Steerable WiFi cantenna

Despite maybe, possibly being illegal in some parts (but not many), fearless DIY-er Adrian Smith has gone forth and out-MacGyvered all other cantenna makers with his steerable, WiFi-sniffing rig. Using the requisite tin can, along with a PIC microcontroller and a couple of servos, the cantenna is able to be controlled by a custom Visual Basic program that can automagically sniff out the strongest wireless signals and zero in on them (complete with satisfying bzzzzz, whizzzz sound effects, we're sure). Unfortunately, he hasn't provided detailed step-by-step plans for the more engineering-challenged among us, so you'll need some reasonable skills of your own to put one of these to use "sharing" your neighbors' bandwidth.

[Via Hack a Day]

[strider_mt2k @ Aug 28th 2006 7:34PM]

Great stuff!

I built a similar system for use with a small video camera on a home-brew wheeled ROV.

It occurs to me that so eqipped, one could actually see where the cantenna is pointing, possibly aiding in the identification of signal sources.

One could use such a system to track and maintain a link with a moving object (like an ROV) as well.

[strider_mt2k @ Aug 28th 2006 7:36PM]

I'd like to add that it's unfortunate that a couple of idiots have rendered these projects un-commentable over at Hackaday.

Hackaday is a great site and doesn't deserve that stuff.

[Jerry @ Aug 28th 2006 7:38PM]

Very cool. Didn't a company called Vivato use to make a commerical steerable array? http://wwww.vivato.com I'm going down to radioshack to pick up an old school antenna rotator and one of those premade cantennas. http://www.cantenna.com. It's the software part thats tricky.

[AyAn4m1 @ Aug 28th 2006 8:42PM]

This guy obviously did this a while ago, or has been living in a hole when it comes to .NET. .NET 2.0 has serial support, which is the reason he said he had to use VB5 (why not VB6 in that case)

System.IO.Ports.SerialPort is a nice little class.

[justin @ Aug 29th 2006 12:15AM]

does cantenna really work? i read in various site that it does not work

[Matt @ Aug 29th 2006 12:21AM]

that is for poor ass holes that cant aford their own stuff... but its still pretty cool

[sam @ Aug 29th 2006 12:34AM]

Of course cantennas work, built a whole array in highschool 2 years ago. Super fun stuff, just google it (the trick is making sure that the length of the antenna is perfect).

[sam @ Aug 29th 2006 12:35AM]

No this is not just for the poor, I wouldn't have a problem purchacing an antenna, its just cool to spend $6 on each antenna then set up a pirated net with campbells.

[otakucode @ Aug 29th 2006 2:10PM]

And if you suspect, or know, that someone is 'sharing' your bandwidth in this way and you'd like to have some fun with them, check this page out:
http://ex-parrot.com/peter/upside-down-ternet.html

Guy found some people were stealing his bandwidth so he had some fun at their expense, making all images appear blurred or upside down. Beautiful bit of work!

[Jonathan @ Jun 26th 2007 1:14AM]

yeah making those WiFi cantennas work, back in the day we had to make similar CB antennas because the more powerful antennas were so much money