Recently, I played with Microchip’s wireless WiFi module, which is quite simple to configure and can connect to a microcontroller via serial. Today, I will share how to quickly configure this module to connect to home WiFi.
Upon receiving any module, the first step is to restore the factory settings and configure it to connect to your network. First, we need to install a terminal called Tera Term and set it to serial mode. When installing Tera Term, you can choose different languages; we select Simplified Chinese. Connect your computer to the Microchip WiFi module and install the USB to serial driver. Once the installation is successful, the onboard LED will blink.
Open the terminal and set it to serial mode, configuring the baud rate, serial port number, data bits, stop bits, and other parameters as shown below.
Press the RESET button on the module to reboot it. In the Tera Term terminal, you will see it enter command mode. Type $$$, and the terminal will echo CMD, confirming that you have entered command mode. Type the command factory RESET to restore the module to factory settings, then reboot the module.
Scan the network using the command scan to find available WiFi networks, as shown in the image above. The first one is my WiFi. To connect the Microchip wireless module to the home WiFi, you need to configure it using the commands shown below: you need to set the WiFi name, password, enable auto-connect, save, and then reboot.
Check the IP address obtained to see if it works.
You can see that both the wireless module and the computer are on the same subnet and are connected to TP-LINK_C444. At this point, you can use the wireless module to send and receive data. You can connect via serial to your controller for practical industrial applications. Of course, you will need to configure it according to your application.