Wiggling your pointer with a Mouse Jiggler

What is a Mouse Jiggler?

A mouse jiggler basically simulates physical movement of your mouse to prevent the computer from going to sleep, the screensaver from starting or the screen from turning off. They can also be handy if someone measures the idle time on your computer and you need to look busy, just saying.

Law enforcement use them to stop laptops and servers from going to sleep when making "lights on" arrests. This is especially important to avoid losing hard drive encryption keys. They have also been used by companies wishing to maintain access to machines that they dont have the password for when employees leave.

If the machine is awake, we can keep it that way with a mouse jiggler.

There are basically two kinds, hardware and software. Hardware devices retail for $20-$40 but you can make your own for less than $6.

All you need is some kind of ATMEGA32U4 arduino device. A quick check on ebay/amazon will reveal dozens of devices in all different form factors. Personally I like the slightly incognito devices like these:

The code used is very simple. When you plug it in it simulates a human interface device and moves the pointer back and forth every second. The movement is small enough and slow enough that the machine is still usable for anything but graphics work.

Here is the script but it's also on github:

/*
 * Mouse Wiggler
 * To Keep machines from going to sleep
 */

#include "Mouse.h"

int mouseStep = 5;       // Distance to move mouse
int loopDelay = 1000;    // Loop delay in ms


void setup() {
  // Initialize mouse control
  Mouse.begin();
}

void loop() {

  // Define mouse movement
  int  dx = mouseStep;
  int  dy = mouseStep;

  // Reverse direction next time
  mouseStep = -mouseStep;

  if ((dx != 0) || (dy != 0)) {
    Mouse.move(dx, dy, 0);
  }

  delay(loopDelay); // Delay so the mouse doesn't move too fast:
}

Compile and upload. For $6 you can keep a machine alive indefinitely... until you run out of power.