Router wifi RSSI signal Strenght+arduino ethernet+LCD Signal bars

Using Arduino Project Guidance
1

Hi. I would like to make a project:
I have a Wifi router conected to an external high powered antenna and i would like to connect my router to the arduino shield via ethernet.
My goal is to read the RSSI and show up in an LCD conected to the arduino board. Just something like a Signal bars in my cell-phone, that could be useful to align the antenna and se the signal strenght in real time.
Ther is any way to query the status of the RSSI of some router or routerboard via ethernet using arduino?
I've read that MikroTik Routerboards have capabilities to do that. Any Advise?

Thanks in advance!

2

Which router do you have? Its not possible to guess these details!

3

Actually i have no router. I could buy any that you sugest me with the function that i need. Some of the mikrotik routerboard may work the way i like. What do you think?

4

Anyone with good knowledge in Mikrotik routers?

5

Are you asking to see the WiFi signal strength that the router is receiving (i.e. assuming it is working as some sort of bridge/extender/relay)?

If so, for most routers you just need to establish a web session to the router's admin interface and display the WiFi signal status. Any laptop/tablet/smartphone capable of connecting to your local area network and running a web browser would be capable of solving this problem.

If that's not what you want then I suggest you need to be clear which signal strength it is that you're trying to display.

6

PeterH:
Are you asking to see the WiFi signal strength that the router is receiving (i.e. assuming it is working as some sort of bridge/extender/relay)?

If so, for most routers you just need to establish a web session to the router's admin interface and display the WiFi signal status. Any laptop/tablet/smartphone capable of connecting to your local area network and running a web browser would be capable of solving this problem.

If that's not what you want then I suggest you need to be clear which signal strength it is that you're trying to display.

That's corect. I would like to read the RSSI of a router configured as client in a poit to poit conection to an acces point. With a laptop, obviously, i could read the signal on the web interface of the router, but i would like to see that signal in an LCD conected to arduino. Many routers could be hacked to serve as wifi shield, some of those routers have very decent power (1000 mW). I would like to put the ruter with a high gain antenna on te roof of my house and see the RSSI signal directly on the LCD of the arduino to Align the antena toward the best point of reception. Let's say i would like to make an Antenna Aligment tool with Arduino using high power routers.

7

Let's say i would like to make an Antenna Aligment tool with Arduino using high power routers.

You could use netstumbler or similar on a laptop or netbook.

https://www.google.com/search?as_q=netstumbler&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&lr=&cr=&as_qdr=all&as_sitesearch=&as_occt=any&safe=images&tbs=&as_filetype=&as_rights=

8

zoomkat:

Let's say i would like to make an Antenna Aligment tool with Arduino using high power routers.

You could use netstumbler or similar on a laptop or netbook.

netstumbler - Google Search

Yeap, but that is not the idea. The goal is to make an Stand alone Aligment device using arduino, and I could control servos or step motors to control the pan an tilt. XD

9

You should be able to use the Ethernet library to write a web client that loads the appropriate page from the wireless router's web server and "scrape" the HTML that comes in for the RSSI value. You will probably need to log in to the router's web interface first with an HTTP POST though. Wireshark on a PC will be helpful so you can see what your Arduino needs to POST to log in, and what text to search for as you scrape the HTML. This will probably be very different for every wireless router, so once you pick one to use as your test mule, you'll probably want to stick with it.

10

tylernt:
You should be able to use the Ethernet library to write a web client that loads the appropriate page from the wireless router's web server and "scrape" the HTML that comes in for the RSSI value. You will probably need to log in to the router's web interface first with an HTTP POST though. Wireshark on a PC will be helpful so you can see what your Arduino needs to POST to log in, and what text to search for as you scrape the HTML. This will probably be very different for every wireless router, so once you pick one to use as your test mule, you'll probably want to stick with it.

Thanks, that's an aproach. Some routers like the CPE MikroTik have commands for query the RSSI signal, but i dont know how to stablich the communication beetwen the arduino and the OS installed in that router.

11

dominuspolux:
Thanks, that's an aproach. Some routers like the CPE MikroTik have commands for query the RSSI signal, but i dont know how to stablich the communication beetwen the arduino and the OS installed in that router.

You'll need to find out what protocol. Probably SNMP? Shouldn't be too hard to write an SNMP client (you may even be able to find a pre-existing one). SNMP does stand for "Simple" Network Management Protocol after all...

12

tylernt:

dominuspolux:
Thanks, that's an aproach. Some routers like the CPE MikroTik have commands for query the RSSI signal, but i dont know how to stablich the communication beetwen the arduino and the OS installed in that router.

You'll need to find out what protocol. Probably SNMP? Shouldn't be too hard to write an SNMP client (you may even be able to find a pre-existing one). SNMP does stand for "Simple" Network Management Protocol after all...

Yeah, that's right... DD WRT supports SNMP and Scrpting. There is a posibility here. Thanks for the advise