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Valar Scopes Wiki

Valar Scopes is a line of tiny open-source desk gadgets: an ESP32-S3 driving a round touch display. One piece of hardware, but several Editions — each a separate firmware that turns the same screen into a window onto a different stream of live data, and pings your phone when something notable happens. They all share the same Wi‑Fi setup, web config page, persistent storage, over‑the‑air updates, and ntfy alerts; you just flash the Edition you want.

This wiki is the full reference for everything the Valar Scopes line does. Use the sidebar, or jump in below.

The Editions

	Edition	What it shows
📡	Blipscope (the original — Aviation)	A live flight radar — aircraft plotted around your location from public ADS‑B data, with tap‑to‑inspect detail cards, a spotting logbook, and overhead alerts. The feature pages below cover it in full.
📟	Missileer (HFGCS / EAM)	An HFGCS Emergency Action Message monitor — a command‑console ticker of nuclear‑command traffic, an activity gauge, Skyking codewords, an airborne‑command‑post watch, HF propagation, and ICBM‑test windows.
🛰️	Orbitscope (Space)	Live space data — the ISS ground track, a T‑minus countdown to the next rocket launch, and a geomagnetic aurora gauge, straight from free public space APIs.
🌐	Quakescope (Seismic)	A live earthquake radar — quakes plotted by bearing and distance from the keyless USGS feed, with magnitude rings, tap‑to‑inspect cards, and alerts for big, nearby, or tsunami‑flagged events.
🐦	Quillscope (Birding)	A notable‑sightings radar — birds reported near you from eBird, on a tap‑to‑inspect radar plus rotating screens (notable ticker, day‑list, nearest hotspot, target species), with a ping when a rarity shows up.
🎣	Reelscope (Fishing)	A fishing companion for fresh water and salt — an on‑device solunar "best bite times" dial, plus live tides, water temperature, barometer trend, and wind from keyless public feeds.
🤖	Claudescope (Claude usage)	A live gauge for your Claude usage limits — your current session and weekly caps as ring/bar gauges with reset countdowns, plus a phone ping when a limit runs low. Reads your own Claude login through a small helper on your network.

More editions are on the roadmap — see the README.

Blipscope (Aviation) — features at a glance

	Feature
📡	Radar Display — live radar with sweep, directional aircraft, fading trails, altitude colours, and auto-highlighting of the nearest/highest/fastest contacts
✈️	Aircraft Details — tap any aircraft for a detail card with photo, type, operator, registration, route, and live telemetry; pin one to keep tracking it
🖥️	Screens and Gestures — swipe between the radar, a sortable list, and a stats screen; tap to inspect
🚨	Alerts and Watchlist — on-screen emergency squawk alerts, plus a tail-number watchlist that pings your phone via ntfy when a chosen aircraft flies over
🕑	Clock and Brightness — NTP-synced clock and automatic day/night dimming based on your local sunrise and sunset
⚙️	Configuration Reference — every setting, accessible from any browser on your network
⬆️	Firmware Updates — devices update themselves over the air from GitHub Releases
🌐	Network and Setup — first-boot WiFi setup, per-device naming, multi-device support, and OpenSky accounts
🛰️	Flight Data and Updates — where the data comes from, how often the radar refreshes, and how aircraft positions are predicted between updates
🛒	Choosing an ADS-B Receiver — shopping guide for running your own local receiver: which dongle, antenna, and software to buy

The other editions

• 📟 Missileer — the HFGCS / Emergency Action Message console. Its screens, the command‑post watch, alerts, and config are all on its own page.
• 🛰️ Orbitscope — live space data. The ISS tracker, launch countdown, aurora gauge, alerts, and config are on its own page.
• 🌐 Quakescope — the USGS earthquake radar. Its Radar / List / Stats screens, detail card, alerts, and config are on its own page.
• 🐦 Quillscope — eBird notable sightings. Its hybrid radar + rotating screens, detail card, alerts, and config are on its own page.
• 🎣 Reelscope — the solunar fishing companion for fresh and salt water. Its bite dial, tide / river‑flow / water‑temperature / weather screens, alerts, and config are on its own page.
• 🤖 Claudescope — a live gauge for your Claude usage limits (session + weekly), fed by a small sidecar on your network. Its screens, the sidecar setup, alerts, and config are on its own page.

They all reuse the same Wi‑Fi setup, web config, alerts, and over‑the‑air updates documented in the reference pages.

New here?

1. Network and Setup — get your Valar Scope onto WiFi and pointed at your location.
2. Configuration Reference — tune the display and data options to taste.
3. Browse the feature pages above (Blipscope / Aviation), or the Missileer / Orbitscope / Quakescope / Quillscope / Reelscope pages, to discover everything your Edition can do.

Get a Valar Scope

The easiest way to build one is a kit, which includes the display module and the redesigned enclosure parts in one box. The hardware is the same across editions — you choose which edition to run by the firmware you flash.

👉 Order a Valar Scopes kit from Valar Systems

Assembly instructions live on the Assembly page.

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Valar Scopes is built on the original Micro Radar project by Anthony Sturdy, and is maintained by Valar Systems.