Hello, I am looking for advice on a WiFi shield to use with Arduino. I searched these forums and did not find any mentions of WiFi shields for about a year now. I have done google searches for them and found many shields. The problem is that many of them do not have any reviews. The one sold by Spark Fun has many comments (many of them about issues with it). This is also one of the more expensive ones I have found and the least 'ready to go' in that headers must be soldered on prior to use. It does look well supported based on many user comments, a datasheet, libraries and example code on the page. I have been using the Ethernet shield for quite a while with great success, but it is now time that my project has to go wireless. Has anyone used the Spark Fun or other WiFi shield that they would recommend? Thanks!
Well at least this morning when I was searching for "wifi" I wasn't finding much that seemed relevant. Looking around more it appears a bunch of people are using the CuHead WiFi shield. There are posts much more recent than most of those on the Spark Fun shield. The CuHead is also 1/2 the price. I'm now thinking that will be the one I go with.
Before purchasing any WiFi shield I'd suggest taking a very close look at the technical specs and particularly at what library they ship with.
The CuHead may be less expensive than some, but it is based on the Asynclabs WiShield. Asynclabs has gone out of business I am not sure there is much development on the library going on.
If you already are using an Ethernet shield I would actually suggest you get a little pocket router like the TP-link tl wn703n. I think I paid less than $30 for mine. The device is smaller in footprint than an Arduino UNO and uses USB power so you should be able to power it directly from the Arduino's 5v.
The beauty is that you can still use the full functionality of the Arduino Ethernet Library!
At the same time you have the easy configurability of a router through a web interface. Actually, perhaps you use another Tp-link router 702 or 3020 because the all Chinese web interface on the
703 takes a little getting used to with the help of google translate XD