Connect to wifi asynchronously and use LED to indicate wifi status

misc/chip_pinout.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+Board: ESP32 NodeMCU
+
+Pins:
+- Neopixels: GPIO26
+- Status LED: GPIO4
+- Button: GPIO21 (against GND)

src/boot.py

@@ -1,10 +1,12 @@
 # boot.py -- This file is executed on every boot (including wake-boot from deepsleep)
 
-from lightbar import wlan_manager
+import uasyncio
 import webrepl
 
-# Connect to WLAN as defined in wlan_cfg.py
-wlan_manager.connect()
+from lightbar import wlan_manager
+
+# Asynchronously connect to WLAN as defined in wlan_cfg.py
+uasyncio.create_task(wlan_manager.connect_async())
 
 # Start WebREPL on default port 8266 with password defined in webrepl_cfg.PASS
 webrepl.start()

src/lightbar/wlan_manager.py

@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
-import network
 import time
 
+import network
+from machine import Pin
+
 
 def connect() -> network.WLAN:
     """
@@ -19,13 +21,21 @@ def connect() -> network.WLAN:
     wlan = network.WLAN(network.STA_IF)
     wlan.active(True)
 
+    status_led = Pin(4, Pin.OUT)
+    status_led.off()
+
     if not wlan.isconnected():
         wlan.connect(wlan_cfg.SSID, wlan_cfg.PASSWORD)
 
         print('[wlan_manager] Connecting to WLAN "{}" '.format(wlan_cfg.SSID), end='')
         while not wlan.isconnected():
             print('.', end='')
-            time.sleep(1)
+
+            # Let the LED blink to indicate the connection attempt
+            status_led.on()
+            time.sleep(0.5)
+            status_led.off()
+            time.sleep(0.5)
         print('\n[wlan_manager] Connected!')
     else:
         print('[wlan_manager] Already connected to WLAN "{}"'.format(wlan.config('essid')))
@@ -35,4 +45,16 @@ def connect() -> network.WLAN:
         wlan.ifconfig(wlan_cfg.IFCONFIG)
 
     print('[wlan_manager] IP config: {}'.format(wlan.ifconfig()))
+
+    # Let the LED blink 2 times quickly to indicate that the WLAN is connected
+    for _ in range(2):
+        time.sleep(0.125)
+        status_led.on()
+        time.sleep(0.125)
+        status_led.off()
+
     return wlan
+
+
+async def connect_async():
+    connect()