Add AP (Access Point) mode for ESP32 fs/web workflow

[maruf009sultan]

Right now the web workflow only works when the ESP32 joins an existing WiFi network.
It would be very useful if CircuitPython on ESP32 could start its own WiFi access point, so a computer/phone can connect directly to it.

This helps in cases where:

1] No router / internet is available (off-grid, field use).

2] User prefers not to connect through external WiFi.

The AP mode wouldn’t need extra features beyond what already exists — just the same web workflow but hosted on the ESP32’s own WiFi network.

[anecdata]

See #6795 and #8405.

In the mean time, there are some partial solutions with varying complexity:
https://gist.github.com/anecdata/bddc29b0d21f03c339e8641794addeca?permalink_comment_id=5728402#gistcomment-5728402

[maruf009sultan]

yeah, I know it, actually I tried this but my board can't connect to my phones hotspot [ android 15] but works fine on actual wifi .

[bablokb]

My experience: none of my devices can connect for web-workflow. In normal operation, I always need multiple calls to wifi.radio.connect() to establish a connection. This is true for both the Espressif and the RP2xxx port. The web-workflow in contrast uses a single attempt. This could also explain why this works for your "normal wifi", but not for the hotspot which maybe just needs to try harder.

I analyzed the code (again for both ports) and I think it has a flaw: it bails out on the first error, not respecting the timeout. I already fixed this for the RP2xxx code, changing the Espressif code would be similar. My fix just ignores errors during the timeout and keeps on trying, and this solves the connection problem.

But this is currently not a priority on my work-list.