Introduction to Networking with MicroPython

These lessons are designed to give our students an understanding of how wireless communications work with MicroPython.

Raspberry Pi Pico W

One June 30th, 2022 the Raspberry Pi Foundation announced the availability of the Raspberry Pi Pico W. This $6 microprocessor now supports WiFi and with a software upgrade it may soon support Bluetooth.

The Pico W supports 2.4 Ghz 802.11n wireless networking. For MicroPython, we can use a MicroPython library built around the lwip TCP/IP stack. This stack is accessible using the MicroPython network functions.

The WiFi chip used is the Infineon CYW43439 chip. This chip also uses an ARM architecture and has extensive support for Bluetooth wireless communication.

You can read more about the capabilities of the WiFi/Bluetooth chip by reading the Infineon CYW43439 Datasheet. I found it interesting that the CYW43439 chip has 512KB of SRAM - almost double what the RP2040 chip contains!

ESP32 Wireless

We have not integrated the ESP32 into our labs. We suggest you try the following links:

ESP32 MicroPython: Connecting to a WiFi Network on Tech Tutorials SX

MicroPython: Wi-Fi Manager with ESP32 (ESP8266 compatible) on Random Nerd Tutorials