WiFi with ESP8266/ESP32 in Arduino - Mini Project: Build & Apply

WiFi with ESP8266/ESP32

📖 Scenario: You want to connect your ESP8266 or ESP32 microcontroller to a WiFi network so it can communicate with other devices or the internet.

🎯 Goal: Build a simple Arduino program that connects your ESP8266/ESP32 to a WiFi network and prints the connection status and IP address to the Serial Monitor.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create variables for WiFi network name and password

Initialize WiFi connection using the variables

Check connection status in a loop until connected

Print connection status and IP address to Serial Monitor

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Connecting ESP8266 or ESP32 to WiFi is the first step to making smart devices that can send data to the internet or be controlled remotely.

💼 Career

Understanding how to connect microcontrollers to WiFi networks is essential for IoT developers and embedded systems engineers.

1

Set up WiFi network credentials

Create two variables called ssid and password and set them to the exact strings "YourNetworkName" and "YourNetworkPassword" respectively.

Arduino

// Create variables for WiFi network name and password
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use const char* type for the network name and password strings.

2

Start Serial and WiFi connection

Add void setup() function. Inside it, start Serial communication at 115200 baud with Serial.begin(115200);. Then start WiFi connection using WiFi.begin(ssid, password);.

Arduino

const char* ssid = "YourNetworkName";
const char* password = "YourNetworkPassword";

void setup() {
  // Start Serial communication
  // Start WiFi connection
  // Your code here
}

Need a hint?

Use Serial.begin(115200); to start serial and WiFi.begin(ssid, password); to start connecting.

3

Wait for WiFi connection

Inside void setup(), add a while loop that waits until WiFi.status() == WL_CONNECTED. Inside the loop, print "Connecting to WiFi..." to Serial and add a 500 ms delay.

Arduino

const char* ssid = "YourNetworkName";
const char* password = "YourNetworkPassword";

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200);
  WiFi.begin(ssid, password);
  // Wait for connection
  // Your code here
}

Need a hint?

Use while loop to check connection status and delay(500); to wait half a second each time.

4

Print connection success and IP address

After the while loop in setup(), print "WiFi connected!" and then print the IP address using WiFi.localIP() with Serial.println().

Arduino

const char* ssid = "YourNetworkName";
const char* password = "YourNetworkPassword";

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200);
  WiFi.begin(ssid, password);

  while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) {
    Serial.println("Connecting to WiFi...");
    delay(500);
  }
  // Print connection success and IP address
  // Your code here
}

Need a hint?

Use Serial.println("WiFi connected!"); and Serial.println(WiFi.localIP()); to show the IP address.