/ˈreɪtəl/ — from the honey badger, Mellivora capensis
A reliability-first handheld RF & IR tool.
Currently in early development.
FOLLOW THE BUILD
A handheld tool for capturing, storing, and replaying RF and infrared signals. Starts with Sub-GHz and IR, designed for future expansion.
Existing tools crash, lose data, and have hostile communities. Exploring whether reliability-first design can solve problems the market ignores.
Learners, researchers, and testers who want to understand RF/IR systems on their own devices—not break into others'.
Exploring whether a handheld RF and IR tool can be built with different tradeoffs—prioritizing reliability and usability over feature velocity.
Market research across 250+ user feedback posts revealed a consistent pattern: people love the Swiss Army knife concept but struggle with crashes, data loss, hostile documentation, and fragmented ecosystems. RatelRF is investigating whether these problems are solvable.
Research across Flipper Zero, HackRF, Proxmark3, and dozens of alternatives surfaced the same frustrations repeatedly:
Firmware update failures, SD card corruption, and crashes are the top complaints across every product in this category. RatelRF aims to be the tool that doesn't brick, doesn't lose your data, and doesn't crash during capture.
Starting with Sub-GHz and IR as the core, with architecture that anticipates expansion. The goal is a unified signal library where captures from any module are searchable, labeled, and portable.
Designed for test, research, and learning. No jamming capabilities, no offensive WiFi tools, no features whose primary use case is unauthorized access. This isn't a limitation—it's a deliberate choice.
Documentation assumes curiosity, not expertise. Error messages help you fix the problem, not send you to a forum where you get told to read the manual.
These are directions being explored, not committed specifications. Everything is subject to change.
What RatelRF is not trying to be
RatelRF is a solo project by S-J, an electronics engineer, technician, and developer based in Vancouver, WA. Background includes PCB design, test automation, and embedded systems work across semiconductor, medical devices, and telecommunications industries.
The project grew out of reading too many GitHub issues from frustrated users of existing tools, and wondering if the reliability problems were inherent to the form factor or just underinvested.