Build a handheld WLAN access point (AP) scanner + dashboard for warwalking.
This project consists of two parts:
- A handheld device for warwalking (storing scanned APs with their location on a micro SD card) - and
- A python dashboard (using
tkinter) to store and visualize the scan results.
And yes, you could also just install an app on your phone that does the same things - this is purely just for fun and giggles.
Keep in mind that the ESP32 supports WLAN & Bluetooth as well as any basic communication interface - so you could extend this project arbitrarily to make the device do more than just WLAN scanning.
Below you can see a most basic case that fits all the components in a pluggable connection system for easy maintenance. It's far from being slim-and-light but it works:
Upon plugging in a micro USB cable for power the device will check for an SD card, search for a GPS signal, and finally start scanning WLAN access points in the vicinity.
The bottom line will show the total amount of scanned APs.
The purely passive scanner will store the following information on the SD card in CSV format (using ; as delimiter):
BSSID;SSID;EncryptionType;RSSI;Channel;Latitude;Longitude
The Arduino IDE requires the following libraries to be installed:
Adafruit SH110X- for the OLED display (requiresAdafruit GFX Library)TinyGPS++- for the GPS moduleWiFi.handSD.hshould come preinstalled.
The board manager used was esp32 with ESP32 Dev Module being the selected board.
Also remember to install the correct USB driver (CP2102 in this case) before programming the uC.
This project utilizes the following parts for the handheld warwalking device:
- ESP32 NodeMCU (38 pins) with a CP2102 chip
- AZDelivery 1,3 Zoll OLED Display I2C (SSH1106)
- Neo-6M GPS module (UART)
- Micro SD TF Card Module (6 Pin SPI Interface) - driver module with chip level conversion
Top of the notch quality fritzing diagram:
Some GPS modules may have an additional PPS (pulse per second) pin which can remain unconnected.
Utilizing the most basic tkinter functionality and the TkinterMapView library, this tool visualizes the collected APs. The python (3.10) program uses sqlite3 to create and manage a local flat-file database to store any APs.
On Windows, simply place the log file from the micro SD card in a directory called NewData that's in the same directory as the python code and run python3 WarWalkingMapViewer.py.
The log file will automatically be ingested and then moved to a new directory called OldData for backup purposes. The database will be stored in a new directory called Database.
The GUI is pretty straight forward:
Note that adding lots of access points (>500) will quickly lead to performance issues. The used library does not yet support grouping or similar options so markers will only be created for the currently visible view.