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SparkFun WiFly Shield Library : alpha 2 release

This is a library for the Arduino-compatible WiFly Shield available from SparkFun Electronics. The library also provides a high-level interface for the SC16IS750 I2C/SPI-to-UART IC used in the WiFly shield but also available on a separate breakout board.

The goal with this library is to make it--as much as possible--a "drop in" replacement for the official Arduino Ethernet library. Once a wireless network is joined the library should respond in the same way as the Ethernet library. This means you should be able to take existing Ethernet examples and make them work wirelessly without too many changes.

Installation

A good resource to start is the Arduino Hacking Libraries article which goes in depth about how to install libraries. There are two ways to install this library, it can either be directly downloaded and unzipped or it can be cloned using Git.

Step 1: Check the libraries directory

For both methods, you'll need to check that you have a shared library directory. It should be under the Arduino home (e.g. in OSX, it will probably be ~/Documents/Arduino/libraries). If the libraries directory doesn't already exist, you'll need to create it.

Step 2a: Add the library via Git

Use Git to clone this project into the libraries directory. If you've never used Git before, check out the Git Community Book.

Step 2b: Add the library via Archived File

Download and unzip the zip file from this GitHub project and put the contents in the libraries directory.

At the end of Step 2, you should have a copy of this project at ~/Documents/Arduino/libraries/WiFly

##Step 3: Include the library in your project Restart the Arduino IDE if you're using it. Under the Sketch menu, you should see a WiFly item in the Import Library ... option. If you don't, recheck that the library is in the right location and that you've restarted the Arduino IDE. Right now it adds a lot more then needed.

You can also manually add the library by adding the following to the top of your sketch.

#include <SPI.h>
#include <WiFly.h>

Usage

This is how you connect to a WPA wireless network with a passphrase and use DHCP to obtain an IP address and DNS configuration:

#include <SPI.h>
#include <WiFly.h>

void setup() {

  WiFly.begin();
  
  if (!WiFly.join("ssid", "passphrase")) {
     // Handle the failure
  }
  
  // Rejoice in your connection
}

If the network you want to connect to has no passphrase you can use this form:

if (!WiFly.join("ssid")) {
  // Handle the failure
}

If the network you want to connect to is using WEP use this form:

if (!WiFly.join("NETWORK", "00112233445566778899AABBCC", WEP_MODE)) {
  // Handle the failure
}

Note the description of the WEP key from the WiFly user guide:

  • Key must be EXACTLY 26 ASCII characters representing 13 bytes.
  • In HEX format, hex digits > 9 can be either upper or lower case.
  • "The Wifly GSX only supports “open” key mode, 128 bit keys for WEP."

Whatever connection method you use, once you have joined you can use the Client and Server classes (re-implemented for the WiFly) mostly as normal.

You can supply a domain name rather than an IP address for client connections:

Client client("google.com", 80);

You can also retrieve the current IP address with:

Serial.println(WiFly.ip());

This release of the library comes with three examples:

  • WiFly_Autoconnect_Terminal: reimplementation from tutorial
  • WiFly_WebClient: Ethernet WebClient demo with small WiFly changes
  • WiFly_WebServer: Ethernet WebServer demo with small WiFly changes

For each example you will need to modify the file "Credentials.h" to supply your network's name (SSID) and passphrase.

There are also some troubleshooting tools:

  • SpiUartTerminal: enter command mode and send commands manually
  • HardwareFactoryReset: hardware factory reset a WiFly module

Configuration

Different revisions of the WiFly shield support different features. If you are using an older revision of the shield you will need to modify the value of 'SHIELD_REVISION' in the file 'Configuration.h' to indicate which revision of the WiFly shield you are using. See the documentation in the file for further detail.

The value defaults to the most recent revision sold at the time of code release.

Arduino Mega support

This library supports using the WiFly Shield with the Arduino Mega if four jumper wires are added. The following connections are required:

  • Mega pin 53 to shield pin 10
  • Mega pin 51 to shield pin 11
  • Mega pin 50 to shield pin 12
  • Mega pin 52 to shield pin 13

In addition, code on the Mega must not use pins 10, 11, 12, or 13.

Known Issues

This is an alpha release--this means it's non-feature complete and may not be entirely reliable. It has been tested with the shipped examples and works in most cases.

There are some known issues:

  • Connections to WEP networks have not really been tested--please try it out and provide feedback. At the moment adhoc networks of any type are not supported--the module supports them, the library just hasn't been modified to recognise the different way the module responds when connecting.
  • Incomplete documentation.
  • Only tested with WiFly firmware version 2.18--earlier or later versions may or may not have issues. 2.20 has also been tested.
  • Only DHCP is supported--you can't specify an IP address and DNS configuration directly.
  • There are some situations (exact cause unknown but often it seems to be after initial programming) where the WiFly will fail to respond to requests. You may need to power-cycle the Arduino or try refreshing the page in your browser if it's acting as a server.
  • There's a limit to how quickly you can refresh a page when acting as a server--this is because the library doesn't handle dropped connections well at present. You can generally tell from the lights on the unit if it's busy. (This is particularly obvious when a using a web browser (rather than something like 'wget') because after the page is loaded the browser makes an immediate request for the favicon. Once every five seconds or so should be fine depending on how big the page is.
  • None of the non-ethernet capabilities of the WiFly are yet exposed e.g. network scans, signal strength information etc.
  • The code isn't very robust for error states--in general it will hang rather than return useful information.
  • We only have a 9600 baud connection between the Arduino and WiFly it should in theory be possible to be much faster.
  • Passphrases or SSIDs that contain spaces or dollar signs ($) will probably not work.

License

The SparkFun WiFly Shield library is Copyright (c) 2010 by SparkFun Electronics and is licensed under the LGPL.

Examples based on the original examples from the official Arduino Ethernet library are licensed under the same terms as the originals.

'ParsedStream.h' contains a ringbuffer implementation based on one originally found in the Arduino 'HardwareSerial' implementation.

Authors

Changelog

  • alpha 2 -- 17 December 2010 -- "Azalea Galaxy"

    • NOTE: New configuration location! You now need to modify the value of 'SHIELD_REVISION' in the file 'Configuration.h' to indicate what revision of the WiFly shield you are using. See the documentation in the file for further detail. The value defaults to the most recent revision sold at the time of the code release.

    • Added support for joining Open networks (i.e. without a passphrase or key).

    • Added (untested) WEP network support.

    • Modified software reboot to hopefully work more reliably.

    • Added support for hardware reset which should be more reliable than software reboot on board revisions that support it (currently only the most recent revision).

    • Modified command mode entry method to hopefully work more reliably. Includes use of guard time as originally inspired by World Mood Light.

    • Added 'SpiUartTerminal' troubleshooting tool.

    • Added 'HardwareFactoryReset' tool to help with troubleshooting.

    • Added support for further board revision feature support configuration.

    • Added some debugging support.

  • alpha 1 -- 31 August 2010 -- "August Gratitude"

    • Change default crystal speed to match new 14MHz crystal used. NOTE: People using the older 12MHz crystal will need to change "USE_14_MHZ_CRYSTAL" in SpiUart.cpp to 'false'.

    • Added ability to set baud rate at runtime in SpiUart class. (Note: This ability to change the baudrate has not yet been propagated to the WiFly class.)

    • Renamed Spi.h to _Spi.h in order to avoid clashes with the other library by the same name as the IDE might (and has) mistakenly included ours instead of the the other one which results in confusing error messages.

    • Changed the case of the 'examples' directory so it gets displayed in the IDE correctly.

  • alpha 0 -- 19 May 2010 -- "Awfully Gorgeous"

    • Initial release