Raspberry Pi: Raspbian Wi-Fi Lower MAC Driver Example

Introduction

The WF200/WFM200 Wi-Fi Expansion Boards are the best and fastest way to explore the capabilities of the WF(M)200 Wi-Fi Transceivers. The kits contain an expansion board that can be connected to a Rapsberry Pi 2B, 3B, 3B+ or 4B. The expansion board allows the Raspberry Pi MCU to connect to a WF(M)200 Wi-Fi part, which can connect to Wi-Fi networks, but also be an Access Point to which other devices can connect.

This document describes how to connect the WF Wi-Fi EXP Board to a Raspberry Pi and run a demo.

Getting Started

This demonstration runs the Wi-Fi Lower MAC driver meant to communicate with the WF(M)200 Silicon Labs Wi-Fi transceivers. The Wi-Fi Lower MAC driver is used by mac80211/cfg80211 like many other Linux Wi-Fi drivers.

Naming convention

SoftAP: WF(M)200 configured in Wi-Fi Software-enabled Access Point mode
Station: WF(M)200 configured in Wi-Fi Station mode
AP: Any 'home network' or 'office network' Wi-Fi Access Point
Device: The PC or phone used to access the demo

Requirements

Hardware Prerequisites

To properly use the example you need the following hardware:

A Wi-Fi Expansion Kit

SLEXP8022A = WF200 Expansion Board BRD8022A + SD Card SLEXP8022C = SLEXP8022A + Raspberry Pi (2B) + power supply

SLEXP8023A = WFM200 Expansion Board BRD8023A + SD Card SLEXP8023C = SLEXP8023A + Raspberry Pi (2B) + power supply

A Raspberry Pi (if not included in your kit)
- As from SD3.1 onwards the SD card image is compatible with Raspberry Pi 2B, 3B, 3B+ & 4B, so any Raspberry Pi in this list is ok
A Raspberry Pi Power Supply (if not included in your kit)
A micro SD Card with at least 8Gbyte capacity (if not included in your kit)
A Device with Wi-Fi capability (to connect to the SoftAP)
A home or office Wi-Fi AP you can connect to (with known credentials)

Software Prerequisites

For initial demonstration purposes, no software is required except the SD card delivered with the kit. Once the initial demonstration has been used to validate the hardware, you may need:

An updated SD Card image downloaded from links available on Github
A PC with SSH capability

Set up your Kit

Once you have the above resources, follow the steps described below (you can refer to the image below):

On the Wi-Fi Expansion Kit
- Set the [POWER] switch to On Board LDO
- Set the 'communication' switch to SDIO
Plug the Wi-Fi Expansion Kit on top of the Raspberry Pi
Insert the SD Card in the Raspberry Pi SD card slot

Network Security Notice

Since the SoftAP credentials are publicly documented in the following pages, refer to our security notice.

Start the Example

Connect the power supply to the USB port of the Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi will boot and start the SoftAP.

Note: On the very first boot, make sure to leave the Raspberry Pi powered for at least 1 minute, since it will automatically expand the file system to take advantage of the entire SD card capacity.

You're ready to move to the SD3.1 Wi-Fi commissioning demonstration.