The Waveshare Ethernet HAT adds wired networking to Raspberry Pi Pico using the W5100S chip — reliable, low-latency connectivity without WiFi.

Specs

• W5100S chip, 10/100 Mbps Ethernet
• SPI interface to Pico
• RJ45 connector with integrated magnetics
• TCP/IP hardware stack

Setup

Plug HAT onto Pico headers. Flash MicroPython with W5100S support. Configure IP address.

MicroPython Networking

import network
nic = network.WIZNET5K(machine.SPI(0), machine.Pin(17), machine.Pin(20))
nic.active(True)
nic.ifconfig('dhcp')
print(nic.ifconfig())

Simple Web Server

import socket
s = socket.socket(); s.bind(('', 80)); s.listen(5)
while True:
    conn, addr = s.accept()
    conn.send('HTTP/1.0 200 OKrnContent-Type: text/htmlrnrn')
    conn.send('
Hello from Pico!
')
    conn.close()

Projects

• Wired IoT sensor node (more reliable than WiFi)
• Network-attached measurement instrument
• PoE-powered remote sensor (with PoE splitter)
• MQTT client for industrial monitoring

Frequently Asked Questions

Why Ethernet over WiFi?

Lower latency, more reliable, no interference, no password management.

Speed?

10/100 Mbps. Sufficient for sensor data and web serving.

PoE support?

Not directly. Use a PoE splitter to power the Pico externally.

Works with CircuitPython?

Yes, Adafruit has W5100S CircuitPython support.

Conclusion

Wired Ethernet on Pico provides the reliability that WiFi cannot guarantee — essential for industrial and critical IoT applications.

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