Connecting the Arduino microcontroller to the internet

• Computing
• Further Education (Key Stage 5)

How to connect the Arduino MKR1010 microcontroller to the internet.

Objectives for this week

1. Recap on last week's lesson on liquid level sensing
2. Use the Arduino MKR1010 microcontroller to create a Wi-Fi connection to a Wi-Fi network by developing a program that uses the microcontroller and security credentials.
3. Ascertain information from the microcontroller regarding the established Wi-Fi connection.

The liquid level sensor

Last week we seen that we could take our basic knowledge from the blink LED program and apply that knowledge to create an advanced program using a liquid level sensor to sense the water level in a cup.

This was very useful and over the next number of weeks we will fully realise how useful this will become.

Review of last Lesson:

What type of sensor is
the liquid level sensor?

Review of last Lesson:

What are the range of
values that can be read
by the Arduino?

Review of last Lesson:

What command is used
to read values from the
liquid level sensor?

What is Wi-Fi?

What is Wi-Fi?

Wi-Fi is a collection of wireless network protocols that are based on the IEEE 802.11 standard. 

It typically uses the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radio bands and is a technology that is best suited for shorter distances.

Simply explained, Wi-Fi is used to transfer data from one device to another, for example from your computer to your router.

What is Wi-Fi?

The goal with this lesson is to be able to connect our MKR WiFi 1010 board to a Wi-Fi network and confirm the connection by printing relevant information regarding the connection using the serial monitor.

Arduino IDE

As with the previous two weeks we will now open the Arduino IDE however, this week we have a number of steps to follow before we can use the new MKR1010 unit.

We will now go through these steps which will involve installing the drivers for the MKR board also installing additional code libraries to help make our code simpler to create.

STOP!!

Arduino boards are electronic devices!

Before we begin, please ensure you do not have any drinks or fluids on your desk as this poses a health and safety risk.

So, if you have any on your desk, please remove them now.

Arduino MKR1010 Wi-Fi board

Installing Arduino MKR drivers

Installing Arduino MKR drivers

Installing Arduino MKR drivers

Installing Arduino MKR drivers

Installing Arduino MKR drivers

Installing Arduino MKR drivers

Installing libraries

Installing libraries

Building our code - Declarations

Recall that we must declare our prototypes before our setup()

SSID: TP-LINK_389735

Password: 22361776

Recap of today's lesson:

What radio frequencies
does Wi-Fi operate
within?

Recap of today's lesson:

How does the Arduino
Communicate with the
computer/outside world?

Recap of today's lesson:

What one thing did you learn today that you most enjoyed?

Objectives for this week

1. Recap on last week's lesson on liquid level sensing
2. Use the Arduino MKR1010 microcontroller to create a Wi-Fi connection to a Wi-Fi network by developing a program that uses the microcontroller and security credentials.
3. Ascertain information from the microcontroller regarding the established Wi-Fi connection.

For next week

Research the libraries used in today's code example:

SPI

WiFiNINA

We will discuss this at the start of next weeks class.

Next week:

Next week we will be putting together all of our learning this far in terms of:

Lighting LED's,

Liquid level sensor,

Connecting to Wi-FI

Our goal will be to integrate all our code to read data from the sensor and send this to the cloud where it can be monitored.

Feedback please:

Please take a few minutes to provide feedback on today's lesson.