leftover wireless access point on NodeMCU boards?

Question

A guest brought over an ipad today, and when I went to add it to our wireless network, I was surprised to see a few new networks:

I was able to verify the top entry: AI-Thinker_1788E9 is the NodeMCU that came with my Weather station kit.

(It drops off when I unplug it)

It surprised me that it would be acting as both an access point and a client at the same time.

Does anyone know why this is?

Is there any way to turn off the access point piece of this?

Answer 1

There is a lot of good information on this page:

https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino/blob/master/doc/esp8266wifi/station-class.rst

Basically I think with or without WiFiManager the ESP8266 remembers some of your settings (probably in the RTC memory?) and applies it next time you start it up. To disable the access mode call the following method in the appropriate position:

WiFi.mode(WIFI_STA)

Answer 2

Hi,

Take a look to  WiFiManager and things around it.

It creates an AP by design on startup if there is no connectivity to your saved once WiFi SSID.

Once you have your router SSID / pass saved through the auto connecting temporary AP in question, the it should not appear anymore.

Alternatively, you can clean the code completely from WiFiMAnager and use the hard coded credentials to your SSID.

If this is not the problem you faced, then you may search for EraseFlash.ino, then use it to make sure you clean any previous firmware left-overs.