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meshtastic
[Feature Request]: Fall back to BT when Wifi fails
Platform
ESP32
Description
When the device cannot connect to the set Wifi SSID it would be nice if it would fall back to Bluetooth, urrently it does not. Currently the only way to recover your device is to reflash it and erase the config.
I'm pretty sure this is a chipset limitation. Only wifi or BT can be enabled, one or the other, on the chips that support it. This would mean that if your wifi Ap goes out, or something to that effect, your device would just randomly reboot into BT mode, and subsequently lose it's ability to recover the wifi once the signal returns, which may or may not be convenient or ideal.
No, it's not a chipset limitation. I use an ESP32 device and I use ESP32 often also for ESPHome and in ESPHome BT and Wifi are both enabled and working at the same time. For the ESP32 it's no issue, it's a software limitation.
Currently the only way to recover your device is to reflash it and erase the config.
Additional workaround options: If you have a display where you can see the network it's trying to connect to you can use a device that can create a hotspot to make one for THAT network (assuming the issue isn't the password) then change it again. The most common issue I've seen is a trailing space in the SSID.. probably due to keyboard features trying to "help" on the phone clients.
You can also connect via serial/usb and fix it.
They share one radio, so while they can both be enabled, they can't operate at the same time. It has to be managed and introduces complexity. I'm sure it works OK in some situations.
A fallback mechanism where after a certain, perhaps configurable amount of time trying to connect to WiFi it falls back to bluetooth would be really nice. Having it then periodically retry wifi (perhaps also as an option or setting) might be nice as well.
