4. WLAN step by step

The WLAN is a system feature of the WiPy, therefore it is always enabled (even while in machine.SLEEP), except when deepsleep mode is entered.

In order to retrieve the current WLAN instance, do:

>>> from network import WLAN
>>> wlan = WLAN() # we call the constructor without params

You can check the current mode (which is always WLAN.AP after power up):

>>> wlan.mode()

Warning

When you change the WLAN mode following the instructions below, your WLAN connection to the WiPy will be broken. This means you will not be able to run these commands interactively over the WLAN.

There are two ways around this::

1. put this setup code into your boot.py file so that it gets executed automatically after reset.

2. duplicate the REPL on UART, so that you can run commands via USB.

4.1. Connecting to your home router

The WLAN network card always boots in WLAN.AP mode, so we must first configure it as a station:

from network import WLAN
wlan = WLAN(mode=WLAN.STA)

Now you can proceed to scan for networks:

nets = wlan.scan()
for net in nets:
    if net.ssid == 'mywifi':
        print('Network found!')
        wlan.connect(net.ssid, auth=(net.sec, 'mywifikey'), timeout=5000)
        while not wlan.isconnected():
            machine.idle() # save power while waiting
        print('WLAN connection succeeded!')
        break

4.2. Assigning a static IP address when booting

If you want your WiPy to connect to your home router after boot-up, and with a fixed IP address so that you can access it via telnet or FTP, use the following script as /flash/boot.py:

import machine
from network import WLAN
wlan = WLAN() # get current object, without changing the mode

if machine.reset_cause() != machine.SOFT_RESET:
    wlan.init(WLAN.STA)
    # configuration below MUST match your home router settings!!
    wlan.ifconfig(config=('192.168.178.107', '255.255.255.0', '192.168.178.1', '8.8.8.8'))

if not wlan.isconnected():
    # change the line below to match your network ssid, security and password
    wlan.connect('mywifi', auth=(WLAN.WPA2, 'mywifikey'), timeout=5000)
    while not wlan.isconnected():
        machine.idle() # save power while waiting

Note

Notice how we check for the reset cause and the connection status, this is crucial in order to be able to soft reset the WiPy during a telnet session without breaking the connection.