ESP32: WiFi and ESP-Now simultaneously

If, like me, you have just started working with the ESP-Now WiFi protocol, surely you have used the basic example to test. This example will surely be similar to the one I discussed in my basic ESP-Now guide. If, after having started the ESP-Now communication, you have found that you wanted to use the WiFi and ESP-Now simultaneously, surely you have failed. When connecting the WiFi most of the ESP-Now packets are lost or do not arrive at all. This seems to be related to the way the WiFi works, so in this guide I will show you how to fix it.

Let’s start with the basic example of WiFi and ESP-Now, which we already know does not work.

Non-functional Master and ESP-Now

I have stressed the non-functional, so that later you do not say that I did not warn you or that it does not work. This example is what we would use if we mixed a standard WiFi connection with the ESP-Now protocol example, which would give us packet loss. The master is the node that will send the ESP-Now data to the slave, which will be the one that will be in charge of connecting to the WiFi to do whatever we want with them. This node will not connect to the WiFi, so we will only use it to send.

/*
  Daniel Carrasco
  This and more tutorials at https://www.electrosoftcloud.com/
*/

#include <esp_now.h>
#include <WiFi.h>
// Set the SLAVE MAC Address
uint8_t slaveAddress[] = {0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF};
// Structure to keep the temperature and humidity data from a DHT sensor
typedef struct temp_humidity {
  float temperature;
  float humidity;
};
// Create a struct_message called myData
temp_humidity dhtData;
// Callback to have a track of sent messages
void OnSent(const uint8_t *mac_addr, esp_now_send_status_t status) {
  Serial.print("\r\nSend message status:\t");
  Serial.println(status == ESP_NOW_SEND_SUCCESS ? "Sent Successfully" : "Sent Failed");
}
 
void setup() {
  // Init Serial Monitor
  Serial.begin(115200);
 
  // Set device as a Wi-Fi Station
  WiFi.mode(WIFI_STA);
  // Init ESP-NOW
  if (esp_now_init() != ESP_OK) {
    Serial.println("There was an error initializing ESP-NOW");
    return;
  }
  // We will register the callback function to respond to the event
  esp_now_register_send_cb(OnSent);
  
  // Register the slave
  esp_now_peer_info_t slaveInfo;
  memcpy(slaveInfo.peer_addr, slaveAddress, 6);
  slaveInfo.channel = 0;  
  slaveInfo.encrypt = false;
  
  // Add slave        
  if (esp_now_add_peer(&slaveInfo) != ESP_OK){
    Serial.println("There was an error registering the slave");
    return;
  }
}
void loop() {
  // Set values to send
  // To simplify the code, we will just set two floats and I'll send it 
  dhtData.temperature = 12.5;
  dhtData.humidity = 58.9;
  // Is time to send the messsage via ESP-NOW
  esp_err_t result = esp_now_send(slaveAddress, (uint8_t *) &dhtData, sizeof(dhtData));
   
  if (result == ESP_OK) {
    Serial.println("The message was sent sucessfully.");
  }
  else {
    Serial.println("There was an error sending the message.");
  }
  delay(2000);
}

Non-functional slave

Above we have seen the basic sketch of an ESP-Now master that will be the one that collects the data and sends it to the slave for example. The slave will be the node that connects to the WiFi to be able to send the data over the internet and other tasks that we want. It is in this node where we will find the problem that the packets do not arrive and therefore we lose the data. The example sketch is as follows:

/*
  Daniel Carrasco
  This and more tutorials at https://www.electrosoftcloud.com/
*/

#include <esp_now.h>
#include <WiFi.h>

static const char* ssid     = "WIFI_SSID";
static const char* password = "WIFI_PASSWORD";

// Structure to keep the temperature and humidity data
// Is also required in the client to be able to save the data directly
typedef struct temp_humidity {
  float temperature;
  float humidity;
};

// Create a struct_message called myData
temp_humidity dhtData;
// callback function executed when data is received
void OnRecv(const uint8_t * mac, const uint8_t *incomingData, int len) {
  memcpy(&dhtData, incomingData, sizeof(dhtData));
  Serial.print("Bytes received: ");
  Serial.println(len);
  Serial.print("Temperature: ");
  Serial.println(dhtData.temperature);
  Serial.print("Humidity: ");
  Serial.println(dhtData.humidity);
}
void setup() {
  // Initialize Serial Monitor
  Serial.begin(115200);
  
