The film Ghostbusters made its debut in 1984, and thru a lot of sequels, spinoffs, and toys, the franchise continues to be very a lot within the public consciousness as of right this moment in 2022. Along with official toys and content material, makers have added to the Ghostbusters universe with their very own tackle film props, together with the enduring PKE meter. Kevin McAleer’s PKE meter(-ish) system, as seen right here, is a enjoyable tackle the prop, detecting not ghosts however Wi-Fi indicators.
The system makes use of a Raspberry Pi Pico W to scan for native Wi-Fi indicators, itemizing them on a Pico Show Pack 2.0 from Pimoroni. This additionally gives a ready-made person interface through its 4 onboard buttons. As completely different networks are chosen, the scanner’s arms change place to point community energy. Energy is supplied by a 400 mAh LiPo, boosted as much as 5V through its charging unit.
The scanner options a lot of 3D-printed components, with a meshed gear setup that enables each arms to be managed by a single servo. Print recordsdata can be found through the mission writeup, and code might be discovered on GitHub in your perusal.
For a full rationalization of how the system works, take a look at the video under. In case you’d identical to to see it in motion, nevertheless, quick ahead to across the 47 minute mark, the place McAleer boots it up for a demo. Seeing the arms come out at startup is entertaining, and they’re fairly responsive when scrolling by means of networks.
