Companion Phone GPS Wardriving
Use your phone's GPS to wardrive with the GhostESP Companion app
The GhostESP Companion app supports Phone GPS Wardriving, a mode that uses your phone’s built-in GPS to tag Wi-Fi access points observed by the connected GhostESP device. This is useful when your GhostESP board does not have a GPS module attached.
How It Works
- The Companion app streams wardrive AP observations from the GhostESP device over the active connection (USB or BLE)
- Each observed AP is tagged with the phone’s current GPS coordinates
- When you stop the session, a WiGLE-compatible CSV file is saved to your phone’s Downloads folder
- The CSV can be browsed, shared, or deleted from the built-in CSV explorer
Requirements
- GhostESP device connected via USB or wireless bridge
- Phone location permission granted
- Phone GPS enabled with a valid fix (outdoor or near a window for best results)
Starting Phone GPS Wardriving
- Open the GPS / Wardrive screen in the Companion app
- Ensure your GhostESP device is connected
- Toggle the Phone GPS Wardrive switch to ON
- Move through your route — APs will appear as circular markers on the map, colored by RSSI strength
- Toggle the switch to OFF when done — the CSV is saved automatically
Map Display
The map shows individual access points as small circles:
- Color: Ranges from red (weak RSSI, around -100 dBm) to blue (strong RSSI, around -40 dBm)
- Size: Scales with zoom level (3–14 px radius)
- Stroke: Outline appears at zoom level 15 and above
Your phone’s current GPS position is shown as a blue marker, and the device’s GPS position (if available) is shown as a red marker.
CSV Explorer
The Saved CSVs button in the bottom card opens a bottom sheet listing all Phone GPS Wardrive CSV files saved to your phone’s Downloads folder. From here you can:
- Refresh the list to pick up newly saved files
- Share a CSV via the system share sheet (email, messaging, cloud storage, etc.)
- Delete a CSV with confirmation
CSV Format
Phone GPS Wardrive CSVs use the WiGLE v1.6 format, matching the firmware’s on-device wardriving output:
WigleWifi-1.6,appRelease=GhostESP Companion,model=Android,release=,device=phone,display=NONE,board=Android,brand=GhostESP,star=Sol,body=3,subBody=0
MAC,SSID,AuthMode,FirstSeen,Channel,Frequency,RSSI,CurrentLatitude,CurrentLongitude,AltitudeMeters,AccuracyMeters,RCOIs,MfgrId,Type
Each row contains:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| MAC | BSSID of the access point |
| SSID | Network name (empty for hidden networks) |
| AuthMode | WiGLE capabilities string (e.g., [WPA2-PSK][ESS]) |
| FirstSeen | UTC timestamp (yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss) |
| Channel | Wi-Fi channel number |
| Frequency | Computed frequency in MHz |
| RSSI | Signal strength in dBm |
| CurrentLatitude | GPS latitude (6 decimal places) |
| CurrentLongitude | GPS longitude (6 decimal places) |
| AltitudeMeters | Altitude rounded to integer meters |
| AccuracyMeters | GPS accuracy in meters |
| RCOIs | Empty (reserved by WiGLE format) |
| MfgrId | Empty (reserved by WiGLE format) |
| Type | Always WIFI |
Files are named ghostesp_phone_wardrive_<timestamp>.csv and saved to the phone’s Downloads directory.
Uploading to WiGLE
CSVs saved by Phone GPS Wardriving are fully WiGLE-compatible and can be uploaded to wigle.net:
- Use the Share button in the CSV explorer to send the file to your computer
- Upload via the WiGLE website or desktop app
Future versions of the Companion app will support direct WiGLE upload from the CSV explorer.
Next Step
For firmware-based wardriving with an attached GPS module, see Wardriving.