| name | wireless |
| description | Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on the Uno Q — the WCN3980 module exposes dual-band Wi-Fi 5 (802.11a/b/g/n/ac) and Bluetooth 5.1 to the Linux MPU side. Read this BEFORE writing any project that says "connect to Wi-Fi", "send over the network", "HTTP request", "Bluetooth", or "send my sensor data to my phone". The wireless module is owned by Linux — sketches reach the network via Bridge. |
Wi-Fi & Bluetooth on the Uno Q
The Uno Q has one wireless module — the Qualcomm WCN3980 (designated U2901 on the board). It provides:
- Wi-Fi 5 — 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band (2.4 GHz + 5 GHz)
- Bluetooth 5.1
The wireless module is connected to the MPU (Linux side), not the MCU. The MCU (STM32U585) has no Wi-Fi or Bluetooth radio. This is the opposite of the classic Arduino UNO R4 WiFi, where the ESP32-S3 co-processor handles wireless and the sketch talks to it directly.
On the Uno Q, sketches reach the network through Bridge. Linux owns the radios; Python on Linux makes the HTTP calls / opens the BLE GATT server; the MCU sketch calls Linux via Bridge when it needs to send or receive.
When to use
| Lesson scenario | Approach |
|---|
| "Connect the board to Wi-Fi" | Run nmcli on Linux side, or configure during App Lab onboarding — no sketch involvement |
| "POST sensor data to a web API" | Sketch reads sensor → Bridge.notify("data") → Python requests.post(...) |
| "Serve a web dashboard for live data" | Python runs Flask/FastAPI, polls MCU via Bridge for values |
| "Phone connects to the board over BLE" | Python runs a BLE GATT server (e.g. bless library), forwards reads/writes via Bridge to the sketch |
| "Send a Telegram message when a button is pressed" | MCU notifies on press → Python sends the Telegram message |
Quick rules
- Sketches do NOT include
WiFi.h. That library targets the UNO R4 WiFi, not the Uno Q. The Uno Q has no Wi-Fi peripheral on the MCU.
- All network I/O happens in Python on the Linux side. Use
requests for HTTP, paho-mqtt for MQTT, websockets for WebSocket, the standard library socket for raw TCP/UDP.
- Bridge is the bridge (literally) between the two sides. See
bridge/SKILL.md for the RPC layer.
- Wi-Fi setup is a Linux task. Use
nmcli, wpa_supplicant, or the App Lab first-time-setup wizard. It is NOT done from a sketch.
- Bluetooth uses BlueZ on Linux (the standard Debian stack). Python wrappers:
bleak for client-side BLE, bless or dbus-python for GATT servers.
- The Wi-Fi data transport is SDIO; the Bluetooth control is UART — both internal to the QRB2210 SoC. Students don't see this; they just use Linux network APIs.
Reference files
references/wifi-setup.md — how to connect the board to a Wi-Fi network from the Linux side.references/bridge-tcp.md — pattern for shuttling sketch data to a remote server over Wi-Fi using Bridge + Python requests.references/bluetooth.md — Bluetooth Classic and BLE on the Uno Q.
Pitfalls
#include <WiFi.h> in a sketch. Will not compile against arduino:zephyr:unoq. There is no MCU Wi-Fi.- Trying to do TCP from the sketch. The sketch has no IP stack. Push data to Python via Bridge and let Python do the network call.
- Forgetting the dual-band antenna is shared. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth share one PCB antenna. Heavy Wi-Fi traffic can interrupt BT connections briefly. Use BLE on its own channels (37/38/39) where possible.
- Hard-coding Wi-Fi credentials into a sketch. Even if the sketch could connect, that's a security anti-pattern. Credentials live in NetworkManager /
/etc/wpa_supplicant/ on Linux, set up once and forgotten.
- Confusing the Uno Q with a Raspberry Pi. Pi has its own
/sys/class/gpio and Python GPIO libraries. The Uno Q's Linux side does NOT control the Arduino headers — those belong to the MCU. Network on Linux, GPIO on MCU, Bridge between them.
See also
bridge/SKILL.md — required reading; this skill builds on it.arduino-app-lab/SKILL.md — App Lab handles initial Wi-Fi credential entry.uno-q-hardware/references/connectors.md — note that there is no wireless module on any user-facing header; it's a soldered chip.
