Hiding your pirate box ideas

I'm looking for creative ideas on how to hide your piratebox for 16-24 hours.

I've seen the "PirateBox" book where the owner cut out the insides of a book to accomodate the router, power supply and cabling.

I was thinking of hiding the box as a fire alarm, potted plant (just don't water).

Magnet hidden to a pipe or metalic object of some type.

Hidden under a booth or table.


What say you? Would you place a PB sticker some where in the vacinity of signal? Or would you keep it secret and hope people stumble upon it?

The PirateBook was an idea I'd actually had for awhile for fairly obvious reasons. Pulling one of those fake plants, trim the bedding (or just compress it) and put it over a PiratePlant setup is also interesting. Depending on the setup you could even put it inside a hollow door (though I don't know how bestot SECURE the thing... much less fish it back out for battery swappings.)

Connect to a generic weatherproof box/case and attach it to something so it'll look like it belongs there.


And yes I'd put the PirateBox logo up somewhere nearby so folk would know 'hey. check your wifi there's a goodie box here.'

I've thought about a semi-permanent hidden install in a particularly high traffic, low observation area. Specificly inside one of those lighted advertisment signs that they put on one side of bus transit shelters. With a couple of well chosen plastic 'quick splice' squeeze type junctions in order to piggy back the line that lights the billboard after dark. This would never need a battery swap, but would only work at night unless it had an internal battery that charged up overnight and ran the piratebox during the day. That just seems like overkill. Put one TP-Linl MR3020 and it's plugin charger into a small grey plastic electrical box from Home Depot, plugged into a sacrificed extention cord that has been stripped on the end that leaves the box to tie into the light's power, and even the servicemen are unlikely to take much notice of the thing. Those double sided, lighted billboards are really just a box with semi-transparent plexiglass on each side and a regular flourecesnt light, but there is only about 3.5 inches between the plexiglass panes to put anything, which might make finding the right box to hide it all into a pain.

How about building the box as the base of a trash can.

Or as a wall clock the kind at Office Max build up the back a bit, then run a blac power cord down to a power source so the box runs 24/7 and looks like it belongs. You just need to keep an eye on the time so no one else tries to fix it and sees behind the curtain.

Maybe a hollowed out garden gnome, if you place it right you could run a cord in the dirt to a power source so it is up 24/7. Scout for power, also paint an eyepatch on him as well.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/19/2012 06:30AM by cafeen.

The wall clock idea is great, since most of them use a relatively small clock-gear an leave plenty of space to glue the TP-Link to it's backside. Simply have to choose one that is thick enough to hold the TP-link, and a hollow cavity, and preferablely made of plastic. Wire the power into the piratebox from behid the clock, set the time, plug it in and were done! It'd hang there for years.

creighto Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The wall clock idea is great, since most of them
> use a relatively small clock-gear an leave plenty
> of space to glue the TP-Link to it's backside.
> Simply have to choose one that is thick enough to
> hold the TP-link, and a hollow cavity, and
> preferablely made of plastic. Wire the power into
> the piratebox from behid the clock, set the time,
> plug it in and were done! It'd hang there for
> years.

Would you need to physically access the unit for resets?

Another place could be those neon bar signs.

> Would you need to physically access the unit for
> resets?
>

Not if you can reach the clocks plug, just hard cycle it.

> Another place could be those neon bar signs.

Less room in those, but not out of the question.

Hiding in a neon sign seems nifty, but I'd worry about heat coming from the sign itself.

Inductive discharges *could* prove to be a hazard to the piratebox or usb drive as well.

The box fan base of inflatable arm waving jobbies you see outside tire shops etc. Or pretty much the fan for any giant inflatable sculpture.

Fake rocks in a flower bed.

News vending box velroed to inside upper part of box, most people getting in want the paper only not looking for anything else, reasonably secure. And when it is retrieval time you don't look too suspicious you are just getting a USA today.

Cafeen, I like the news stand idea but they are usually metal.

The fake rock idea is awesome.

Now to include a GPS tracker just in case.

socaladam Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Cafeen, I like the news stand idea but they are
> usually metal.
>
> The fake rock idea is awesome.
>
> Now to include a GPS tracker just in case.


Thanks

Another simple idea is placing on top of a vending machine. The only way it would be spotted was if someone had a stepladder. Power would be nearby as well.

I attached velcro to my MR3020 and battery pack and stuck them inside the lining of a jacket.

I then hung my jacket on a coat rack in a coffee shop.

You can just as easily hang it on your chair and let it broadcast from there.

In a the false ceiling of an office you can feed it with power through the light fixture cables.

KyrahAbattoir Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In a the false ceiling of an office you can feed
> it with power through the light fixture cables.


You may also find that there are power outlets already up there. Some building planners include things like that to accommodate new technologies. Or in a maintenance closet they have some that are open and you can run an extension cord.

Two ideas:

In a "bird box" up a tree in a local park - this would ideally be done with solar power. Look around in your parks and you may find that there are already bird or bat nesting boxes or similar structures up trees. Copying/modding one of those would be ideal.

In a plant pot outside - it would be possible to seal off the bottom of the pot and have an actual plant in the top. Have access to the pirate box from the bottom. An antenna could stick up through the soil in a tube, that might look like one of the watering tubes some house plants have.

If you have one of those wine barrel planters outside, a pirate box could be hidden inside. It might also be possible to run power to it from there. Alternately, solar power might be riggable - you could make it look like one of those solar porch lights.

The ideal hidden pirate box would be one that could be off your property, though, and completely unconnected to you. So figuring out ways to hid them in public spaces seems ideal.

maybe a dummy smoke alarm? some alarms are quite large, and they reside on ceilings, so not many people touch them.

I recently saw an episode of Hak5 where Darren used a metal box with magnets on the box. I think he said he painted it to look like a phone company box.

cute, but a metal box is a bad idea. It would attenuate the wifi signal a great deal. A plastic electrical box is ideal.

I will use one of this junction box to hide my piratebox. It will contain the mr3020, a memory stick and 4 AA batteries. I will wire it to a solar panel and stick it in as many places as I can.

I'd like to the specs / schematics for the solar panel wiring.

The junction box idea looks good. You could make one of these and stick it on a wall somewhere and no one would think twice about it.

Sure, no one will take the risk to open such a box. Only the solar panel might draw some attention but it will really not be obvious (on top of a pillar). I will stick all of this with a glue pistol during the night. Looks a bit like a guerilla action but this should make the piratebox available to my entire apartment complex.



Here is the solar panel I will use (6V 330mA 2W). Quite a large one I hope this will be enough to charge the batteries during winter time. I will report.
Ebay



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/2012 12:34AM by angelo95.

I guess I still don't know enough to figure out what is involved in using solar power to run the thing... There are obvious solutions: solar chargers that charge USB power supplies - but they are quite expensive.

This solar panel is about $10...

If you don't have to have the solar powered wireless box powered 24 hrs a day, do you think having a timer would work well for the purpose?

I've set one up in an old torch:
http://forum.daviddarts.com/read.php?2,524,4517#msg-4517

Granted, this version is a bit obvious but you could do the same without the stickers etc. Leave it in a cupboard or workspace.

I'm thinking about building a smallish mighty minty boost (4400mAh battery) that will fit in a pelican clear waterproof case with the mr3020. So potentially with that setup it would be self sustaining 24/7 outside somewhere (dashboard, etc).