Unable to connect to WiFi

Hi there,

A few months ago I purchased an ESP32-S3 AI Camera Module (DFRobot DFR1154 / https://www.dfrobot.com/product-2899.html). This weekend I finally had some time to start experimenting with it, but I'm running into WiFi connection issues.

I'm using the Arduino IDE (version details below) and started with the standard WiFi → SimpleWiFiServer example. Unfortunately, the board is unable to connect to my WiFi networks and appears to get stuck while trying to establish the connection.

So far I've tested:

- FritzBox 2.4 GHz WiFi

- FritzBox 5 GHz WiFi

- Android phone hotspot 

None of these work.

Other ESP-Cam and ESP32 boards can successgully connect to the FritzBox 2.4 GHz WiFi.

Interestingly, the board does successfully connect to the hotspot created by my Shelly 2PM Gen4 device (https://www.shelly.com/products/shelly-2pm-gen4).

I also tested the "Example Code for Arduino - Image Recognition Based on EdgeImpulse" from the DFRobot wiki (https://wiki.dfrobot.com/dfr1154/docs/21372). The behavior is exactly the same:

- Cannot connect to FritzBox 2.4 GHz

- Cannot connect to FritzBox 5 GHz

- Cannot connect to Android hotspot

- Successfully connects to the Shelly hotspot 

When connected to the Shelly hotspot, I can access the web server and control the camera as expected by joining the hotspot with my phone or computer.

One additional observation: the WiFiScan example (Examples → WiFi → WiFiScan) correctly detects both the FritzBox 2.4 GHz network and the Android hotspot, so the board is able to see those networks.

Has anyone experienced similar issues or has any suggestions on what I could try next?

Arduino IDE

Version: 2.3.7-nightly-20250507
Date: 2025-05-07T03:28:26.167Z
CLI Version: 1.2.0

Copyright © 2026 Arduino SA

Thanks for any help!