Sparkfun ESP32 Thing not connecting with example program. All else seems well.

Wireless & IoT Wifi
1

Greetings.

I have successfully been able to get the Sparkfun ESP8266 working, and and ESP32 from another vendor working with two WiFi networks that I frequently use. So, I have at least demonstrated some basic competence!!!

Unfortunately, I can’t get the ESP32 to connect to either of these networks, even with the simple example on the

https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/es … ample-wifi

page.

Everything compiles and loads without error, the “blink” program works too, and the example WiFi program appears to run fine, but just sits there failing to connect.

Any ideas?

Doug

2

Which ESP32 Thing do you have, SparkFun carries a bunch of different versions and they all differ a bit. A product page link would be helpful in figuring out which one you have.

Either something is wrong with your SSID and password in the sketch you’re uploading or there’s some reason your WiFi access point doesn’t like connecting to the ESP32.

I’d double check the SSID and password first and make sure they are correct. If that’s OK and your access point has any kind of logging, you might see if a rejection reason got logged and then correct that issue. (Maybe you have MAC filtering turned on or some enhanced security mode set?)

Try a different network to see if that helps too.

3

I have the “Sparkfun ESP32 Thing” DEV13907, not the Thing Plus or anything fancy.

The SSID and network name is correct. This was cut and paste from code that works with ESP8266 and another vendor’s ESP32. I have tried with 2 different networks, and I don’t have MAC filtering enabled or anything unusual.

Update: I have just tried resetting the board about 20 times and discovered that it will, occasionally, connect and report an IP address. This suggests the configuration is basically correct, but it is really struggling to connect in a location (fairly close to a router) where other devices have no problem. The board is just hanging on the end of a USB cable, so it’s not integrated into some noisy environment.

It just seems like the wireless has rather poor performance, which seems weird. What else can I be checking?

4

Update 2:

I purchased two more different ESP32 modules from different manufacturers to experiment with. I can get both of them to connect immediately in the location at which the ESP32 Thing can’t connect. Or, to be precise, it can’t connect 90% of the time.

Either I’ve got a problematic board, or the ESP32 Thing has poor wifi performance compared to 3 other boards of 2 different designs. Or, maybe I’m just missing something, but I don’t know what.

Unless I can figure this out, I’ll probably return this and I certainly won’t be buying a batch of ESP32 Things… I like Sparkfun but, so far, this board is not doing the job.

Doug