Wifi

Found under Wireless on the device's panel list.

Station Info

Shows this device's Wi-Fi station (client) connection, and lets you set the network name, password and on/off switch it uses to join it. Station mode joins a network that already exists - it does not create one. To broadcast your own network from this device, use the AP Info screen (Gray) instead.

The screen

The ESP32-C5 radio is soldered to this device and has its own link to the main processor, so this screen is always live - there is no Orca UART setting to point at it first, and nothing needs selecting in Orca Setup. The screen always shows one of three honest states: a "Wi-Fi radio off" page on hardware where Orca still has to be pointed at BottleNose (not reachable on FreeWili 2, where the ESP32-C5 is soldered down and always available), the module not answering, or the live panel below with whatever it currently knows.

On the live panel, top to bottom:

• SSID - the Wi-Fi network name this device tries to join
• Password - shown and typed in plain text, not masked
• A status line, coloured to match the state below, with the device's Wi-Fi MAC address to its right once the co-processor answers
• IP address, gateway and subnet mask - each the usual four dot-separated numbers, blank unless the state below is "Connected"

Controls

Button	Action
Blue	Turn station mode on or off
Yellow	Set the SSID
Green	Set the password
Gray	Go to AP Info
Cancel	This help page

Red carries no label here and does nothing. HOME leaves the screen from here, as it does everywhere else in the menu. Gray cycles through the app's three pages: here to AP Info, AP Info to Wi-Fi Scan, and Wi-Fi Scan back here.

Connection states

The status line reports the ESP32's actual state machine, not just on or off:

• Red "Disabled" - station mode is off; the interface is down
• Red "Disconnected" - station mode is on and the interface has started, but it has not associated with a network yet; despite the label this means running but not joined, not off
• Yellow "Waiting for IP" - associated with the network, still requesting an address
• Green "Connected" - has an IP address; the IP, gateway and mask fields are filled in
• Red "ESP32 radio not responding" (shown as "On - ESP32 not responding" if station mode is set on) - the module has not answered in the last 2 seconds; the MAC address is hidden, the IP, gateway and mask fields are blanked, and nothing on the screen is being refreshed

When the module is silent a second line appears under the addresses: "Starting the radio..." for the moment or two it takes to come up after you open the screen, and "No reply from the radio." if it still has not answered after that. The same line reads "Set an SSID to enable." if the module is reachable but no SSID has been saved yet.

This status line, the MAC address and the IP fields refresh about once a second while the screen is open, so a change may take a moment to show up.

SSID and password

Yellow and Green each open a text entry. SSID accepts up to 30 characters and password up to 62; type more and the extra is silently discarded rather than shown as an error. Both, and whether station mode is on, are saved and survive a restart.

You can change either, or turn station mode on or off, even while the status shows the module is not responding - the change is saved right away and sent to the module automatically the moment it answers.

Blue refuses to turn station mode on if no SSID is saved yet: it shows "Set an SSID first (yellow)" and leaves the setting off, rather than silently doing nothing.

There is nothing else to set for station mode - security type is negotiated automatically with the network you join.

Power

Opening any of the Wi-Fi screens powers the radio and keeps it powered for as long as one of them stays open, so there is nothing to switch on first. It takes a second or two to start, which is what the "Starting the radio..." line is reporting.

AP Info

Shows this device's own Wi-Fi access point, and lets you set its network name, password and on/off switch. This page creates a network; the Station Info page next to it joins one instead. If you want the device to broadcast its own network, this is the page to use.

