

Want your community, channel, or shop on this list? Open an issue or PR at github.com/HiroAlleyCat/wdgwars-onramp, or ask HiroAlleyCat (or another contributor) on the WDGWars Discord. We just need a primary source to verify (your README, channel About page, or storefront).

Where to go next

• Hardware survey — the reference doc behind this onramp. Full firmware × chip matrix, every community tool I could verify, decision tree.
• Writing a feeder in a new language? Read gungnir (Python transport) and LOCOSP’s WatchDogsGo plugins/wardrive_upload.py side by side — between them they cover the auth header, HMAC construction, retry/cooldown, and the slot-typed payload shape.
• WDGWars portal and API help — the source of truth for game mechanics and the API surface.

This progression is sequenced for points-per-effort, not skill-per-effort. A determined newcomer can skip directly to Step 3 if they’re hardware-comfortable and don’t want the Android phase. Don’t over-prescribe to yourself.