Help w/ a project -- rotating wifi antenna that finds strongest signal strength...

trevelyan · #1 (**permalink**) 10-15-2007, 10:00 PM

Hey everyone,

I'm coming up with an idea for an engineering project, and I need a little help.

I'm interested in mounting a directional wifi antenna to a platform that is controlled by some motors. The antenna can rotate completely around and pointed up and down. I would like to connect the antenna to a computer (using a USB wireless card) and have the signal strengths be monitored as the antenna points in different directions. The movement of the antenna would be controlled by a microprocessor that I would program, but the computer would need to be able to obtain the different signal strengths...

Anyways, has anyone had any experience with anything like this, or seen this type of thing done anywhere? I would love to look over any similar projects to get some guidance...

Also, is this feasible, or is it not worth doing for any reason? Any other thoughts?

THANKS for any help with this!

estqwerty · #2 (**permalink**) 10-19-2007, 06:30 AM

hi post more info and pictures of your project - I am interested how do You made horizontal rotation and how do you interface this stand whit a pc ?
please post more info.

You may be able to track output of nersumbler or some other program - kismet must have some text output by which you may point antenna?
not sure sorry.

webhiway · #3 (**permalink**) 10-23-2007, 12:51 AM

What language do you plan to use? My thoughts are:
card feedback, channel selection, open vs protected networks, are you planning to interface your program algorithms with a GUI interface? Motors controlled with negative switching ICs or pulse motors? Motor memory based on RF feedback, Noise rejection? I see mucho work to achieve this, but it would be a fun project. The system would have to train using feedback from 802.11 protocol packets, to eliminate training on noise, wireless phones, microwave ovens etc.
I believe you could do this in the baseband radio. If I had a bag full of money and a year or two I'd help you.
Mikrotik has some very cool stuff integrated into their OS (frequency usage, packet sniffing etc..), might be worth a look.