Display & Button Setup

Before you continue

Using the display interface is entirely optional. You can also control the Deauther via serial or the web interface.

We cannot start at 0 for this tutorial, so if you find this too tricky, get an Arduino starter kit with good documentation to get a feeling for tinkering with electronics. 😊

I focused on the NodeMCU in this tutorial since it is one of the most popular dev-boards. But every other ESP8266-based board should work just the same.

Tip

I made a custom PCB called HackHeld that makes it easier to build your own Deauther with a display. Learn more at hackheld.spacehuhn.com.

What you need

• A breadboard (Amazon*, AliExpress*)
• Jumper wires (Amazon*, AliExpress*)
• An ESP8266 dev board (see Supported Devices) (Amazon*, AliExpress*)
• At least 3 buttons (3 are required, optionally up to 6) (Amazon*, AliExpress*)
• An SSD1306 or SH1106 OLED display with 128x64 pixels (other resolutions are not supported) (Amazon*, AliExpress*)
• Optional: an RGB LED (3 single LEDs or a Neopixel will also work) (Amazon*, AliExpress*)
• Optional but recommended: 2x 10k ohm resistors (Amazon*, AliExpress*)
• A working Arduino IDE setup that can compile this project (see Installation)

*Affiliate Links

Tip

For beginners, we recommend using 3 buttons (you can add more later), an i2c display (those with 4 pins), and (optional) a Neopixel as RGB LED.

Wire everything up

Look up the pinout references for your board. Here’s one for the NodeMCU:

We have a limited amount of pins, and not every pin can be used for everything:

NodeMCU Pin	GPIO	Note
D0	GPIO 16	No I2C or PWM. Don’t use this pin for the RGB LED or Display.
D1	GPIO 5	OK
D2	GPIO 4	OK
D3	GPIO 0	Connected to flash button.
D4	GPIO 2	Needs pull-up resistor.
D5	GPIO 14	OK
D6	GPIO 12	OK
D7	GPIO 13	OK
D8	GPIO 15	Needs pull-down resistor
D9	GPIO 3	RX (Serial). Avoid this pin.
D10	GPIO 1	TX (Serial). Avoid this pin.
SD2	GPIO 9	Used for Flash. Avoid this pin in QIO mode.
SD3	GPIO 10	Used for Flash. Avoid this pin in QIO mode.

Display

2 types of OLED displays can be used for this project. The SSD1306, and the SH1106:

And they are available in I2C or SPI versions:

I2C can be connected to any GPIO pin (except 16).

SPI, however, requires the following setup:

Display	GPIO
SCL/CLK/SCK	GPIO 14 (D5)
SDA/MOSI	GPIO 13 (D7)

RST, DC, and CS pins can be connected to other pins.

Tip

Please make a list of all components and their connections. It might save you a lot of troubleshooting later.

Buttons

Connect each button to a GPIO and GND. Like in this Arduino tutorial: https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/InputPullupSerial

LED

The LED is used as an optional indicator. For example, Green = idle, Blue = scanning, and RED = deauth attack detected (when scanning).
You can use single digital LEDs, an RGB LED, or a Neopixel LED (WS2812b).

By default, the LED on GPIO 16 (NodeMCU onboard LED) and the LED on GPIO 2 (ESP-12 and ESP-07 on-module LED) are used.

Example setup with I2C OLED

Display	GPIO
GND	GND
VCC/VDD	VCC / 3.3V
SCL/CLK/SCK	GPIO 4 (D2)
SDA	GPIO 5 (D1)

Button	GPIO
UP	GPIO 14 (D5)
Down	GPIO 12 (D6)
A	GPIO 13 (D7)

NEOPIXEL LED	GPIO
GND	GND
VCC	VCC/3.3V
DIN	GPIO 9 (SD2)

Example setup with SPI OLED

Display	GPIO
GND	GND
VCC/VDD	VCC / 3.3V
SCL/CLK/SCK	GPIO 14 (D5)
SDA/MOSI	GPIO 13 (D7)
RST/RES/RESET	GPIO 5 (D1)
DC	GPIO 4 (D2)
CS	GPIO 15 (D8) or GND

Button	GPIO
UP	GPIO 0 (D3)
Down	GPIO 12 (D6)
A	GPIO 2 (D4)

NEOPIXEL LED	GPIO
GND	GND
VCC	VCC/3.3V
DIN	GPIO 9 (SD2)

Code adjustments

When your hardware setup is done, you must make some code changes.

1. See Installation on how to compile and flash this project using Arduino.

2. In Arduino, under tools > Deauther Config, select Display Example I2C or Display Example SPI depending on your setup

3. In Arduino open the A_config.h file (second tab)

4. Scroll down to #if defined(DISPLAY_EXAMPLE_I2C) or #elif defined(DISPLAY_EXAMPLE_SPI).

5. If you used other pins than mentioned in the example setup above, this is where you can change them.
   For example, you might need to change #define SH1106_I2C to #define SSD1306_I2C depending on the display you are using.
   Or #define SH1106_SPI to #define SSD1306_SPI if you’re using an SPI display.

6. In Arduino, under tools > Erase Flash, select All Flash Contents. This will make sure your changes are applied and override any old settings.

7. Make sure you selected the correct port and upload! If something isn’t working correctly, check the connections and your adjustments from step 5.

Testing everything

Tip

You can also use terminal.spacehuhn.com to connect to your deauther. It’s a web-based serial monitor I made. It requires Chrome for Desktop or a Chromium-based browser that supports the Web Serial API.

When everything is correctly set up and uploaded, open the serial monitor with Arduino (Tools > Serial Monitor).

• Set the baud rate to 115200 and select Newline. If you see it resetting every few seconds, check the code and make sure you didn’t use the same pin twice.

• If there’s no image on display, type set display true;;save settings and press enter. Now press the reset button on the board to restart it. If the display doesn’t show anything, something is off. Check your connections and the code.

• To test all buttons, enter screen mode buttontest. To get back, use screen mode menu.

• To test the LED(s), you can run led <r> <g> <b>. For example, led 255 0 0 should turn the LED red.

If you still have problems with the display, try running an example to test if it’s a software or a hardware problem. This is the display library used in the Deauther: https://github.com/squix78/esp8266-oled-ssd1306
You can find examples there. Try to get those running.