WiFi Dev Board Unable to Connect to Internet

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello Makers,

I am having a problem on a development board I am making for my college final this semester. I have learned a lot from the Arduino Community and during my first year of college about electronics and microcontrollers, so for my final I decided to display everything that I have learned in a development board.

I'm trying to make a small wifi dev board with connections for sensors, however, after designing, building, and programming the board, I've run into a major issue.

My board consists of the SAM D21 and NINA-W10 wifi module, both are present on the arduino nano 33 iot.

My problem is that when I try and run the ScanNetworksAdvanced or any program in the WiFi NINA library, I get the error:

Scanning available networks...
** Scan Networks **
number of available networks: 0

Scanning available networks...
** Scan Networks **
Couldn't get a WiFi connection

I would really like some help. In the text below, I will go into the details/setup.

After, I built my board, I boot-loaded it using an Atmel ICE with the Nano 33 IOT bootloader. Then I changed the variants.h file of the Nano 33 IOT. from

//NINA
#define NINA_GPIO0 (26u)
#define NINA_RESETN (27u)
#define NINA_ACK (28u)

to

//NINA
#define NINA_GPIO0 (2u)
#define NINA_RESETN (27u)
#define NINA_ACK (3u)

The only difference pin wise between my board and the nano 33 iot is that I changed the pins of GPIO0 and ACK as well as that I don't have SCL and SDA connected.

I attached an image of the schematic connections between my microcontroller and the module.

I would love feedback and please ask any questions to help understand better. I am so grateful for Arduino and this community because I have learned so much from them.

If I had to guess the problem, I was thinking it would be about the GPIO0 and ACK or maybe I need the I2C connections.... I'm sorta stuck and would like to hear your input.

Also, the module is on the latest firmware version, 1.3.0 or something I believe.

Thanks again.
-Kevin

module connection schematic png.png
module connection schematic png.png938×832 9.41 KB

2

does the esp32 work alone? with esp32 arduino sketches or with AT firmware?

3

Hello,

How would I test that? It is a module?

Thanks.

4

Hello again,

I do know that the module does function properly because I actually right now just took the module off my MKR Wifi 1010, and soldered it on my current dev board.

And after I made sure that the module firmware was on 1.3.0, I uploaded the Wifi Nina Scan Networks sketch with my iPhone on top of the board that has its hotspot turned on. I still got the same result. :frowning:

In my first post, is my current setup correct? Are there any "red flags"?

Also, would it be a good idea to solder small wires from the SAM D21 to the module routes for ACK, GPIO0, SCL, and SDA to see whether the new connections/variant file is the problem?

Thanks. If anyone could help I would really appreciate it.

5

Sorry for so many posts but I found two other forums where people had problems with there mkr 1010 boards connecting to the internet. They both said that they got the "0 networks found."

In both situations, they had a sensor connected to the I2C port, however, that I2C port also was connected to the crypto chip/battery charger.

Finally, when they removed the sensor connected, the board worked again and found networks.

I will try it now and get back soon.

Links:

https://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=624782.0
https://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=626900.0

Do I need the crypto chip or would it work if I just connected those pins?

6

Update:

Sadly, it is still not working. I have the exact same connections as the Arduino Nano 33 IOT, however, I still get the same error....

Scanning available networks...
** Scan Networks **
number of available networks: 0

Scanning available networks...
** Scan Networks **
Couldn't get a WiFi connection

Do I need the crypto chip? Does the code that require the crypto chip?

I am truly desperate for answers now because that was my last idea.... and my project is due in two weeks.

I would very much appreciate any guidance/help.

Thanks

7

crypto chip is only required for the Arduino Cloud.

you can use any esp32 instead of the NINA module. why harm the Arduino?

you can upload the SerialNINAPassthrough to SAMD and then use esp32 arduino core to upload arduino sketches to NINA.

8

Hello again,

I just uploaded SerialNINAPassthrough to the board and then downloaded the arduino esp32 core. I then selected the NINA-W10 module option and uploaded the example ChipID to see if it connected. That worked...

However, when I went to Wifi->WifiScan and uploaded the sketch, I kept getting the error "Brownout detector was tirggered"

After searching it up, many people said that it had to do with a bad power supply, however, after using three micro usb cables and disabling some usb power saving device setting on my windows laptop, I still got the result...

Do you think that this is why I was unable to successfully run WiFi sketches with the SAMD before? Is this a hardware or software problem? What do you recommend I do next?

Also, the reason why I used the NINA-W10 was because it is FCC certified and it is the smallest ESP32 module I could find.

Thank you so much for your help. I can't express my gratitude for your help in words...

9

how do you convert 5 V to 3.3 V?

10

I convert 5V to 3.3V with the BQ24195L battery charger and AP2112K LDO. Both are on the MKR boards.

11

Sorry for responding again...

Do you have any idea of it being a software or hardware problem?

If you are too busy to help, is there any resource/reference or issue that could help point me in the right direction.

I'm not selfish and I respect all of you, I'm just getting a little unstable because I am slowly running out of time for my project. I hope you understand...

I would really appreciate any help/ideas.

Thank you so much!

Also, there is a stable 3.3V going into the NINA module

12

I am creating this update in case anyone in the future as any problems.

Using the Serialpassthrough sketch and adding an external 3.3V power supply, I got the nina-w10 to successfully scan for wifi networks.

Thank you for all your help. I think that the issue might be with the battery charger.

I the will update this post once I get it working with the samd.

Thanks again!

13

Another Update:

With the help of Juraj, I got my board completely working. Both WiFi and BLE work Great! :slight_smile:

I think that if anyone encounters a similar problem in the future, the best thing to do is to use the SerialPassThrough sketch to talk to the NINA directly. This is important because through talking directly to the NINA, you can get more specific errors.

This helped my identify my problem that had to do with an insufficient power supply.

Overall, I am extremely grateful for the Arduino Community and I think that this community plays an important role in DIY Electronics. I also hope that DIY Electronics continue to prosper in the future.

Thank You.

14

The rf side of the ESP32 draws quite a lot of current in very short bursts that often don't fully register on a meter. If you have any further problems along this line, try adding a several hundred micro-farad cap on the power line.