  // Set device as a Wi-Fi Station
  WiFi.mode(WIFI_STA);

  WiFi.begin(ssid, password);

  //check wi-fi is connected to wi-fi network
  while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) {
    delay(1000);
    Serial.print(".");
  }
  
  // Init ESP-NOW
  if (esp_now_init() != ESP_OK) {
    Serial.println("There was an error initializing ESP-NOW");
    return;
  }
  
  // Once the ESP-Now protocol is initialized, we will register the callback function
  // to be able to react when a package arrives in near to real time without pooling every loop.
  esp_now_register_recv_cb(OnRecv);
}
void loop() {
}

Resultado

If you tried the examples above, you may have observed that the packets do not arrive from the ESP-Now master to the slave once you connect the WiFi, and if you comment the line WiFi.begin() the error disappears.

Some packets can arrive at random, like the ones in this screenshot below in which after a lot of attempts by the master, 4 packets have reached the slave.

If your application is not critical you may not mind retrying until it arrives, but personally it seems to me to make a lot of noise and little nuts. Plus I personally see it as an ugly patch and it’s not the right thing to do.

Easy WiFi and ESP-Now solution

Despite how difficult it has been for me to find the solution, browsing forums with examples that did not work, people saying that you had to use two boards, one for the WiFi and the other for the ESP-Now connected by the serial port .. and it turns out that the solution is the easiest.

The main problem seems to be caused by the station mode WiFi going into sleep mode while you have no work. This means that it does not listen to receive ESP-Now packets and therefore they are lost. To solve this we will have to force our microcontroller to listen continuously, and this is achieved by turning it into an AP (Access Point). Relax, it will not be necessary to expose the microcontroller, just tell it to configure itself as AP and Station at the same time. For this we will change this line:

WiFi.mode(WIFI_STA);

For this one:

WiFi.mode(WIFI_AP_STA);

With what the final code would be like this:

/*
  Daniel Carrasco
  This and more tutorials at https://www.electrosoftcloud.com/
*/

#include <esp_now.h>
#include <WiFi.h>

static const char* ssid     = "WIFI_SSID";
static const char* password = "WIFI_PASSWORD";

// Structure to keep the temperature and humidity data
// Is also required in the client to be able to save the data directly
typedef struct temp_humidity {
  float temperature;
  float humidity;
};

// Create a struct_message called myData
temp_humidity dhtData;
// callback function executed when data is received
void OnRecv(const uint8_t * mac, const uint8_t *incomingData, int len) {
  memcpy(&dhtData, incomingData, sizeof(dhtData));
  Serial.print("Bytes received: ");
  Serial.println(len);
  Serial.print("Temperature: ");
  Serial.println(dhtData.temperature);
  Serial.print("Humidity: ");
  Serial.println(dhtData.humidity);
}
void setup() {
  // Initialize Serial Monitor
  Serial.begin(115200);
  
  // Set device as a Wi-Fi Station
  WiFi.mode(WIFI_STA);

  WiFi.begin(ssid, password);

  //check wi-fi is connected to wi-fi network
  while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) {
    delay(1000);
    Serial.print(".");
  }
  
  // Init ESP-NOW
  if (esp_now_init() != ESP_OK) {
    Serial.println("There was an error initializing ESP-NOW");
    return;
  }
  
  // Once the ESP-Now protocol is initialized, we will register the callback function
  // to be able to react when a package arrives in near to real time without pooling every loop.
  esp_now_register_recv_cb(OnRecv);
}
void loop() {
}

And with this simple change, you solve a problem that seems to have turned many on the internet. I’m not saying that people are very clumsy, maybe when they tried it it failed or it was not implemented. That is why I bring you this easy way in the hope that it will serve many.

Hard Way

If the option above failed you, there is an alternative option which is to put the WiFi channel on the master, which seems to be also a requirement for it to work. In my case without going any further, at the time of publishing the first part of this guide it worked perfectly for me, but when I went to implement it two days later in my project it began to fail. Perhaps it was a channel change by my router or similar, so I decided to expand this guide with the other option that I had seen.

