Banned Book Library in a Wi-Fi Smart Light Bulb
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A hacker creates a banned-book library inside a Wi-Fi smart light bulb for covert digital dead drops.
The author describes hacking an ESP32-based Tasmota smart bulb to host an open Wi-Fi access point and web server containing banned books. The goal is to allow people in communities with banned literature to access the material covertly. The bulb's 4MB flash was too small for many books, and attempts to add microSD storage via soldering were impractical due to the device's sealed potting compound. The project instead focuses on OTA firmware updates using the same Tasmota bulb, avoiding disassembly. The author also experimented with other bulbs (Philips WiZ) but found their ESP32 pins inaccessible without similar invasive work.
What commenters are saying
Commenters praised the project's creativity and potential, with one recalling the similar PirateBox project that saw little use due to user reluctance to join open Wi-Fi. A significant debate arose over the term 'banned books': some argued the U.S. has no officially banned books, only school-district curations, while others cited global censorship examples and argued the term is colloquially acceptable for books removed from public circulation through legal or social pressure. One commenter noted that the book curation is user-defined, so the label fits the project's protest of censorship.