Access Point - Create Wi-Fi network on ESP32

So far, we have been using an existing Wi-Fi network. However, you can create your own Wi-Fi network with the ESP32 (just don’t expect it to provide internet). In this exercise, we will configure the ESP32 as an access point and run the web server.

Project base

We will once again copy the webserver-base project and work on top of that.

I recommend you to read these section before you proceed furhter; This will avoid unnecessary repetition of code and explanations.

• Creating Web Server

git clone https://github.com/ImplFerris/esp32-projects
cp -r esp32-projects/webserver-base ~/YOUR_PROJECT_FOLDER/wifi-led

Setup ESP32 Wi-Fi (in wifi.rs file)

To create our own Wi-Fi network with ESP32, we need to set a static IP address using CIDR notation(eg: 192.168.2.1/24) and specify the gateway IP(e.g: 192.168.2.1). We also need to give a Wi-Fi name (SSID), which can be anything you like, as long as it’s within 32 characters. While the password is optional for the network, we will set it up with a password. The SSID and password will be loaded from environment variables, just like we did in Station mode.

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
// Unlike Station mode, You can give any IP range(private) that you like
// IP Address/Subnet mask eg: STATIC_IP=192.168.13.37/24
const STATIC_IP: &str = "192.168.13.37/24";
// Gateway IP eg: GATEWAY_IP="192.168.13.37"
const GATEWAY_IP: &str = "192.168.13.37";

const PASSWORD: &str = env!("PASSWORD");
const SSID: &str = env!("SSID");
}

Update the connection task

The main goal of this function is to ensure the Wi-Fi network is running. If it is not running, it will be restarted. The function checks the Wi-Fi state in a loop. If the state is WifiApState::Started, it waits until the Wi-Fi gets stopped (i.e., the ApStop event occurs). If that happens, it moves to the second part of the loop.

If the Wi-Fi is not started, we will configure the Wi-Fi with the SSID, an optional password, and WPA2 Personal authentication mode. Then, we will start the Wi-Fi network.

Note:

If you want to run the Wi-Fi without a password, you can comment out the password and auth_method builder in the AccessPointConfig. This will make the Wi-Fi network passwordless, will use the default configuration.

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
#[embassy_executor::task]
async fn connection(mut controller: WifiController<'static>) {
    println!("start connection task");
    println!("Device capabilities: {:?}", controller.capabilities());
    loop {
        match esp_radio::wifi::ap_state() {
            WifiApState::Started => {
                // wait until we're no longer connected
                controller.wait_for_event(WifiEvent::ApStop).await;
                Timer::after(Duration::from_millis(5000)).await
            }
            _ => {}
        }

        if !matches!(controller.is_started(), Ok(true)) {
            let client_config = ModeConfig::AccessPoint(
                AccessPointConfig::default()
                    .with_ssid(SSID.into())
                    .with_password(PASSWORD.into())
                    .with_auth_method(esp_radio::wifi::AuthMethod::Wpa2Personal),
            );
            controller.set_config(&client_config).unwrap();
            println!("Starting wifi");
            controller.start_async().await.unwrap();
            println!("Wifi started!");
        }
    }
}
}

Update the start_wifi Function

We need to change the interface to use Access Point mode instead of Station mode.

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
let wifi_interface = interfaces.ap;
}