It's easy to use the Adafruit AirLift breakout with CircuitPython and the Adafruit CircuitPython ESP32SPI module.  This module allows you to easily add WiFi to your project.

The ESP32SPI library requires a microcontroller with ~128KB of RAM or more. The SAMD21 will not work.

CircuitPython Microcontroller Pinout

Since all CircuitPython-running Feathers follow the same pinout, you do not need to change any of the pins listed below.

To use the ESP32's pins, copy the following lines into your code:

esp32_cs = DigitalInOut(board.D13)
esp32_ready = DigitalInOut(board.D11)
esp32_reset = DigitalInOut(board.D12)

If you wish to use the ESP32's GPIO0 pin - solder the jumper on the back of the FeatherWing, highlighted in red.

Then, include the following code to use the pin:

esp32_gpio0 = DigitalInOut(board.D10)

CircuitPython Setup

First make sure you are running the latest version of Adafruit CircuitPython for your board.

Next you'll need to install the necessary libraries to use the hardware. Thankfully, we can do this in one go. In the example below, click the Download Project Bundle button below to download the necessary libraries and the code.py file in a zip file. Extract the contents of the zip file, and copy the entire lib folder and the code.py file to your CIRCUITPY drive.

Your CIRCUITPY/lib folder should contain the following folders and files:

  • /adafruit_bus_device
  • /adafruit_esp32spi
  • adafruit_requests.mpy
CIRCUITPY

CircuitPython Usage

Copy the following code to your code.py file on your microcontroller:

import board
import busio
from digitalio import DigitalInOut

from adafruit_esp32spi import adafruit_esp32spi

print("ESP32 SPI hardware test")

esp32_cs = DigitalInOut(board.D13)
esp32_ready = DigitalInOut(board.D11)
esp32_reset = DigitalInOut(board.D12)

spi = busio.SPI(board.SCK, board.MOSI, board.MISO)
esp = adafruit_esp32spi.ESP_SPIcontrol(spi, esp32_cs, esp32_ready, esp32_reset)

if esp.status == adafruit_esp32spi.WL_IDLE_STATUS:
    print("ESP32 found and in idle mode")
print("Firmware vers.", esp.firmware_version)
print("MAC addr:", [hex(i) for i in esp.MAC_address])

for ap in esp.scan_networks():
    print("\t%s\t\tRSSI: %d" % (str(ap['ssid'], 'utf-8'), ap['rssi']))

print("Done!")

Connect to the serial console to see the output. It should look something like the following:

Make sure you see the same output! If you don't, check your wiring. Note that we've changed the pinout in the code example above to reflect the CircuitPython Microcontroller Pinout at the top of this page.

Once you've succeeded, continue onto the next page!

If you can read the Firmware and MAC address but fails on scanning SSIDs, check your power supply, you may be running out of juice to the ESP32 and it's resetting

This guide was first published on May 29, 2019. It was last updated on Mar 27, 2024.

This page (CircuitPython WiFi) was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

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