Arduino Mouse Jiggler

This repository hosts Arduino code for turning an Arduino Leonardo into a mouse jiggler.

What? Why?

A mouse jiggler is a either a hardware appliance of a software program for mouse cursor movement automation for the purpose of preventing a computer from going to sleep. Sometimes software-based solutions are locked down by IT departments at which point hardware-based solutions save the day.

Inspiration

There are several projects that implement other peripherials and translate them to mouse inputs, for example:

They all use the Mouse.h library that seems to come with the Arduino IDE. The move method in this library moves the mouse cursor relatively to its current position making it ideal for a jiggler implementation.

Code

#include <Mouse.h>

void setup() {
  Mouse.begin();
}

byte shift = 2;
byte wait = 250;

void loop() {
  Mouse.move(shift, -shift, 0);
  delay(wait);
  
  Mouse.move(shift, shift, 0);
  delay(wait);
  
  Mouse.move(-shift, shift, 0);
  delay(wait);
  
  Mouse.move(-shift, -shift, 0);
  delay(wait);
}

This code will move the mouse in a diagonal shape, staying around the origin and not sliding off. The on-board RX/TX LEDs will indicate USB communication, so you know the board runs and works.

Arduino

According to the Mouse.h documentation, 32u4 based boards and Due and Zero boards are supported:

These core libraries allow a 32u4 based boards or Due and Zero board to appear as a native Mouse and/or Keyboard to a connected computer.

This means Micro and Micro Pro should work. It didn't for me. I tried:

• Micro - Windows USB driver did not find it
• Pro Micro - Windows USB driver did not find it
• Uno - No support for USB HID
• Leonardo - Worked! I actually had a Freeduino Leonardo, but to the Arduino IDE it's all the same

After flashing the program using the Arduino IDE, the board restarts and starts acting as a mouse immediately. From this point on merely connecting it to the computer will power it and make it act as a mouse until disconnected.

While having issues with the Windows USB driver not finding Micro and Micro Pro, I also tried on macOS, but I was unable to flash it on macOS either. The bare Arduino IDE install was not enough and I tried installing the driver recommended by SparkFun: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/usb-serial-driver-quick-install-/all

But, this article points to an installer they host on their CDN and it is an old version which is not signed by Apple and won't work on Catalina.

I found the up to date version on https://ftdichip.com/drivers/vcp-drivers. I installed the signed-by-Apple latest version for macOS, but the Arduino IDE did not show any USB serial ports anyway. I gave up trying to make it work on macOS, but it probably would work for the Uno and the Leonardo, mimicking the issue on Windows.

Raspberry Pi

I've implemented a Raspberry Pi based mouse jiggler in a complementary repo: https://github.com/TomasHubelbauer/raspi-mouse-jiggler