Why is AP mode enabled by default?

All ESP8266 boards running MicroPython.
Official boards are the Adafruit Huzzah and Feather boards.
Target audience: MicroPython users with an ESP8266 board.
Post Reply
JennaSys
Posts: 33
Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2014 8:29 am
Location: Southern California, US
Contact:

Why is AP mode enabled by default?

Post by JennaSys » Sat Jul 24, 2021 11:42 pm

In the default MicroPython build for the ESP8266, the AP interface is enabled by default via modules/_boot.py and modules/inisetup.py and I was wondering if there is a reason for this. It doesn't seem you can do much with it without first doing some other initial setup tasks via a serial REPL (like enabling webrepl).
John Sheehan

User avatar
jimmo
Posts: 2754
Joined: Tue Aug 08, 2017 1:57 am
Location: Sydney, Australia
Contact:

Re: Why is AP mode enabled by default?

Post by jimmo » Wed Aug 04, 2021 6:15 am

JennaSys wrote:
Sat Jul 24, 2021 11:42 pm
In the default MicroPython build for the ESP8266, the AP interface is enabled by default via modules/_boot.py and modules/inisetup.py and I was wondering if there is a reason for this. It doesn't seem you can do much with it without first doing some other initial setup tasks via a serial REPL (like enabling webrepl).
I'm not sure, unfortunately there's no information in the git history for that code. I notice that ESP32 doesn't do this (and this is likely because on ESP32 the wifi configuration is not persistent).

It's quite neat to be able to just run "import webrepl_setup" and then you're all set to go...

JennaSys
Posts: 33
Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2014 8:29 am
Location: Southern California, US
Contact:

Re: Why is AP mode enabled by default?

Post by JennaSys » Wed Aug 04, 2021 7:23 pm

Yea I could definitely see it as a benefit for doing an initial setup wirelessly if webrepl was also enabled. I seem to recall reading somewhere that it used to be, so it might be that the AP being enabled is an artifact of that.

I put the question out there just to see if there was some other feature or workflow I was unaware of where having AP enabled by default makes sense.
John Sheehan

Post Reply