Pico W: Wi-Fi connection issue with conflicting IP addresses

[max99233]

Hi everyone,

I'm having trouble connecting two Raspberry Pi Pico W devices to the same Wi-Fi network.
I've searched in the web for similiar issue, and seems many have this issue, but didn't find any solution for my particular case.

While the first Pico gets a correct IP address (e.g., 192.168.1.50) and can be pinged and accessed on port 80, the second one gets an IP in a different subnet (e.g., 192.168.4.15) and is unreachable and unpingable.

I've tried different routers (Fritzbox 5530, Netgear, and even my phone's hotspot), but the issue persists.

As a workaround, I've implemented a function to manually set a static IP address, but this is not ideal for end-users who may not be familiar with network configurations.

The Wi-Fi connection code is external to the main loop and is called asynchronously to allow for simultaneous network data retrieval (via HTML page) and fan control.

Does anyone have any suggestions or insights into what might be causing this behavior?

I'm using the version 1.22.2 of Micropython:
here's a little part of code for the connection part:

async def connect_wifi():

try:

    if data_present == True:
        wlan_web.config(pm = 0xa11140, channel=11)
        wlan_web.config(hostname= "picoair" )
        wlan_web.active(True)
        wlan_web.connect(ssid, password)

try:        
          
            data_file = open("./wifi_setup.txt", "r")
            content = data_file.read()
            var_content = str(content)
            ip_public_index = var_content.split("ip=")[1]
            subnet_mask_index = var_content.split("subnet=")[1]
            gateway_ip_index = var_content.split("gateway=")[1]
            dns_index = var_content.split("dns=")[1]
            ip_public = ip_public_index.split()[0]
            subnet_mask = subnet_mask_index.split()[0]
            gateway_ip = gateway_ip_index.split()[0]
            dns = dns_index.split()[0]
            data_file.close()
            wlan_web.ifconfig((ip_public, subnet_mask, gateway_ip, '8.8.8.8'))
            wdt.feed()
            data_charged = True

        except:

            data_charged = False


        max_wait = 10
        while max_wait > 0:
            if wlan_web.status() < 0 or wlan_web.status() >= 3:
                break
            max_wait -= 1
            time.sleep(1)

        if wlan_web.status() != 3:
            raise RuntimeError
            connection_error = True
        else:
            print ("Connesso con successo alla wifi")
            status = wlan_web.ifconfig()
            print (status)
            ip_public = status[0]
            subnet_mask = status[1]
            gateway_ip = status[2]
            dns = status[3]

Sorry for not snippet my code, having some issue with formatting and making readable.
many print for using in a debug terminal with wrepl, imported in the main.
I'm a newbie in coding