So your Arduino MKR Vidor 4000 WiFiNINA module isn't working with the default stuffs? This is the thread you want

[frequencymod]

So I bought this very capable board off arrow. Actually I bought two because of their surge pricing model. It was very cheap for the stats.

Unfortunately when it arrived neither of the boards had working wifi. Well, I thought that. In reality only 1 board had working wifi. I fixed both and can probably help you too if you clicked on this link.

So, brass tacks: WTF is the problem? The current library for WiFiNINA is not compatible with the hardware onboard. The library from version 1.3.0 of the WiFiNINA library by Arduino will provide you with a working copy of CheckFirmwareVersion AS WELL AS a working copy of FirmwareUpdater in your Examples -> WiFiNINA -> Tools menu. If you are using the current version of the WiFiNINA library the CheckFirmwareVersion sketch WILL NOT WORK.

Now, say you upload that sketch and still only see, "WiFiNINA firmware check." and then it looks like it hangs (because it does). This is fine. Set the baud rate to 9600. Unplug the Vidor and plug it back in. Now open Serial Monitor. Even if it was already at 9600, unplug it and plug it back in. It never works the first time for me.

Alright so you got this far and your still F'in SOL. It just says "WiFiNINA firmware check." for ever and ever and ever... Sounds like you have the problem one of those boards I bought had. You need to update the firmware because yours is corrupt. How do you do that? Well, I know it seems straight forward but it wasn't for me. So listen up...

Upload the FirmwareUpdater sketch to the board. This shouldn't take but seconds. Then, Tools -> WiFi 101 / WiFiNINA Firmware Updater -> Select your board and VERSION 1.0.0 because 1.1.0 probably won't load, yet. Load version 1.0.0 on the board. It takes about 20 minutes. Unplug the board. Load the CheckFirmwareVersion sketch. Check that shiznit. If you are on 1.0.0 then upgrade to 1.1.0.

DO NOT UPGRADE YOUR WiFiNINA library past 1.3.0.

Crap it didn't upload that firmware... yeah I know. That's another defect. The current BOARD library (manage boards) will allow you to check the version but it will fail to upload even 1.0.0 to the board. Your esp32 bootloader likely isn't overwritten. Just downgrade your SAMD boards by Arduino version to 1.8.9 because, yet again, the current official library has a defect that breaks primary hardware functionality.

If you, like me, came to this board hoping for the Arduino experience when learning FPGA, well... godspeed. This is how we get WiFi working. An actual esp32 without the Arduino build tools is actually easier to use. That's probably the saddest part. I can't imagine I am going to get much out of this if I have to troubleshoot wifi on a darn official Arduino branded board. Arduino is generally as easy as they come and this one's firmware support is 3 years out of date. For real, 3 years out of date. Buyers remorse is setting in as I type.

Oh yeah, that advertised Bluetooth, LMFAO, it doesn't exist. You need to roll your own WiFiNINA firmware to get that. Have fun with that!

One last note: This is my first post here. Most of you contributing to this forum topic are not helpful to people attempting to find a resolution here. Searching the error with any search engine, including the forum's, gives so many non-related results it's mind numbing. I hate when people can't search either. When so many can't search, maybe they can and search is broken on this topic? Seriously, get off your high horse. At least post a damn link to the search with the string you would search for or quote what they should search. Telling someone who has spent hours scouring your threads to just use the search function makes some of us (MEEEEEEEE) want to scream, like super f'ing loud at you. Thank you, next.

Keep on modulatin.

[in0]

Thanks for taking the time to share the knowledge @frequencymod! The MKR Vidor 4000 hasn't received the widespread adoption by the community that is such an essential part of getting the Arduino experience with any given piece of hardware. Another problem is that the bulk of the information you will find on the board was generated soon after its release, meaning that some of it has become a bit outdated as continued development of the related software has introduced incompatibilities.

So updated information about this board is especially precious to those attempting to use it.

@frequencymod

Telling someone who has spent hours scouring your threads to just use the search function makes some of us (MEEEEEEEE) want to scream, like super f'ing loud at you. Thank you, next.

I don't think it's fair to assume that sort of behavior from this forum community.

It's true that some newcomers receive a little more grumpiness than they really deserve. It's also true that if you scan through over a decade's worth of active discussions from a community of many many thousands, you're going to find examples of every sort of bad behavior (mixed in with the many more examples of people taking the time to share knowledge and help each other purely out of the good of their heart's). However, I think this forum actually has an exceptionally low frequency of the "let me Google that for you" type of responses. It's one of my favorite things about it.

I actually could provide some advice on how to use the forum's own advanced search capabilities, but I don't think you would appreciate that

[frequencymod]

Thank you for the thoughtful response. Apologies for my attitude last night, this has been quite a frustrating journey.

I spent quite a bit of time looking for the solution over the past few days and found quite a few responses telling people to just search because it's a common problem without any direction on what to search. This is incredibly frustrating because the strings one uses to search for this problem are just so common to many problems.

And any time you would like to share pointers on how to better search I do personally appreciate it. In fact, I would rather learn to fish than be fed. So I welcome someone saying something like, "That's rather common, try looking up 'some phrase' in the search bar to narrow things down." Or, "Sounds like you may be doing a generic search. Filtering results by 'such and such' will help you return more relevant results."

Thank you again for your response and openness, even though I came into your house like a bull in a fine china shop. Sorry about that.

[in0]

I often have the problem that I know the concept I want to search for, but not the terminology. There have been several times when finally learning that magical search term revealed a huge wealth of information to me.

As for general search techniques, what you can try is restricting your search to this forum category alone. This is a unique advantage of the forum's native search vs. than Google. I think in this particular case the forum users and moderators have done a pretty good job of organizing most of the forum's Vidor-related content here. I sometimes see that people won't bother to mention the board they are using because that is implicit in the forum category. Of course, the forum search won't provide you with results for all the other valuable information hosted elsewhere on the Internet, but the ones you will get are more likely to be on topic.

Something I found annoying about using the forum search is when I click on the "Search on Arduino Forum" field, the browser makes a dropdown menu with my previous search queries. That menu covers up the forum's dropdown menu which contains two useful things: a "Search this topic" or "Search the #MKRVIDOR4000 category" type of checkbox and an "options" link that takes you to the advanced search page. The advanced search page also allows you to pick a category to search, as well as a couple other useful search filters.

[frequencymod]

I sometimes see that people won't bother to mention the board they are using because that is implicit in the forum category.

That's wise and very helpful. Thank you.