Book Image

Raspberry Pi for Secret Agents - Third Edition

Book Image

Raspberry Pi for Secret Agents - Third Edition

Overview of this book

This 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.
Table of Contents (7 chapters)

Controlling the Pi with your smartphone


There is something oddly satisfying about controlling a small device remotely from another small device. To do this with a headless Pi and a smartphone, all we need is a Wi-Fi adapter on the Pi with SSH running and a remote control app for the phone that knows how to send commands through an SSH connection.

Android (Raspi SSH)

Raspi SSH is a free remote control application available from the Google Play Store. It is a very simple application in appearance and functionality but works well enough:

  1. Find and install Raspi SSH by Philipp Stoppel from the Google Play Store.

  2. Fill in the Connection details for your Pi. You may be able to use raspberrypi as Hostname instead of the IP address if your home router supports it.

  3. Start adding your own commands to the list or take a look at the table of common remote control commands later in this section for inspiration:

    Controlling the Pi remotely with Raspi SSH on Android

iPhone/iPad (SSH Remote)

SSH Remote is a free...