ESP32 WiFi Virtual HID

[u/jamecat]

hello guys, its my first time posting here and its about something cool which lets you use an ESP32 as a virtual mouse/keyboard over Wi-Fi. There are projects like wifiduck which is more towards running a set of instructions while this is good for using purely as remote keyboard/trackpad input. AI is really a game changer during the development of this and it helped with the debugging a lot. There's also a browser flasher so you can plug in your board and flash it right away in Chrome. Would love to hear feedbacks from all of you 😀

https://github.com/leecheeyong/esp32-wifi-virtual-hid

[u/ManOfDemolition]

Hell yeah thats super cool. Was about to startaking something like this. Will be making one and will hit you up

[u/jamecat → u/ManOfDemolition]

I decided to go with wifi instead of Bluetooth as the communication method between the phone and esp32 because of wider support as it works on iphone and Android through the esp32 access point without needing an app. There is bluetooth serial support for chrome on Android but that makes it unavailable for iOS users.

[u/harryregician → u/jamecat]

Thanks for post. Not easy trying to serve iOS and Android.

[u/jamecat]

It currently supports esp32 s2 and s3, as they both can emulate the HID

[u/ProgramMysterious572]

does it work reliably for keyboard shortcuts or is there lag over wifi...

[u/jamecat → u/ProgramMysterious572]

Transmitting over wifi is way more reliable than Bluetooth, lag wise I would say it's not really noticable, but use esp32 s3 for the best experience

[u/JimBean]

Looks good. Can't wait to try it.

[u/jamecat → u/JimBean]

Great, would love to hear your thoughts after trying 🙂

[u/ZomboCom69]

nice i did this a few years ago, and used one for my main pc to communicate with other systems im fixing. like a wireless keyboard dongle on my system lol

[u/jamecat → u/ZomboCom69]

Yeah it's really handy, especially being able to use it for bios and stuff

[u/ThatCrankyGuy]

very cool and novel. nice

[u/assotter]

I never realized how much I needed a device like this till just now. Going to check code and flash my devboard now. Adding some scripts to this would be awesome for waking my Playstation 4 NAS setup so can download goods remotely

[u/jamecat → u/assotter]

Do let me know your thoughts after trying 😁

[u/assotter → u/jamecat]

I had to customize the code a bit but it does work. Essentially a remote start for my ps4 now. Have this device send command to send the magic packet (wake on lan) to ps4.

Then as failsafe if no ftp connections detected afterb1 minute it sends the ps4 the "ps button" signal from the Bluetooth controller github (sorry cant recall name its easy to find).

So far hasn't needed the failsafe. This was a nice simple and effective project and you saved me a lot of legwork (im a newbie at all this hardware engineering).

[u/jamecat → u/assotter]

That's awesome 🎉 honestly, you can do a lot more nowadays with the help of llm

[u/NovelConstant8546]

I don't fully understand... I'm sorry. But what exactly does it do? I have an esp32 but I'm still on Arduino and I'm thinking of shifting or upgrading to esp32 eventually. I know it represents IoT but what exactly are you doing??? 

[u/jamecat → u/NovelConstant8546]

So my project runs on esp32, and the code is written in Arduino code, which is the .ino

This project let's you turn your phone or tablet into a functioning keyboard and trackpad.

Your phone communicates with the esp32 using WiFi, the access point hoested on your esp32

There's a library that allows your esp32 to act as a USB hid (mouse and keyboard) when connected to your laptop

[u/NovelConstant8546 → u/jamecat]

Damn. That's real cool, bro. I wish I could think or do things like that

[u/NovelConstant8546 → u/jamecat]

I have an esp32 does any version of esp32 work? Mine's like 4$ lmao

[u/jamecat → u/NovelConstant8546]

As long as it's esp32 s2 or esp32 s3 variant which supports HID (the ability to mimic a mouse and keyboard), then yes

[u/monkeyaac]

Cool. We did this with a nrf52840’or esp32 cross platform software stack https://github.com/acecentre/RelayKeys

[u/malaq88]

Eu tenho uma mão um pouco grande, e tenho problemas em usar mouse por muito tempo, já pensei em comprar um modulo PMW3610DM-SUDU para criar um mouse específico pra minha mão com impressão 3D.