Let's play a "Maker Game" by building a WiFi scanner

[LesHall 95]

Hey all, guess what? You are invited to be an early participant in a game of Making things. The very nature of the game is forming now just with myself communicating with some friends. It's kind of more of a virtual makerspace than a game, though the goal is to emphasize a larger picture that is very fun.

In this game each of us is Mentor or Student and we can all be Mentors of things we are good at doing as well as Students of Mentors who are expert in the doing of some thing. For example, the thing I'd like to do first is be a Mentor to Students who would like to build a wearable IoT WiFi scanner. This is a thing I created some time ago using a wifi chip on a breakout board and some example software for starters.

Probably the best thing is for me to be the first Mentor and see how it goes. We can shape the form of the "game" via online participation. In fact, we can use the Ultimaker communication resources - the forum and the chat - as our comm platform. Here is a photo I took of me being all excited about having built my first version of the scanner.

I took it out to the front of the building and it kept picking up new devices and dropping them on the next scan, I figure it was the cell phones in the cars that were driving by, perhaps? Not sure as I am no expert on the subject.

At any rate, it's an interesting project and you can plan your own implementation of the wearable and write your own software from the examples. I'll even make a badge and provide the badge file to you upon successful completion of the project. Oh yes, we will have Show and Tell at the end of the project.

So if you want to build your own WiFi Scanner along with me building my second one and teaching you in the process, just reply to this thread voicing your input. Thanks.

Les

Make history!

[LesHall 95]

OK so I got to working on the wrist-mountable portion of this project and I downloaded a customizable stretchy bracelet from Thingiverse (YouMagine only had one that required NinjaFlex and I havent bought any 2.85mm ninjaflex yet; being an Ultimaker user now, I am breaking my Thingiverse habit and tending toward YouMagine). The goal is to attach the whole thing together as one piece with stretchy bracelet holding it on the wrist.

So yeah I got to working on that and I'm printing out some test stretchies, and I go into hte #ultimake chat and talk with someone. This someone asks me questions that basically lead me to the idea that I could use some of my extra ESP266 chips to perform network scans just like this wrist wearable with the goal of trilaterating the mobile phones around my room! This with a little bit of software on the computer could plot the locations over time so that I would have a record of people outside my room listening (and be aware of that) as well as evicence of them entering my room!

Anyway, paranoia aside, It is a fun idea to track wifi with IoT chips like that, so I am already making plans for a second "Maker Game" project on the trilateration device installation. Wish me luck!

Les

Make history!

[SandervG 1,521]

Hi Les,

Sounds very cool! Thanks for sharing.

Are you busy teaching this now to others? Sounds like a very cool game, especially the goal of sharing knowledge and teaching others should fall down well here.

[LesHall 95]

I never got any replies except yours on the maker game, so maybe it should be reformatted or presented to a wider audience.  

Les

Edited May 17, 2016 by Guest