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Related · high · value 0.687
QUERY · ISSUE

network.WLAN(...).scan() on Pico W returns out of range security and hidden parameters

openby mrmabsopened 2022-11-19updated 2025-07-17
bug

Hi all,

When doing wifi scans, the returned values regularly have values 5 of 7 in security, and values varying from 0 to 8 in hidden; the documentation states security should be 0-4 and hidden should be 0 or 1.

I've tried to go through the source from micropython to the cyw43 pico driver, but I'm not able to identify the issue (as I don't believe I understand the code enough to make a definitive statement). My [poorly informed] assumption is the security values aren't being translated from the CYW43 driver (CYW43_AUTH_), and maybe the hidden variable is getting overrun because it only ever appears to be set to 1 (network_cyw43_scan_cb() in extmod/network_cyw43.c), which would be hidden and should probably be 0 for visible. But neither of those assumptions completely make sense.

I have used two different firmware releases:

  • pimoroni-picow-v1.19.10-micropython
  • rp2-pico-w-20221118-unstable-v1.19.1-705-gac5934c96

I initially followed the scanning code from this website, and quoting from the website where you can see the example output shows out of range values:

import network #import required module
wlan = network.WLAN(network.STA_IF) #initialize the wlan object
wlan.active(True) #activates the wlan interface
accessPoints = wlan.scan() #perform a WiFi Access Points scan
for ap in accessPoints: #this loop prints each AP found in a single row on shell
    print(ap)

'>>> %Run -c $EDITOR_CONTENT
(b'****er-1', b'\xac\x9e\x17k\xd6@', 2, -47, 5, 5)
(b'*********G3P4', b'\xc8Z\x9f\xdc\xa47', 11, -81, 5, 3)
(b'*********TWEB', b'\xcaZ\x9f\xdc\xa47', 11, -80, 5, 2)

And this blog post also mentions unusual output values:
https://dev.webonomic.nl/scanning-network-with-the-raspberry-pi-pico-w

My end goal is to get reliable values to generate logs for wardriving.

CANDIDATE · ISSUE

WLAN config parameter 'hidden' unknown

openby magnus-0opened 2025-08-13updated 2026-03-18
bugport-rp2

Port, board and/or hardware

Raspberry Pico W

MicroPython version

MicroPython v1.25.0 on 2025-04-15; Raspberry Pi Pico W with RP2040

Reproduction

  1. Try to set parameter 'hidden' via WLAN.config()
  2. Parameter unknown error

Expected behaviour

An AP with hidden SSID

Observed behaviour

Parameter unknown

Additional Information

According to the docs there should be a config parameter 'hidden' for the WLAN class, which supposingly hides the SSID when running in IF_AP mode.

However, in reality this doesn't seem to exist, and results in an error 'unknown config param'.
The Gibhub repo also doesn't show it in code (as far as I can tell).
Neither could I see a param with a different name meant for this purpose.

Perhaps this was overlooked..?
Thanks for following this up! :D

Code of Conduct

Yes, I agree

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