WiFi Manager for Pico - how to use?

[w9ran]

I've got a PicoW webserver running using the AsyncWebServer library but the wi-fi credentials have to be manually edited. The ESP32 world has a WiFi credentials manager that first brings the PicoW up in AP mode so the network credentials can be entered. They are stored in pseudo-EEPROM and can be used from that point on. This is a really nice feature to have - especially when non-technical users are involved.

This project has implemented the same for the PicoW using the Arduino-Pico core:
https://github.com/mthorley/wifimanager-pico

My problem is, there are no examples or any information (at my level) to explain how to use it. I've written a test program based on my best guess but it failed first because it needed a CRC32 library. So I installed CRC32 from the Arduino library manager and now it fails because that library has no "Add" function. So I reckon I guessed wrong and there's another CRC32 library - somewhere.

If anyone has used mthorley's library and could help me get it going I'd appreciate it and in return I'll document a working example for others. Or, if there are other WiFi Managers that work the same way, that would be OK too. Thanks!

[earlephilhower]

Why not post something in the author's repo directly? Might be much faster getting answers straight from the author...

[w9ran]

Thanks, I did that but no response so far.

Let me ask this then: Since the compile failed because "'class CRC32' has no member named 'add'", is there another CRC32 library that is compatible with the Arduino-Pico core that does have an "add" member function?

[earlephilhower]

I would think any library would be compatible unless it used special HW. We didn't have a built-in CRC32 lib on the 8266, nor does there seem to be on in the ESP32 core. But CRC32 is trivial, really, and I think you can hack it to use another library if you can't find the one they used (maybe listed in the docs?).

For example, the 1st one to pop up in the Arduino lib manager https://github.com/bakercp/CRC32 has an update instead of add method, but either one is just feeding data into the math. So I'd try using that and replacing any start/add/finish with reset/update/finalize and see if the gets you where you need to me.

Alternatively, check the Arduino forum which probably has folks who are familiar with the WiFiMgr or CRC32 libs already and can point you in the right direction.

[w9ran]

I did that and it worked! Thanks - I didn't realize it would be that easy, now I can go on and get the test program working.

[w9ran]

To wrap this up - mission accomplished, the very nice WiFi Manager is working on the PicoW. I believe the CRC32 library in the original was this one: https://github.com/RobTillaart/CRC/releases But my example uses the one that can be obtained with the Arduino Library Manager and it does the job as well. The captive portal will come up on a fresh PicoW and allow you to enter the network WiFi credentials, which will be used thereafter, a nice library. As promised, my minimal example is attached.
WiFi_manager_test.zip