The screen

The ESP32-C5 radio is soldered to this device and has its own link to the main processor, so this screen is always live - there is no Orca UART setting to point at it first (that requirement only applies to the older board, where BottleNose is a plug-in module sharing a UART with other peripherals). Top to bottom:

• Num of Devices - always reads 0; it is not wired up to a live count
• SSID - the network name this device broadcasts
• Password - shown and typed in plain text, not masked
• A status line, coloured to match the state below, with the device's Wi-Fi MAC address to its right once the co-processor answers
• IP address, gateway and subnet mask of the access point - each the usual four dot-separated numbers, blank unless the access point is running
• A hint line that explains the status when it is anything other than plainly running

Controls

Button	Action
Blue	Turn the access point on or off
Yellow	Set the SSID
Green	Set the password
Gray	Go to the Wi-Fi Scan page
Red	Retired as the exit control; unlabelled and does nothing here
Cancel	This help page

HOME leaves the screen from here, as it does everywhere else in the menu.

Status colours

• Green "Running" - the access point is broadcasting
• Red "Disabled" - the access point is off
• Red "ESP32 radio not responding" - the module has not answered in the last 2 seconds; the MAC address and IP fields are hidden and nothing on the screen is being refreshed
• Red "On - ESP32 not responding" - the setting is on but the module has gone silent since; the hint line below explains why

The hint line under the addresses fills in whenever there is something to explain: the radio still starting up, no reply from it after that, no SSID set yet, or the access point turned on and still waiting to come up.

Unlike Station Info, there is no in-between "connecting" colour here - the access point is either running or it is not. This status line, the MAC address and the IP fields refresh about once a second while the screen is open, so a change may take a moment to show up.

SSID and password

Yellow and Green each open a text entry. SSID accepts up to 30 characters and password up to 62; type more and the extra is silently discarded rather than shown as an error. Both, and whether the access point is on, are saved and survive a restart.

Turning the access point on with Blue while the SSID is blank is refused with a "Set an SSID first (yellow)" message box - an unnamed access point would come up open, so the firmware will not start it. Setting the SSID afterward removes the block, and Blue works normally again.

You can change the SSID or password, or turn the access point on or off, even while the status shows the module is not responding - the change is saved right away and sent to the module automatically the moment it answers.

The access point itself

The access point comes up on the 2.4 GHz band, fixed channel 7 - there is no setting on this device to change either one. A password shorter than 8 characters results in an open network, regardless of the security type chosen in the Wifi Settings menu; only 8 characters or more actually secures it.

What is not on this screen

The access point's security type and whether its SSID is hidden from scans are set in the Wifi Settings menu found elsewhere in the device, not here. This screen only shows and sets SSID, password and on/off.

Wi-Fi Scan

Scans for nearby Wi-Fi networks and joins the one you pick. The scan starts by itself when the page opens; networks appear in the list as they are found, strongest signal first, and keep filling in for a few seconds. One scan actually runs twice behind the scenes, once per band, so both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks show up.

The list

Each row is one network, laid out the way a phone shows them:

• The network name, or "(hidden)" for a network that hides its name
• Signal bars - four bars is a strong signal, one bar a weak one
• A padlock on password-protected networks; open networks have none

The network this device is joined to (or joining) is pinned to the top of the list: green with a check mark and "Connected" once it has an address, amber with "Connecting..." on the way there. The list holds up to 32 networks, and the line under it reports progress: which band is being scanned, how many networks were found, or that none were.

Joining a network

Move the highlight with Up and Down and press OK to join (the center button does the same thing):

• A protected network asks for its password; the entry is prefilled with the saved password when you rejoin the network the device already knows
• An open network joins immediately, no questions asked

You stay on this page while it happens - the picked network pins to the top and walks from "Connecting..." to a green "Connected", the way a phone does. Joining saves the network name and password as the station settings and switches station mode on; the choice survives a restart, like anything typed on Station Info itself. The Station Info page (Gray) has the addresses once the join lands.

Controls

Button	Action
OK	Join the highlighted network
Green	Scan again, clearing the list first
Gray	Go to the Station Info page
Cancel	This help page

HOME leaves the screen from here, as it does everywhere else in the menu.

Power

Opening the page powers the radio and keeps it powered while you stay there, so there is nothing to switch on first. A scan started while it is still booting is held and sent the moment it answers, so the first list may just take a few extra seconds to appear.

See also: Wifi — the console/GUI commands for this panel.