Need help with finding mac-adress of a Pico W using arduino IDE

@zander there is no other software in it. it is as descriped above

Posted by: @zander

@frits1956 What is 'the application'. What do you mean by 'connect the Pi Pico to the router'

Why is a MAC involved?

Shoot me. I do not know.......

Posted by: @zander

@frits1956 I am just trying the PICOW sample server sketch. Once I know it works you should try it as well. If it works on a 'normal' router, then try the protected router (after changing SSID and password of course) If it works as I suspect, then the problem is in the 'train' software.

The whole program works on a normal router. I checked it on my home router and on my hotspot. becaus it failed to connect with a picoW I stripped the whole program so only the connection with the router and picking up the time stayed......

Ron, I appreciate your help but I am almost 7 hours non stop busy with this frustration now. I will look into your answere tomorrow if you do not mind.....

@frits1956 EDIT Got this entirely backwards. If the entire pgm works on a 'normal' router, then the problem is in the secure router. Since none of us are privy to the router details I see no way of being able to help anymore. Maybe a count field for number of secure MAC's? Good luck.

Ignore below

OK, you have proved then that the time program works, but the 'trains' program does not.

Obviously without a lot more information from the 'trains' author (did he/she compile with max error reporting?) we have no way to troubleshoot.

Is that not correct?

@frits1956 Get some rest, but I think you have solved it as I said.

@frits1956

Posted by: @frits1956

@frogandtoad 

I don't know how to ping when the Pico is connected to my Android phone's hotspot.

On my phone I see that I am connected to one device so I know the connection has been established.

At the same time, I see all available Wi-Fi networks on the serial monitor.

I've tried several libraries, but I can't get the following part to work. Keep getting all kinds of errors.

byte mac[6];
WiFi.macAddress(mac);
printMacAddress(mac);

I have tryed <WiFi.h> <ESP8266WiFi.h> <WiFi101> <WiFiNINA>

The device MAC address never changes, so then how about pinging it when it it connected to your own router on the same network?

As soon as you can ping it, it's MAC address will be populated in the arp cache table, and you can find the results by typing, for example in windows:

C:\> ping 192.168.30.1 <- Your Device IP

...then straight after that run...

C:\> arp -a

... and you should see something like the following:

Interface: 192.168.30.?? --- 0xb (your gateway router address)
Internet Address Physical Address Type
192.168.30.1 12-f1-46-ed-40-da dynamic/static <- This is Your Device IP and MAC address

Good luck!

@frits1956 It sounds like you have isolated the problem then. If the PICOW works on a home router then the museum router is the problem ASSUMING you have put the correct MAC address for the PICOW. Try getting the MAC while connected to your home router using a LAN SCAN program. Make sure there are only numbers 0-9 and letters a-f, do not confuse numeric 0 with alpha o or numeric 1 with alpha I.

Do NOT add a MAC filter entry for the picow, replace the working entry for the wemos so there is minimum change to the museum router.

Good luck.

@frogandtoad and @zander

Gentlemen, thank you for the effort you have taken. I really appreciate it.

For now I decided to ask the manager if there is no other way to connect to the internet in the museum. If not, management must look for a solution. I am done.

@frits1956 Get rid of the MAC filtering, it is easily bypassed. If the museum techs are not aware, here is an article to convince them.

https://www.howtogeek.com/204458/why-you-shouldn%E2%80%99t-use-mac-address-filtering-on-your-wi-fi-router/

@zander Thanks, perhaps they listen. If not, it's there problem, I am fet up with it 😥 

@frits1956 Just an FYI, I couldn't even test your situation, my latest router no longer has MAC filtering as it is so trivial to defeat.

@zander Ron, don't worry. You and Frog have helped me more than I could have wished for and I learned a lot. Something in combination of a PicoW and the filtering is different than any other microcontroller boards I've used. Now it's time to realize that too much time and effort is being spent on this problem.

The program they want works perfectly on a router without filtering and as the article describes "mac filtering offers no security". So I leave it to management. As a volunteer it has annoyed me more than I like.

@frits1956 It has nothing to do with the PICO, a MAC is a MAC regardless of the board. I am still positive it will work if it is done right. I suspect 1 of 3 possible errors, either the MAC was copied wrong, the 0 and O problem, or the number of MAC's is fixed/limited that is why I said REPLACE one, don't add.

Ron, Frog, thanks for all the help.

It worked....., 😀 
It took a while but with the directions from Frog I found the right MAC address.
Thanks again