I have already managed to build a couple of Arduino projects but I am still a newbie.
I am looking to build a device (or series of devices) for an art installation about the awareness of the wifi networks surrounding us, that does the following:
Scans and detects wifi traffic in a small room (5x5m). Only detect, no need to actually connect to a network.
when the traffic reaches a certain "threshold" (if something like that exists on wifi traffic), it triggers a short blink to a LED light (about 5W or similar) and a sound to a small speaker.
I haven't figured out what kind of sound should be triggered. Ideally a short wav or mp3 file... otherwise some type of user defined frequency burst.
The idea is to build about 5 to 10 of these devices, set them up in the same room and that they react at different times (different thresholds? wifi channels?), triggering different sounds while lighting up briefly their LED lights.
Ideally the devices should be cheap to build (20-30 euros each) and possible to power with a 9v battery or similar.
I have been googling about it, but I would appreciate some guidance in order to avoid some useless time consuming experiments. Unfortunately I don't have much time until the exhibition opening :S
That's called learning. It isn't useless. That's how all of us come up with the stuff we make. What makes you think you're so special that you should \just be able to jump straight to done?
when the traffic reaches a certain "threshold" (if something like that exists on wifi traffic),
That's going to be your first job. You need to decide what metric you want to measure. You can't code anything or build anything until you have defined what it is that you want to build. You don't just start hammering nails into boards and figure out later if you want to build a house or a boat. You need to know what you're building first.
Do you want to look at signal strength? I doubt you're going to find it very easy to figure how many people are using wifi or how much data is being exchanged at any one moment if that's what you're after. I don't even know how you would start to measure that.
What makes you think you're so special that you should \just be able to jump straight to done?
I am not trying to jump straight to done. Believe me, I have been learning. I am simply asking for guidance to point me in the right direction... No need for aggressive tone.
I am not looking to find out how many people are using the wifi or know exactly how much data is being transferred. It is not a science project. Honestly it doesn't even matter what is being measured, I just need it to trigger a certain event (light and sound) at different times, depending on the usage of wifi. I assumed that traffic was the easiest, but I am open to better suggestions if you actually have one... devices connected? devices with wifi enabled in the room? packages sent?
alebucky:
I am not trying to jump straight to done. Believe me, I have been learning. I am simply asking for guidance to point me in the right direction... No need for aggressive tone.
I am not looking to find out how many people are using the wifi or know exactly how much data is being transferred. It is not a science project. Honestly it doesn't even matter what is being measured, I just need it to trigger a certain event (light and sound) at different times, depending on the usage of wifi. I assumed that traffic was the easiest, but I am open to better suggestions if you actually have one... devices connected? devices with wifi enabled in the room? packages sent?
You may be learning, but it is quite obvious you have no clue about WIFI and routers and use of WIFI. Please get some of the free software that is available to monitor the WIFI traffic. There is NO time when there is NOT traffic of some sort, even in your own home.
I am not looking to find out how many people are using the wifi or know exactly how much data is being transferred.
What are you looking for then? If you just want it to randomly trigger then you could just generate a random number and have it come on when that number is greater than some value or less than some value. But if you want it to be in response to something to do with WiFi then you need to tell us what you want it to be. We can help you with the code, but you've got to tell us what it is that you actually want to build.
Maybe take some time like @Paul-KD7HB said and learn a bit about how WiFi works and maybe find something you can measure. I have no idea what it might be.
However you do it, a prefect application for an ESP8266, as in a WeMOS D1 Mini. Searching on "ESP8266" along with a term like "WiFi traffic levels" should be a good start.
However you do it, a prefect application for an ESP8266, as in a WeMOS D1 Mini
That is great advice Paul. Thanks. I had actually been looking into the ESP8266 over the last days, but this implementation you show seems better and simpler than what I found the other day called PacketMonitor.
I will look into the WeMOS D1 Mini. I assume it is fairly easy to add some code and use it to trigger a LED from one of it's digital outs, correct?
Now I should find exactly what metric of the wifi I could measure with it in order to trigger from time to time.
Apparently it is also a very capable board in terms of sound. I need to read further into that.