Wireless Hacks

1047 Articles

Inject Packets With An ESP8266

January 14, 2016 by 35 Comments

[Kripthor] sent us a link to his blog where he writes the Hello World of low-level networking. Basically he’s constructing his own packet and sending it. By itself this isn’t a bad thing. You could use this power for all sorts of networks-diagnostic good. And so, despite the ominous name of his blog post “ESP8266 Jamming”, he’s not really doing anything that bad — he’s just creating many fake WiFi beacon frames and sending them out every so often.

Which can apparently do bad things to some vulnerable routers. Who knew? Want to test yours?

Naturally we wanted to see how he was doing it, and we opened up the Arduino code in GitHub. It turns out that Espressif has written a wifi_send_pkt_freedom() function that just sends out whatever packet you’d like to the network. That was easy.

It also turns out that the ESP8266 will enter monitor mode, where it listens to all WiFi traffic regardless of the MAC address that it’s directed toward. [Pulkin] seems to have done the work for us and posted the code in his GitHub. Now things get nasty. Combining promiscuous monitor mode with some carefully constructed management frames can end up with a classic WiFi deauth denial-of-service attack on a $2 piece of hardware.

We think it’s tremendously cool that the ESP8266 packs such power, and we beg you all to use it responsibly. The last thing we want to see is the world littered with WiFi-DOS throwies. And the last thing you’d want is a visit from the FCC.

Wink Hub Connects To SmartThings

January 9, 2016 by 5 Comments

As home automation grows more and more popular by the day, the free market is taking notice and working to supply the demand. The Wink Hub is a part of this current trend. It’s a device that allows many of your wireless devices to talk to one another. Things like lights, thermostats, door locks, garage doors…and many other devices can all connect to the hub. Typically, you use a program on your phone or tablet to control these devices. But because this is a closed source gadget, it can’t connect to everything, until now. A hacker was not only able to root the device, but he also gained the ability to connect to devices it was never designed to connect to.

[Michael] was able to get root and take control of some of the devices used with one of Wink’s main competitors – SmartThings. The process is not for the faint of heart and requires at least a yellow belt in Linux-Fu. [Michael] points out that you should use a Wink Hub that you don’t care about as the possibility of bricking it is there if something goes wrong.

We’ve seen a few instances of rooting the Wink and are happy to see these hacks maturing. It’s a shame the thing is locked down since the multiple radios make the hardware capable of being a great cross-platform hub. For legacy and better user experience, cross-platform operation is paramount. The industry isn’t moving in that direction… Phillips recently removed support for devices outside the Hue family. But the community wants this functionality and their push back led to a hasty reversal of Phillips’ changes. Hackers like [Michael] are showing what your home could be like if connected devices were free to interact with one another.

Drive A Sony Camera With An ESP8266

January 9, 2016 by 11 Comments

Nearly everything has WiFi these days. [glaskugelsehen]’s Sony camera uses the wireless network to transfer photos to the computer, naturally, and it also has a remote-control application that’ll run on Android smartphones. [glaskugelsehen] doesn’t have an Android — but he does have shows us an ESP8266 that he turned into a WiFi-powered remote for the camera (Google translate into English).

Sony actually made [glaskugelsehen]’s work easy here. They have a publicly available API for the camera’s controls, and it’s all run by JSON sent over HTML HTTP POST. Which is to say, that it’s a piece of cake to script as long as you can send HTMLHTTP directives.

[glaskugelsehen]’s code, written in the Arduino environment for the ESP, first finds the camera’s WiFi network and authenticates to it. Then it sets the camera into remote-control mode, and takes over from there. So far, he’s only implemented taking still photos, but from the API it looks like you can also stop and start video recordings and more.

And yeah. We just wrote up another project doing virtually the same thing with a GoPro. [glaskugelsehen] read that too, and mentions it in his blog. We love it when people take inspiration from each other!

