Your joke, in every WiFi list nearby.

wificast is a tiny box that broadcasts one network name of your choosing. People scanning for WiFi see it. Nobody can join it. That's the whole thing.

Type a network name

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Wi-Fi

Networks

It only does one thing

No app, no account, no data. The name is set when we flash your device, and it just repeats it to the air.

It shows up in scans

Any phone or laptop listing nearby networks sees your name, usually within about 30 metres.

Nobody can join

It's locked with a random 32-character key that changes every time it starts. There's no internet behind it anyway.

It runs on whatever you have

Plug it into any USB charger, snap on a battery pack, add a solar lid, or use both and leave it alone for good.

Build yours

Pick the modules you'd want. We'll email you when it's ready to order; nothing is charged until then.

Choose modules wificast coreThe broadcaster, flashed with your name. USB-C powered. Battery packThree rechargeable 18650 cells in a weather-resistant pod. Solar lidA 2 W panel with its own charger. Works alone in daylight, or tops up the battery.

Your email

Drawn to scale

Open hardware. The enclosures and the carrier board are generated from source, so what you see is what gets printed and etched.

Engineering drawing sheet: top, front and side views of the core box and of the battery pod with solar lid, with dimensions in millimetres

Exploded line drawing of the solar lid above the battery pod, and the core box with its lid — Exploded view. Solar lid, battery pod, core. Lids lift off; modules bolt together on a 40 mm pattern.

Rendered carrier PCB: two pin sockets for the ESP32-C3 module, a diode, six small passives and two JST connectors — Carrier board, 40 × 30 mm. The ESP32-C3 module plugs in; two connectors take power and the solar sense line.

How long it runs

The device watches its own battery and the sun and picks a schedule, so it never runs itself flat.

Setup	What it does	Runs for
Core only	Plugged into a USB charger, on all the time.	As long as it's plugged in
+ Battery	On for 10 seconds out of every 70, day and night.	About a month
+ Solar	On whenever the sun is strong enough.	Daylight hours
+ Both	On all day when charged, sleeps at night, slows down when the battery is low.	Indefinitely, with some sun

Estimates from bench numbers. Deep shade and winter shorten solar runtime.

Questions

Is this legal?

In most places, yes. It's an ordinary WiFi access point on a normal channel and power level, just one that doesn't let anyone in. Check local rules before putting it on property that isn't yours.

Which names can't I use?

Anything pretending to be a real network, like a café, airport, carrier or company hotspot. Fake copies of real networks are how people get tricked, so we won't flash them. Names can be up to 32 bytes; emoji count as several.

Can I change the name later?

Yes. Plug it into a computer over USB-C and reflash it with the open-source firmware. It takes about a minute.

Does it slow down anyone's WiFi?

No more than a neighbour's router. It sends one name on one channel, a few short packets a second.

How big is it?

The core is about the size of a matchbox. The battery pod is the size of a deck of cards, and the solar lid is roughly a postcard.