Part 2 - Connect to a WiFi Network

To connect your Pi Pico W to a network, you must provide a network name (SSID) and password. However, directly using sensitive data like WiFi passwords in your code is risky. Therefore, creating a separate file to hold your personal keys and passwords outside your code.py file is a good idea. This way, you can share your code without revealing sensitive data to others.

1. Begin by clicking the + icon labeled New in the top toolbar of Mu Editor.

2. Copy and paste the following code to the new file, replacing network-name with the name of your WiFi network and network-passwd with your network’s password.

   secrets = {
       "ssid": "network-name",
       "password": "network-passwd"
   }
   

3. Click the Save button in the toolbar and save the file on your CIRCUITPY drive using the name secrets.py.

4. Enter your code.py file and replace the code you wrote in part one with the code below, then hit Save.

   import time
   import wifi
   import socketpool
   import ipaddress
      
   # Get WiFi details from your secrets.py file
   from secrets import secrets
      
   # Connect to WiFi using credentials from the secrets file
   wifi.radio.connect(secrets["ssid"], secrets["password"])
      
   pool = socketpool.SocketPool(wifi.radio)
      
   print()
   print("WiFi connection established.")
   print("My MAC addres is:", ":".join("{:02X}".format(byte) for byte in wifi.radio.mac_address))
   print("My IP address is", wifi.radio.ipv4_address)
   print()
   print("Pinging google.com at IP address 8.8.4.4")
      
   while True:    
       ipv4 = ipaddress.ip_address("8.8.4.4")
       response = wifi.radio.ping(ipv4)
            
       if response is None:
           print(f"Ping failed. No response.")
       else:
           print(f"Ping successful. Response time: {response} ms")
          
       time.sleep(2)
   

5. Open Mu’s Serial Monitor to verify that the microcontroller successfully connects to the chosen network and can get a response from google.com.

6. Note the differences from the code you encountered in part one of this tutorial:

   • An import statement for your newly created secrets.py file has been added. This gives the code access to the network name (SSID) and password.
   • The content of the while True: loop has been replaced: It now pings google.com and reports the response time. This confirms internet connectivity for your microcontroller.

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