wipy as a wifi device sensor

[hugo]

Hi,

I have maybe a bit of a strange question.

I would like to use the wipy (version 1) to scan the surroundings for devices passing by that are looking for an wifi accespoint.
I would only like to capture their SSID broadcast passively so I can measure how many devices(people) are passing by.
The intention is to monitor crowd control and people carriing a mobile device.

Can this be done? Any pointers welcome!

EDIT: I can do a WLAN.scan() but this gives me only the available accaess points, I would like to see if a device tries to connect to a SSID the device already knows

Thx

hugo

[Ralph]

Hi @hugo ,

Not a strange question at all, but at this point, it can't be done. It might be included in some future firmware update, but I can't promise anything. It will need some research before we even decide if we are going to implement it.

[hugo]

@Ralph Thank you for your response,
can you point out what would be needed for this to be possible with a wipy?
is it a hardware constraint, if so that is ful stop for me
if it is software (even firmware) I would be willing to investigate and see if I can thinker with it... maybe building a custom firmware myself...

hugo

[littlebat]

@hugo said in wipy as a wifi device sensor:

@Ralph Thank you for your response,
can you point out what would be needed for this to be possible with a wipy?
is it a hardware constraint, if so that is ful stop for me
if it is software (even firmware) I would be willing to investigate and see if I can thinker with it... maybe building a custom firmware myself...

hugo

Yes you probably have to customize the firmware to add sniffer mode and then support it from the micropython layer.

https://e2e.ti.com/support/wireless_connectivity/simplelink_wifi_cc31xx_cc32xx/f/968/t/354462

[Giulio Pilotto]

I think that a good starting point is something that was already developed
for the esp866:

WiFiBeaconJam

Wifi-MiniSniff

So what i have understood is that a couple of things are needed:
1- Promiscuous mode
2- Switching channel every a fixed amount of time, and listen if something is coming from every channel.

I wonder that the above two steps have to be implemented through the esp32 sdk.

A reasonable amount of work is done here:

esp32-promiscuos-mode

esp32-promiscuos git-hub

My question is, how can i get the code implemented and then accessible from Pymark?
Thanks,
Giulio

[koesper]

Did anyone ever get this running? This is exactly what i want to do with the device

[Ralph]

@koesper No, this 'promiscuous mode' is theoretically possible with the chip, but not implemented in the firmware yet. Maybe it will be at some point, but there are no concrete plans yet.

[koesper]

@ralph Allright, that is unfortunate, since then the device could be used for keeping track of how many 'people' (wifi enabled devices) are at a certain location. Perfect for crowd control at venues, shopping streets, etc. Sounds like a killer app to me!
My alternative is a Raspberry pi3 + LoRa shield, but that is a much bigger package, more expensive, and needs a lot more power.

[Ralph]

I agree @koesper, it would be a very nice feature. I'll make sure they'll take your feedback into consideration at the embedded department.

[bmarkus]

My alternative is a Raspberry pi3 + LoRa shield, but that is a much bigger package, more expensive, and needs a lot more power.

Can you explain how it would work?

[Giulio Pilotto]

I actually leaved WiFi scan solutions, since the devices needs to be unblocked and not in any stand-by mode in order to prompt WiFi probe.

I found something more interesting using, a camera and OpenCV + RaspberryPi.

Footfall

It can count people easily, and it's quite easy to set up, and cheap of course!

Giulio

[hugo]

@bmarkus I have now used this solution for my wifi sensor : https://github.com/larsjuhljensen/phatsniffer

[hugo]

@koesper I have now used this solution: https://github.com/larsjuhljensen/phatsniffer works great and very cheap Pi ZeroW + ESP8266 ... really pitty the WiPy is not yet able to do promiscious mode... the LoPy would be an excellent LORA sensor tracing wifi and bluetooth enabled devices in remote areas or smart cities ...

[bmarkus]

@hugo said in wipy as a wifi device sensor:

@bmarkus I have now used this solution for my wifi sensor : https://github.com/larsjuhljensen/phatsniffer

How to use LoRa for this application?

[koesper]

Hi All,
Awesome to see that there are multiple people interested in this problem. Hopefully enough so that it becomes a high priority for Ralph and colleagues!

The raspberry+cam 'footfall' solution wont work for me because the area to be monitored is too big, and probably will take too much power to run from a battery for a few days.

The 'phatsniffer' device (a raspberry zeroW + ESP8266 pHAT WiFi) looks promising, especially since Hugo already got it to work! But adding LoRa to this looks challenging (and expensive)

A 'normal' raspberry 3 (+ lora shield) looks problematic, since the broadcom chip doesnt do promiscuous mode either according to this

Damn, a LoPy really really really looks like the best solution.. if Ralph is able to convince the developers to add the functionality.
Do you need help to convince them? I could swing by Eindhoven for a chat?

[hugo]

@bmarkus no LORA in this solution... it is a double wifi solution one connected to a known wifi and one used in promiscous mode listening to all traffic...

[Jiemde]

Any news about this wifi possibility ( WifiBeacon ) Cisco Meraki is using this technology for large deployment of iot sensors
https://lnkd.in/gPCrjbN and http://beaconsgalaxy.com/beacon-et-wifi-ou-lavenir-des-espaces-connectes/
Jiemde