Raspberry Pi for Secret Agents
Description
Key Features
Turn your Raspberry Pi into a multi-purpose secret agent gadget for audio and video surveillance, Wi-Fi exploration, or playing pranks on your friends
Find out what the other computers on your network are up to and make yourself anonymous on the Internet
This book has been updated for new additions to your toolkit featuring the tiny, recently released Raspberry Pi Zero board
Book DescriptionThis book is for all mischievous Raspberry Pi owners who'd like to see their computer transform into a neat spy gadget to be used in a series of practical pranks and projects. No previous skills are required to follow along, and if you're completely new to Linux, you'll pick up much of the basics for free. We'll help you set up your Raspberry Pi Zero, Raspberry Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 3 and guide you through a number of pranks and secret agent techniques that are so inconspicuous yet high on mischief. You'll learn how to configure your operating system for maximum mischief and start exploring audio, video, or Wi-Fi techniques. We'll show you how to record, listen, or talk to people from a distance and how to set up your own phone network. Then, you'll plug in your webcam and set up a motion detector with an alarm and find out what the other computers on your Wi-Fi network are up to. Once you've mastered the techniques, we'll combine them with a battery pack and GPS for the ultimate off-road spy kit. What you will learn
Install and configure the Raspbian Jessie operating system for maximum mischief
Detect an intruder with motion detection or a laser trip wire and set off an alarm
Listen in to conversations from a distance over Bluetooth
Distort your voice in weird and wonderful ways
Track the Pi s whereabouts using GPS
Connect your Pi to the mobile Internet using a 3G dongle and make yourself anonymous on the net
Display secret messages and codes to fellow agents on a LED display
Who this book is forThis book is for those who are new to the Raspberry Pi Zero, Raspberry Pi 2, or Raspberry Pi 3 and have some experience with the original Raspberry Pi models, and even for those budding secret agents who would like to use Pi Zero as a secret agent toolbox. No programming experience is assumed. Suitable for the novice and expert alike, each topic provides a fast and easy way to get started with exciting applications, with practical examples in every chapter.
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Person
Matthew Poole is a systems engineer based near Southampton on the south coast of England, with over 20 years of industry experience. After graduating in electronics and communications engineering, he went on to train as and become an air traffic engineer for Civil Aviation Authority, UK, working on microprocessor-based control and communications systems. Later, he became a software architect and mobile technology specialist, working for several consultancies and global organizations in both hands-on architecture and product-management roles . He is now a partner at Connecting Objects, a boutique systems consultancy focusing on the design of Bluetooth and other wireless-based IoT systems, taking ideas from concept to prototype. He is also the Director of Technology for Mobile Onboard, a leading UK-based transport technology company specializing in bus connectivity and mobile ticketing systems. He is also the author of Building a Home Security System with Raspberry Pi, Packt Publishing. You can find his blog at http://cubiksoundz.com and LinkedIn profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/cubik, or you can reach him on Twitter at @cubiksoundz.
Content
Getting Up to No Good
Audio Antics
Webcam and Video Wizardry
Wi-Fi Pranks
Taking your Pi Off-road
Detecting your Enemies and Protecting from Them
The ins and outs of the Raspberry Pi
At the heart of the Pi is the Broadcom System on a Chip (SOC)-think of it as all the common hardware components of a PC baked into a small piece of silicon. Different versions of the Pi have different types of Broadcom chip, as outlined in the model comparison table above, but they are each based on an ARM processor, with the Pi Model 3 having the most powerful ARM processor.
For graphics, the Pi sports a Broadcom VideoCore IV GPU, which is quite powerful for such a tiny device and is capable of full HD video playback through the HDMI connector built in to every Pi.
The following figure shows the Raspberry Pi Version 3 board layout and connectors:
Raspberry Pi Version 3 layout taken from the RS Components product data sheetGPIO headers
At the edge of the board, we find the General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) pins, which as the name implies, can be used for any kind of general tinkering and to interface with other pieces of hardware.
Audio/Video jack
The 3.5 mm four-pole jack socket is for the audio output, and on later models also contains the composite video output that was originally connected to an RCA socket. We can use that to connect the Pi to one of those old television sets using an RCA connector cable. You can also get audio out of the Pi through the HDMI connector.
Status LEDs
Status LEDs are used to tell us what the Pi is up to at the moment. They have the following meanings:
- The green light labelled ACT will blink whenever the Pi is accessing data from the SD card
- The red light labelled PWR should stay solid as long as the Pi has sufficient power
USB
The USB 2.0 ports allow us to connect keyboards, mice, and most importantly for us, Wi-Fi dongles, microphones, video cameras, and GPS receivers. We can also expand the number of USB ports available with the help of a self-powered USB hub.
