I'm thinking about an Arduino project that involves having an Arduino host a basic web server and then connect to a wifi network using a wifi shield or something along those lines. You could then connect to the Arduino via the network and control it.
Most of that sounds very feasible, however, how do you initially setup an Arduino on the wifi network? How does the Arduino determine which wifi network to connect to, if there are more than one? And what happens if its a protected network? And once the Arduino is on, how would one determine it's IP address.
I know, a lot of this stuff could be hard coded into the Arduino's code, but what I'm theorizing it that this could actually be a product that could be sold on shelves. So it would have to be easy to use and flexible for the average joe at home.
It seems like the Arduino device would HAVE to have some sort of LCD screen and basic controls/buttons on it so you could connect to the network and input the secure password, etc… Is there any other way to do this?
Best Answer
How you tell the WiFi shield how/what to connect to is purely down to the shield. There will probably be a library, and that library will have functions you call.
How you then get that data from the user is entirely up to you.
Yes, an LCD and buttons is probably the easiest way.
Either that or you have some other interface to the Arduino (Serial over USB is the simplest as it already exists) that the user uses to configure the system using a PC. Once configured the system can be disconnected from the PC and will be stand-alone.