Social media is abuzz lately over the prospect of cheating in tournament strategy games. Is it happening? How is that possible with officials watching? Could there be a hidden receiver somewhere? What can be done to rectify this? These are probing questions!

We’ll get to the bottom of this by making a simple one-way hidden communicator using Adafruit parts and the Adafruit IO service. Not for actual cheating of course, that would be asinine…in brief, a stain on the sport…but to record for posterity whether this sort of backdoor intrusion is even plausible or just an internet myth.

CONTENT WARNING: last page of this guide shows raw meat.

Parts

The project requires a soldering iron and related paraphernalia, and the following Adafruit items:

Angled shot of small square purple dev board.
What has your favorite Espressif WiFi microcontroller, comes with our favorite connector - the STEMMA QT, a chainable I2C port, and has...
$12.50
In Stock
Video of a haptic controller breakout board with a vibrating motor disc soldered to it. The disc vibrates against the surface.
The DRV2605 from TI is a fancy little motor driver. Rather than controlling a stepper motor or DC motor, its designed specifically for controlling haptic motors -...
$7.95
In Stock
Vibrating Mini Motor Disc with two wires
*BZZZZZZZZZZ* Feel that? That's your little buzzing motor, and for any haptic feedback project you'll want to pick up a few of them. These vibe motors are tiny discs,...
$1.95
In Stock
Slim Lithium Ion Polymer Battery 3.7v 400mAh with JST 2-PH connector and short cable
Lithium-ion polymer (also known as 'lipo' or 'lipoly') batteries are thin, light, and powerful. The output ranges from 4.2V when completely charged to 3.7V. This...
Out of Stock
Video of a person with white painted nails unplugging a USB cable from a small, black, square-shaped lipo battery breakout board soldered to a similarly shaped microcontroller, which is also connected to a monochrome OLED display breakout. The OLED breakout displays battery and power data.
Is your QT Py all alone, lacking a friend to travel the wide world with? When you were a kid you may have learned...
$4.95
In Stock
Angled shot of STEMMA QT / Qwiic JST SH 4-pin Cable.
This 4-wire cable is a little over 100mm / 4" long and fitted with JST-SH female 4-pin connectors on both ends. Compared with the chunkier JST-PH these are 1mm pitch instead of...
Out of Stock

This guide was first published on Oct 05, 2022. It was last updated on Mar 23, 2024.

This page (Overview) was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

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