Wifi Scanner

Author: Friedjof Noweck

This is a simple wifi scanner for the esp32s3. It uses the esp-idf framework and the esp32s3-devkitm-1 board. The scanner will scan for wifi networks and save the results in a sqlite3 database. The database is stored on the separate micro sd card. The scanner will also print the results to the serial console.

A simular project is the WifiTester for the esp32dev microcontroller.

Requirements

The Seed Studio ESP32-S3 Board is a compact and efficient development tool designed for IoT and image processing projects, featuring:

• An ESP32-S3 microcontroller with WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities.
• A single connector for a camera module, equipped with a micro SD card slot for extended functionality.
• Ideal for applications like surveillance and facial recognition.
• USB-C connection for power and programming, offering modern connectivity.
• Also operable via battery, enhancing its portability.
• Its compact size and energy efficiency make it well-suited for embedded systems.

For more details, see the sources below.

Database

The database is stored on the micro sd card. The database is called wifi.sqlite3 and has a single table called wifis. The table has the following columns:

• id - The primary key of the table (autoincrement)
• ssid - The name of the wifi network
• bssid - The mac address of the AP
• channel - The wifi channel
• rssi - The signal strength
• encryption - The encryption type

Usage

To prepare and use the Micro SD card for your ESP32-S3 Board project, follow these steps:

1. Format the Micro SD Card: Use a tool to format the Micro SD card (up to 32GB) to the FAT32 file system.
2. Copy the File: Transfer the wifi.sqlite file from the /template folder to the formatted Micro SD card.
3. Insert the SD Card: Place the prepared Micro SD card into the ESP32-S3 Board.

Installation

You need the platformio to build and flash the project to the microcontroller. You can install platformio with the following command.

pip install platformio

Or use the nix-shell of this project to install platformio.

nix-shell

Build and Flash

With the following command, you can build the project and flash it to the microcontroller. You might need to change the port in the Makefile to the port of your microcontroller.

make build

You can use the following command to flash the project to the microcontroller.

make flash

Open the serial monitor to see the results of the wifi scan. You can use the following command to open the serial monitor.

make monitor

For more advanced commands, you can use the help command.

make help

Flashing from the release page

Flashing

In the release section, you can find the latest binary files for the microcontrollers. You can use the following commands to flash the binary files to the ESP32S3. You need to change the --port parameter to match your system configuration and the path to the binary files.

Install the esptool with the following command if you haven't already.

pip install esptool

Flash the bootloader, partitions, and firmware to the microcontroller.

esptool.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 --baud 921600 --before default_reset --after hard_reset write_flash -z --flash_mode dio --flash_freq 40m --flash_size detect 0x1000 bootloader.bin 0x8000 partitions.bin 0x10000 firmware.bin

How to contribute

If you want to contribute to this project, feel free to create a fork and submit a pull request. You can also create an issue if you find a bug or have a feature request.

Sources

• ESP32-S3 Getting Started
• ESP-IDF Programming Guide
• ESP32S3 Data Sheet