nRF9160 with nRF7002-ek; connect to Wi-Fi network

[JImec]

My setup is a nRF7002-EK shield on top of the nRF9160-DK.
Trying to use this shield to connect to a Wi-Fi network, using the shell example compiled with the suggested command:

west build -b nrf9160dk_nrf9160_ns -- -DOVERLAY_CONFIG="overlay-scan-only.conf" -DSHIELD=nrf7002ek

Using the shell `wifi scan`, I can see all the available networks.
However, connecting to a network instantly fails.

Does the `scan-only-overlay` mean that I am only able to use the scan command?
Is it possible (and how?) to also use the other commands as most of the other commands return an error.

[Simonr]

Hi

Did some digging on my end, and doing anything else than scanning won't be possible I'm afraid. If you check out the memory requirements for Wi-Fi applications in STA mode here you can see that just a "simple" UDP socket functionality will require a total of 211 kB of RAM, which is almost all of the nRF9160's 256kB, especially since some of this RAM is coined for secure partitions.

Best regards,

Simon

[JImec]

Thank you Simonr, so the nRF9160 is not really that compatible with the nRF7002-EK.
On the page it is mentioned as compatible, maybe it's worth giving that a second thought.

So I still need hardware to use in my project, currently I am working with the nRF9160 and have an application with the following features:
- LTE-M data connection
- Azure IOT Hub
- Uart to communicate with subsystem (to retrieve the data)

This uses about 120KB of RAM. For data storage (could be optimized) we use another about 100KB RAM).
For out next development step, we want to add a WiFi chip (as alternative to the LTE-M data connection). So this WiFi chip should also connect with our Azure IOT Hub.

Can you give me some recommendations on what hardware (MCU, LTE, & WiFi chip) to use for this application?

[Simonr]

Not for extended Wi-Fi functionality, no. Thank you for your feedback, I will forward that to our marketing team.

Okay, unfortunately we don't have a good suggestion to Wi-Fi chips currently. I think contacting a distributor might give you the best and most unbiased advice on what Wi-Fi chips to use in this case. Since I specialize in Nordic products, what I'm aware of is somewhat limited and would recommend maybe a Wi-Fi chip from Silicon Labs or the ESP series from Espressif.

Best regards,

Simon