
Warwalking WiFi Networks with ESP8266 IoT Module - demouser7
https://phasenoise.livejournal.com/2870.html
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milge
I've been playing with these ESP8266 devices lately and they're incredible.
They sip power, they cost 2 bucks, and are incredibly versatile. Watch these
chips in the future. They're really gonna push the envelope for the IoT.

~~~
icebraining
The range is quite impressive as well. A real world test[1] showed 366m
(almost a quarter mile) with just the PCB antenna.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BYdZ_24yg0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BYdZ_24yg0)

~~~
milge
That's great to know. I'm just finishing up an sms messaging water detector.
My next project is going to be a small mesh network in the woods. Haven't seen
any range tests yet, so this is great news.

~~~
extra88
Instead of a WiFi mesh at 2.4GHz, why not a low-power radio like the RFM69
with a much longer range? I'm assuming your next project also requires low
data rates like the water detector.

~~~
milge
I'd like to test the bluetooth functionality of the ESP32 to see power
consumption of that vs wifi. My requirement will be cell phones connecting to
this mesh network. Data rates aren't a concern for the next project. The mesh
nodes should connect to each other. And on everyone's phone, it should look
like one wireless network.

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blakesterz
"Originally ray's code "latched" onto the open access point and requested an
IP address just to prove the WiFi was truly open; but various laws govern
connecting anonymously to private WiFi networks, so the project was changed to
simply identify their presence."

Interesting, I hadn't heard about that. Are these US Laws? Is this the Richard
Stanley ruling?

(and just a random observation, what's the deal with the footer here? "© 1999
LiveJournal, Inc." The post seems to be from earlier this year, has
LiveJournal really not updated things in that long?)

~~~
halviti
You can probably find various rulings on this subject in different countries
because Google accidentally did this all over the world.

[https://googleblog.blogspot.is/2010/05/wifi-data-
collection-...](https://googleblog.blogspot.is/2010/05/wifi-data-collection-
update.html)

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blacksmith_tb
But the ESP8266 also can be used as the perfect countermeasure against
warwalking/driving - it's easy to have one spoof SSIDs, hundreds and hundreds
of them:
[http://ruralhacker.blogspot.pt/2016/01/esp8266-jamming.html](http://ruralhacker.blogspot.pt/2016/01/esp8266-jamming.html)

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yardie
Does anyone have a good tutorial to get started? I have a few ESP8266s for a
project I'm working on. I have a solar regulator that outputs the load over
serial connection. I'd like to do this over wifi so i don't have to run a 50ft
serial cable.

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technofiend
It's too bad they don't have GPS but maybe tower location is good enough. It
would be cool as anything to have these get cheap enough you could attach one
to every runner's bib in the New York City Marathon and watch the resulting
data set.

I could see both real-time location services (where's my wife on the course?),
cheating prevention (why is this tag in the back of a taxi on 8th avenue?) and
so on. People would probably pay $5-$10 extra to have that attached to their
bib for their family to see.

Sure you can accomplish the same using any number of iphone / android tracking
apps but they're all battery suckers.

~~~
lorenzhs
You can get a GPS module on aliexpress for around $6, whereas an ESP8266 is
<$2. So it's still very affordable, but GPS is quite a bit more complicated
than WiFi and correspondingly more expensive.

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brudgers
Original source for hack:
[https://www.hackster.io/rayburne/warwalking-a9c021](https://www.hackster.io/rayburne/warwalking-a9c021)

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hanniabu
Does anybody know of a low powered chip that's standalone can be used as an
addon to the ESP8266,which is capable of sending rf signals in the 60ft range?

Basically I'm trying to have a setup with a few low powered devices that can
talk to a central device. I figured each one having wifi would be too
expensive and power consuming so I was think of sending rf signals to
communicate. I'm more than open to ideas since this is my first project of
this sort. Please and thank you!

~~~
swamp40
Nordic's nRF24L01 was all the rage before the ESP came along. It's 2.4GHz, but
you don't have to worry about following the Bluetooth Smart protocol - you can
do what you want.

Very low power. There are $2-$3 boards everywhere.

~~~
cuonic
Agreed, I use NR24L01's for multiple low power arduino sensors that send
temperature data every 10 minutes to a central hub: a raspberry Pi connected
to the internet. The batteries on the sensors last for up to a year.

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nxzero
Seems like for a non-GPS tracker that these would be pretty effective based on
their footprint.

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birdmanjeremy
I wonder how long the battery lasts? I've been playing with the ESP8266 chips
as well, and they're great. Haven't had a chance to hook them up to a battery
yet or test more precise power consumption.

~~~
gh02t
Running all the time you'll drain a 1000 mAh battery in an hour or two, but if
you aggressively deep sleep and wake infrequently you can easily get a month.
That's about the limit though, you aren't going to be able to do a year or so
like you can with other technologies, at least not in a device that reports
data at a useful frequency.

Wifi is high bandwidth and ubiquitous, but it uses a lot of power. Other
options are better if power or long range is your goal.

~~~
jessaustin
_...1000 mAh..._

I know I'm being silly, but I always giggle when I see it written like this.

~~~
gh02t
Normally I do to, but in this case there's good reason to talk about thousands
of mAh's instead of Ah's, which is that the typical sort of things you'd power
with these batteries have current draw in the mA range, so mA's are the
natural unit to use.

It's like measuring energy in Joules normally versus talking about electron
volts for chemistry or mega-/giga-/tera- electron volts for nuclear physics
(depending on the flavor).

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xd1936
Looks like a neat proof of concept, but what sorts of things could this evolve
to as a hobby project?

Cracking WEP/WPA on the go?

~~~
h4waii
No, the Espressif SDK doesn't include the ability to do packet injection. They
are likely going to completely remove the RFMON features if people start
"abusing" them.

~~~
lorenzhs
I think there's an old version somewhere that can do some injection, like
sending disassociation packages and other nastiness.

~~~
h4waii
Indeed, for anyone interested => [https://github.com/pulkin/esp8266-injection-
example/issues/1](https://github.com/pulkin/esp8266-injection-
example/issues/1)

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platz
seems like a better fit to transmit output to a mobile phone hotspot instead
of an oled output?

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Sarkie
Are TP Link good devices btw?

I need a cheap VDSL Wifi Router in the UK and they keep popping up.

