Pi Pico W with Waveshare - Struggling!

Support
1

Hi,

I have a Pi Pico W and a Waveshare 1262 that I’m trying to get working, to no avail.

I have:

  • Successfully flashed the device with both stable and alpha firmwares
  • Attempted to configure the device using a USB serial connection to my laptop using the webclient (client.meshtastic.org)
  • Attempted to connect to the device via a USB cable to my Android app

Problems:

  • When using the webclient, the SAVE button doesn’t work reliably. I’ve managed to get some things to stick - device name, country code, wifi details etc, but I can’t set a static IP, as the SAVE button doesn’t work. It never remembers the configuration.
  • When using the Android app and a USB cable, the app cannot detect the Pi running Meshtastic. I’ve put the phone in developer mode and tried all the USB connection methods - file transfer, PTP etc, but it is never recognised.

Does anyone have any ideas or tips on moving forward? I’ve been at this for hours and am losing the will!

Thanks,
Adam

2

Two weeks and no comments. Maybe I chose the wrong hardware to experiment with Meshtastic! Darn.

Does anyone know of a more responsive way to get help with such issues? I’d love to get this working, but I’m at a loss.

Thanks.

3

The Discord server is more active than this forum.

That said, I’ve never tried to set a static IP via the web client, but if that doesn’t work you can also try the Python CLI. Also, without static IP it should get an IP via DHCP automatically, which you can check via some networking tool or via the serial logs of the device. It’s also printed on the screen if you attach one.

I’m not sure about the serial connection to the Android phone. I’ve heard from others that it would “just work”.

4

It doesn’t connect to wifi, static or DHCP. Because there’s no wifi connection, I can’t use the app with it either.

Nothing seems to work.

Has anyone had any success with this hardware combo?

5

There’s a couple things to check.

  • Did you flash the Pico W firmware and not the Pico firmware? They’re identical except for WiFi capabilities.

  • Make sure your WiFi network is working 2.4GHz only.

  • Double check the WiFi settings are saved correctly with the Python CLI command meshtastic —info.

  • Check the serial logs where it’s complaining about when trying to connect. You can use either the “Open Serial Monitor” on flasher.meshtastic.org or the Python CLI command meshtastic —noproto.