Ethernet port
The Ethernet port allows us to connect the Pi to a network at a maximum speed of 100 Mbit/s. This will most commonly be a home router or a switch, but it can also be connected directly to a PC or a laptop. A Category 5 twisted-pair cable is used for wired network connections.
CSI camera connector
The Camera Serial Interface (CSI) is where the official Raspberry Pi camera module connects to, using a flexible flat cable.
Display Serial Interface
The Display Serial Interface (DSI) is for connecting TFT or LCD display panels using a flexible flat cable and connects to the Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) inside the Broadcom chip, which feeds graphics data directly to the display panel.
HDMI
The High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) connector is used to connect the Pi to a modern TV or monitor. The cable can carry high-resolution video up to 1920 x 1200 pixels, and digital sound. It also supports a feature called Consumer Electronics Control (CEC), which allows us to use the Pi as a remote control for many common television sets.
Power
The power input on the Raspberry Pi is a 5V (DC) Micro-USB Type B jack. A power supply with a standard USB to micro-USB cable, such as a common cell phone charger, is then connected to feed the Pi.
Take a look at the output printed on your power adapter. The voltage should be between 5V to 5.25V and the amperage provided should be at least 1A.
Tip
The most frequently reported issues from Raspberry Pi users are without a doubt those caused by insufficient power supplies and power-hungry USB devices. Should you experience random reboots, or that your Ethernet port or attached USB device suddenly stops working, it's likely that your Pi is not getting enough stable power. Another indication of the Pi not getting enough power is if you see a rainbow icon in the top right-hand of the monitor.
The official 2A power supply sold by the Foundation is highly recommended-especially for the Raspberry Pi Version 3 (1A = 1000mA).
You can help your Pi by moving your devices to a self-powered USB hub (a hub that has its own power supply).
Also note that the Pi is very sensitive to devices being inserted or removed while it's running, and powering your Pi from another computer's USB port usually doesn't work well.
MicroSD card
The microSD card is where all our data lives, and the Pi will not start without one inserted into the slot. All models since the Model B+ use the tiny microSD cards, whereas earlier models used standard sized SD cards. The Pi 3 no longer has a push-to-release mechanism because so many people were accidentally ejecting their SD cards! You simply slide the card out now to remove it.
SD cards come with a wide variety of data storage capabilities. A card with a minimum of 4 GB of storage space is recommended for the projects in this book. The SD cards also carry a class number that indicates the read/write speed of the card-the higher the better.
Preparing the SD card
The Raspberry Pi only boots from an SD card, and cannot boot from an external drive or USB stick (well that's not strictly true, but is outside the scope of this book).
It's recommended that you use a Class 10 SD card for performance, but a Class 6 card will be fine for the projects in this book. You'll need to have a minimum card size of 4 GB.
Now we have our Raspberry Pi board and SD card to hand, we need to prepare the SD card so we can start creating some mischief. We're going to use the standard Raspbian operating system, as there really is no reason to use any other distribution, and it's the de facto operating system for the Raspberry Pi.
Download the Raspbian image
You'll need to grab the latest Raspbian OS image from the Raspberry Pi site at https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/.
Download the Raspbian OS ZIP file containing the image to your PC.
Note
At the time of writing the latest version was 2016-05-27-raspbian-jessie.zip.
Once downloaded, unzip the file and you'll have the file 2016-05-27-raspian-jessie.img.
The next thing to do is burn this image to your SD card.
Using Microsoft Windows
On a Windows PC, the best way to burn the image to your SD card is to use the Win32 Disk Imager utility. This can be downloaded from https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/.
Note
The current version at the time of writing is 0.9.5.
It doesn't have an installer, and launches directly from the EXE file.
Now it's time to create your SD card image:
- Insert your SD card into the PC and launch Win32 Disk Imager.
- Select SD card device drive letter (make sure it's right!).
- Choose the Raspbian image file you've just downloaded.
- Click the Write button to create the SD card image:
Using Linux
On a Linux PC you'll need to use the fdisk and dd utilities to burn the image to your SD card.
Carry out the following steps to create your SD card image:
- Extract the
2016-05-27-raspbian-jessie.imgto yourHomefolder. - Type the following command to check which drives you have before you insert your SD card, so that you can compare the difference in a moment to ensure you are selecting the right drive: $ sudo fdisk -l
- Now insert your SD card into the PC.
- If you're not already in a shell terminal window, open one (Ctrl + Alt + T).
- Type the following commands in the shell terminal: $ sudo fdisk -l
In the list, check that your SD card appears as a drive device (for example, /dev/sdb). It's crucial you ensure you use the right device in the next step. We'll assume that your device is /dev/sdb.
To burn the image to the SD card, type the following command:
$ sudo dd if=2016-05-27-raspbian-jessie.img...
