Pico w

[Hans Braakmann]

Is it possible to create a wifi connection with the Pico/w?

[John Maloney]

Net yet, but we plan to add it.

The PicoW is so new that WiFi support for it is not yet available in the Arduino framework on which MicroBlocks is built. However, that is being actively worked on by the Arduino framework folks, so I think it will be stable in a month or two, if not sooner.

MicroBlocks runs on the PicoW, but there's no WiFi support yet.

[Hans Braakmann]

John thank you, it was worth the try until then I wil be on the 👀out.

[John Maloney]

I just checked the state of Arduino support for the Pico W. Earle Philhower and the rest of the Pico Arduino framework team are actively working on that and it sounds as though it is coming along nicely. As soon as I can get my hands on a Pico W, I'll explore adding MicroBlocks WiFi support for it. At the moment, all the places I've checked in the US are out of stock.

[Hans Braakmann]

Thank you John, support for the Pico/w within MicroBlocks opens many new possibilities and would be welcome , if you want I can send you a Pico/w from overseas.

[John Maloney]

Thank you for the offer. I've ordered one from Kiwi (in the Netherlands, I think).

[mekiAus]

I just managed to get a couple of pico W microcontrollers from Core Electronics in Australia and would also use the W version to its fullest potential with my pico bricks kit. I am a retired software engineer and would be happy to do some beta/user testing when you start on the pico W upgrades.

[John Maloney]

Nice to meet you, mekiAus.

I hope to start working on support for the Pico W next week -- although I'm also working on several other projects so that could get delayed. I believe the current Pico firmware will run on the Pico W. However, the user LED won't work (it is connected to a pin on the WiFi chip, I believe) and, of course, there won't be any Wifi support.

I'd love your help with testing. I will post a message here when I have something ready to test.

[John Maloney]

@mekiAus and @Hans_bkm

The latest Pilot release, v1.1.70, has preliminary support for the Pico W including WiFi support. You will need to update the firmware on your Pico W, clicking "yes" when asked if your RP2040 is a Pico W. If the "set user LED" block makes the LED light up, then you have the correct firmware for your Pico board.

The normal RP2040 firmware runs on the Pico W but the user LED doesn't work because it is on a different internal pin in the Pico W. And, of course, you need the Pico W firmware to use WiFi. However, the Pico W firmware will not run on a non-Pico W because it hangs while trying to talk to the non-existent WiFi chip.

I've done only a few basic tests -- connecting to a WiFi network and doing an HTTP call -- so I'd love to your help with testing. In particular, I haven't tested creating a hotspot or running a server in MicroBlocks. HTTP and UDP are supported but not MQTT or Websockets. Everything I've tried so far has worked. Let me know if you find any problems.

[Hans Braakmann]

@John Maloney @mekiAus

John thank you for the work and explanation on how to get the Pico/w to work within MB.

I tried the new Pilot release v1.1.70 to read from my browser, a DHT11 sensor connected to a Pico/w. Everything works fine until I connect this setup to a power bank for remote sensor reading.

This is all very new to me…so I probably am forgetting something? Is it possible to read the DHT11 value wirelessly?

‌

‌

[John Maloney]

That script is fine as a way to generate a string representing the temperature and humidity.

You just need to add a tiny HTTP server that will report that string in response to a request. Check out the "Tilt Server" example program in the "Network" folder. (Use the "open" command to open it.)

[Hans Braakmann]

Thank you @John Maloney , I will give it a try.

[Hans Braakmann]

Works like a charm :)…I placed the sensor in my refrigerator and can even read the data from Snap!'s extensions version. So many possibilities to collect and graph data. Just Wonderfull.

‌

[John Maloney]

Excellent! It's so cool that you got the Pico-w connected to Snap!

[Hans Braakmann]

Thank you @John Maloney , took some time to figure this out. I could create a MicroBlocks connection with Snap from within the Safari browser…Chrome in my case does not work. Chrome can give the data only when the server address is directly pasted in Chrome’s address bar.

[John Maloney]

Chrome is being picky about the fact that Snap! is running from a secure (https:) URL but the Pico is just plain http: because the Pico does not support https://.

If you run Snap! from here then it should be able to connect to the Pico W even from Chrome.