So I have 5 Nanos all trying to crack a password, the idea is each one has one fifth of the list so they can test 5 at a time, then when it is found, I want it to be displayed on a screen I have, the idea is to connect them all to a hub which would be the arduino uno, the Uno would then take the char was sent, and send it to the screen, it does not know which Arduino will send the char and the idea is to use serial.write but I am open to other options. What is the best way to go about accomplishing this task, is there some way I can have it reading the serial from all 5 Nanos, and can this be done without it being plugged into a computer?
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I'm curious. For what purpose are you trying to build a password cracker based on Arduino? And why do you need to cluster them? Have you already tried with one Nano and it took to long? That is not a common thing to do with an Arduinochrisl– chrisl2021-12-18 23:32:54 +00:00Commented Dec 18, 2021 at 23:32
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tbh I don't have a reason, I just had a bunch of nanos lying around, i was planning on using raspberry Pis for it originally but I realized I already had a bunch of nanos lying around. idk where the cluster idea came from, but really the project is mainly about the cluster, I wanted to see if I could achieve something like this. the cluster idea is just to speed things up, having more arduinos just increases the amount that can be tried drastically, Im just trying to get back into arduino after about a yearProfMonkey07– ProfMonkey072021-12-18 23:36:39 +00:00Commented Dec 18, 2021 at 23:36
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2It's probably more straight forward if you use a multi-slave bus, like I2C, SPI, ...Sim Son– Sim Son2021-12-19 07:54:32 +00:00Commented Dec 19, 2021 at 7:54
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1I'd probably use RS485 or Ethernet for something like this (though ethernet is probably overkill for this application).Majenko– Majenko2021-12-19 10:16:04 +00:00Commented Dec 19, 2021 at 10:16
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in your case you can simply wire all the serial pins together, nothing fancy or special. btw, a desktop can check more passwords in a second than a nano would in a day.dandavis– dandavis2021-12-19 20:00:00 +00:00Commented Dec 19, 2021 at 20:00
2 Answers
Presumably you will avoid having two Nanos try the same item from the list. Then, only one Nano can find the answer, and only one will try to transmit data at any given time. In such a situation, yes, you could connect all five Nanos to the same serial link:
- Connect the Uno's TX directly to the RX each Nano. They will all receive the data transmitted by the Uno.
- Connect the Uno's RX to the TX of each Nano through this circuit:

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab
As long as at most one Nano tries to Serial.print() (or
Serial.write()) at any given time, the Uno will receive the data just
fine, although it will not be able to tell which of the Nanos sent it.
The Nano devices can be wired in a daisy chain. Any character coming in must be immediately sent out. The chain would end where it connects to the Arduino.