Fastest Way to Connect Wi-Fi on Ai-M61/M62 (with HTTP GET/POST)

[Yaqing-Zheng]

What you'll learn

This tutorial shows the fastest way to connect Wi-Fi on the Ai-M61/M62 and how to send HTTP GET/POST requests using the built-in shell command mechanism of the SDK's wifi_http example — no FreeRTOS task code required to get started.

Prerequisites

• Ai-Thinker Ai-M61-32S-Kit or Ai-M62 board
• Ai-M6X SDK environment set up

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The Example Project

The example lives at examples\wifi\sta\wifi_http. The key file is wifi_http_client.c, which registers custom shell commands to connect Wi-Fi and send HTTP requests.

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How the Shell Command Works

First, look at main.c — it grabs the UART0 peripheral and binds the serial input to the shell command input. This means any data received on the UART is treated as a shell command and dispatched to the custom commands registered in wifi_http_client.c.

Back in wifi_http_client.c, when a command arrives it is parsed. If the command array length is less than 2, the command is considered invalid and it prints a usage hint.

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Sending GET / POST Requests

Once connected, you can send requests with the command:

wifi_http_test jsonplaceholder.typicode.com

Format: wifi_http_test <host>. The request path is defined inside the code.

💡 Need a public test API? Use https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/ — a free fake REST API for testing GET/POST.

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Connecting to Wi-Fi

Method 1 — Serial command (same as above)

Send the connect command over UART:

wifi_sta_connect <SSID> <password>

For example:

wifi_sta_connect ywlim22@unifi v6%+Nt8M

Method 2 — shell_exec from code

You can also call the Wi-Fi connect command from within your code using shell_exec, essentially sending the command to yourself:

shell_exec("wifi_sta_connect <SSID> <password>");

This works — though I wasn't able to trace exactly where wifi_sta_connect is registered to the command line.

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⚠️ Known Issues & Open Questions (honest notes)

This is a work-in-progress share, so here are a few things I ran into and couldn't fully solve:

1. shell_exec can't be reused for GET/POST. If you try to call the HTTP request command via shell_exec, it misbehaves — it treats the POST/GET command as a Wi-Fi connect command. I haven't found the cause yet.

2. wifi_test_http_client_init() is for HTTP requests only. Don't try to use it to connect Wi-Fi.

3. Sending requests from code (not yet solved). I wanted to send GET/POST programmatically after Wi-Fi connects, but the request always fires before the connection is fully established (no IP yet), so it fails. My idea is to write a FreeRTOS task that waits for the connection before sending the request — but I haven't learned FreeRTOS scheduling well enough to implement it.

🙏 If you know a better way — especially the "send HTTP after Wi-Fi is up" part — please share it in the comments!

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Try It Yourself

Adapt the code to your environment, or just copy main.c and wifi_http_client.c from the example.

📦 Example project download: wifi_http.zip

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Questions?

• ❓ Need help with the "send HTTP after Wi-Fi connects" problem? Post it in the Q&A category.
• 🙌 Solved it or built something with it? Share in Show and tell — this is exactly the kind of problem the community can crack together.

📖 Original (Chinese) tutorial: 最快办法连接 WiFi（基于小安派 M61-M62）

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Contributed by WangChong · Curated by the Ai-Thinker community team