“Mapping WiFi Signals in 3 Dimensions”

Adam Fabio, Hackaday:

[Charles] is on a quest to complete ever more jaw-dropping hacks with the popular low-cost ESP8266 WiFi modules. This week’s project is plotting WiFi received signal strength in 3D space. While the ESP8266 is capable of providing a Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI), [Charles] didn’t directly use it. He wrote a simple C program on his laptop to ping the ESP8266 at around 500Hz. The laptop would then translate the RSSI from the ping replies to a color value, which it would then send to the ESP8266. Since the ESP8266 was running [Charles’] custom firmware (as seen in his WiFi cup project), it could directly display the color on a WS2812 RGB LED.

A great hack. It’s amazing to actually be able to see the reception of the Wi-Fi signal mapped as a 3D object. Shows that just moving a router/receiver a small amount can have an impact on reception.

I have two ESP8266 for a project I’m working on. I was going to hook it up to an AVR micro controller, but I’m thinking of getting the tool chain and do it all on the ESP8266 instead.