Internet Of Things In Five Minutes

January 8, 2016 by 22 Comments

If you’re looking for the quickest way to go from zero to voice-controlled home automation system, you should spend five minutes checking out [Hari Wiguna]’s project on Hackaday.io where he connects up IoT gadgets and services into a functioning lightswitch. (Video below the break.)

6166971452133983621[Hari] demonstrates how to set up a complex chain: Amazon Echo to IFTTT to Adafruit.io as a data broker, which is then polled by an ESP8266 unit in his home that controls his X10 setup. (Pshwew.) But each step along the way is designed to be nearly plug-and-play, so it’s really a lot like clicking Lego blocks together. [Hari]’s video is a nice overview.

There’s only one catch if you’re going to replicate this yourself: the X10 system that’s used for the last mile. Unless you have one of these setups already, you’re on your own for controlling the outlets that turn the lights on and off. For price and hackability, we suggest the common 433MHz wireless outlet switches and pairing them with cheap 433MHz transmitters, available at eBay for around $1. We’ve seen a lot of hacks of these systems — they’re quite common both in the US and Europe.

We’ve also covered [Hari]’s projects before: both his self-learning TV remote and a sweet Halloween hack. His video production skills are excellent. We’re in awe of how much info he crams into his YouTube videos.

Ten Mile Raspberry Pi WiFi (with A Catch)

January 5, 2016 by 57 Comments

How would you like to have a WiFi connection that covers 10 miles? Or how about an even wider network made up of a mesh of multiple nodes? It is possible, but there is a catch: you probably need a ham radio license to do it (at least, you do in the United States).

What makes it possible is the realization that conventional WiFi channels 1-6 are inside an existing US ham band. That means (if you are a ham) you can elect to use FCC part 97 rules instead of part 15 that governs WiFi routers. That means you can use more power and–even more importantly–better antennas to get greater range.

Traditionally, hams have used custom firmware for Netgear routers or Ubiquiti hardware. However, [WZ0W] recently posted his experience using Raspberry Pi boards as mesh nodes. The code (which also works with some other single board computers) is available on GitHub (with details on the project blog). [WZ0W] points out that, unlike using a consumer router, using a Pi provides a reasonably powerful computer for hosting services as well as hosting the network.

Continue reading “Ten Mile Raspberry Pi WiFi (with A Catch)” →

ESP8266 GoPro Remote Adds Buttons, Screen

January 5, 2016 by 11 Comments

Last year we featured a GoPro camera remote by [Robert Stefanowicz] that was built around an ESP8266. [Robert] has been working hard on improving this project, and has just released version 2, which adds a screen and multiple buttons. These additions allow the remote to become a two-way device: you can use it to monitor the status of the GoPro, keeping an eye on things like the battery level and the current video mode.

[Robert] decided to make his own PCB to do this, so it’s also a good intro into the stinky art of PCB etching. He isn’t finished yet, though: he is looking to expand the project further by controlling more features on the camera using the third button on the remote.

WiFi Alliance Introduces 802.11ah

January 5, 2016 by 73 Comments

For the last decade or so, wireless networking has been entirely about short range, high speed communications. The type of networking needed by an Internet of things is fundamentally incompatible with WiFi, and the reason for this is due to the frequencies used by WiFi networking gear. 2.4 and 5 GHz are very fast, but cannot penetrate through walls as easily as lower frequencies.

This week the WiFi alliance introduced IEEE 802.11ah into the WiFi spec. It’s called WiFi HaLow (pronounced like angel’s headwear), and unlike other versions of 802.11, WiFi HaLow uses low frequencies for low bandwidth but a much larger range.

WiFi HaLow uses the 900 MHz ISM band to communicate, divided into 26 channels. The bandwidth is low – a mere 100 kbps, but the range is huge: one kilometer, or about four times the approximate range of 802.11n.

This is not the only WiFi spec aimed at the Internet of Things. In 2014, the WiFi alliance introduced 802.11af, a networking protocol operating in unused TV whitespace spectrum between 54 and 790 MHz. 802.11af has a similar range as 802.11ah – about one kilometer – but products and chips utilizing 802.11af have been rare and hard to find.