Mesh network in my neighborhood. Not how I had envisioned it.

I got an email from Amazon today. I’m automatically opted-in to “Amazon Sidewalk”, unless I choose to opt out. Amazon Sidewalk allows devices participating their Sidewalk program to connect to the Internet through Amazon devices, like the Amazon Echo.

Amazon Sidewalk – a mesh network for Amazon devices to connect to the Internet:
https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Sidewalk/b?ie=UTF8&node=21328123011

Not exactly how I’d envisioned a neighborhood mesh, but their “read the fine print to opt out” strategy will probably work better than my asking neighbors to build a network.

1-Click Passwords

I was recently presented with a situation where I would have to regularly enter a 48 random character password for a month or more to log in to a computer that was assigned to me. Given that I couldn’t possibly memorize this string, and the computer is reasonably physically secure, I decided to build a device to do this for me.

I had previously used an Arduino to emulate a gamepad for a homemade Dance Dance Revolution mat. This time, I needed to emulate a keyboard. A search for “HID Arduino” returned the Arduino HID page, which suggested an Arduino with an Atmel 32u4 microcontroller. A search for Arduino 32u4 on Amazon returned the KeeYees Pro Micro clone, which I ordered.

Arduino Pro Micro Clone, button wired to I/O 4

It came in, I soldered a button to I/O 4, and uploaded the following code:

include "Keyboard.h"
include "Bounce2.h"
const int buttonPin = 4;
Bounce bounceTrigger = Bounce();
void setup() {
bounceTrigger.attach(buttonPin, INPUT_PULLUP );
Keyboard.begin();
}
void loop() {
bounceTrigger.update();
if ( bounceTrigger.rose() ) {
Keyboard.println("I put my password here");
}
}

Now, every morning, instead of copying 48 characters from a Post-it, I just click the button.

It should be said, this defeats the purpose of the password, and the password isn’t stored in a secure way on the microcontroller. But this technique is great for any time you need to automate a sequence of keystrokes.