Don’t be scared by the title, the “hard way” is because you have to add a few more lines, but it’s not really difficult. The lines to add are the header to be able to configure the channel and the line in which the channel is indicated.

... // Another headers and stuff
#include <esp_wifi.h>
... // The rest of stuff

setup() {
  ... // More of your code
  int32_t channel = 11;
  esp_wifi_set_channel(channel, WIFI_SECOND_CHAN_NONE);
  ... // Rest of your setup code
}

// The rest of code

After these adjustments it should work for you, but if in your case you do not know the channel or it happens to you like it is automatic, it may be better for you to detect the channel of your router automatically. For this you can use this code:

int32_t getWiFiChannel(const char *ssid) {
  if (int32_t n = WiFi.scanNetworks()) {
      for (uint8_t i=0; i<n; i++) {
          if (!strcmp(ssid, WiFi.SSID(i).c_str())) {
              return WiFi.channel(i);
          }
      }
  }
  return 0;
}

Which passing the SSID of your router returns the current channel. Thanks to RandomNerdTutorials who helped me with this last solution.

With both changes the final code would look like this:

/*
  Daniel Carrasco
  This and more tutorials at https://www.electrosoftcloud.com/
*/

#include <esp_now.h>
#include <esp_wifi.h>
#include <WiFi.h>

// Set the SLAVE MAC Address
uint8_t slaveAddress[] = {0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF};

// Insert your SSID
constexpr char WIFI_SSID[] = "YOUR_WIFI_SSID";

// Structure to keep the temperature and humidity data from a DHT sensor
typedef struct temp_humidity {
  float temperature;
  float humidity;
};

// Create a struct_message called myData
temp_humidity dhtData;
// Callback to have a track of sent messages
void OnSent(const uint8_t *mac_addr, esp_now_send_status_t status) {
  Serial.print("\r\nSend message status:\t");
  Serial.println(status == ESP_NOW_SEND_SUCCESS ? "Sent Successfully" : "Sent Failed");
}

int32_t getWiFiChannel(const char *ssid) {
  if (int32_t n = WiFi.scanNetworks()) {
      for (uint8_t i=0; i<n; i++) {
          if (!strcmp(ssid, WiFi.SSID(i).c_str())) {
              return WiFi.channel(i);
          }
      }
  }
  return 0;
}
 
void setup() {
  // Init Serial Monitor
  Serial.begin(115200);
 
  // Set device as a Wi-Fi Station
  WiFi.mode(WIFI_STA);

  int32_t channel = getWiFiChannel(WIFI_SSID);
  esp_wifi_set_channel(channel, WIFI_SECOND_CHAN_NONE);

  // Init ESP-NOW
  if (esp_now_init() != ESP_OK) {
    Serial.println("There was an error initializing ESP-NOW");
    return;
  }
  // We will register the callback function to respond to the event
  esp_now_register_send_cb(OnSent);
  
  // Register the slave
  esp_now_peer_info_t slaveInfo;
  memcpy(slaveInfo.peer_addr, slaveAddress, 6);
  slaveInfo.channel = 0;  
  slaveInfo.encrypt = false;
  
  // Add slave        
  if (esp_now_add_peer(&slaveInfo) != ESP_OK){
    Serial.println("There was an error registering the slave");
    return;
  }
}

void loop() {
  // Set values to send
  // To simplify the code, we will just set two floats and I'll send it 
  dhtData.temperature = 12.5;
  dhtData.humidity = 58.9;
  // Is time to send the messsage via ESP-NOW
  esp_err_t result = esp_now_send(slaveAddress, (uint8_t *) &dhtData, sizeof(dhtData));
   
  if (result == ESP_OK) {
    Serial.println("The message was sent sucessfully.");
  }
  else {
    Serial.println("There was an error sending the message.");
  }
  delay(2000);
}

With these changes you should already have a perfect and trouble-free WiFi and ESP-Now communication.

As always, I hope you liked it and it will serve you, and do not hesitate to comment or share. All the best!.