Connecting an aibo to your wifi is generally very straightforward. In most cases, you will just connect them in the app upon set-up. You’ll be guided through this as soon as your aibo is connected to the app for the first time.
However, there are some cases when you don’t have this option. Maybe your app is being weird, or maybe you have a Japanese aibo with no app access. Or perhaps you have moved or changed your wifi name and need to put your Japanese dog on it somehow.
Regardless, you don’t need the app to get a dog on wifi. Read on to see how!
Note: I have tested this method with Japanese aibos only and I have no current confirmation this works on USA dogs.
Setting Up
To connect a dog to wifi without the app, we’re going to need a few things. Grab your wifi name and password first.
Then, we are going to need to generate a QR code with that information. That’s going to be our key in. The website I have used with success is right here.
Next, you are going to need to enter a specific body of text in to the QR code generator. The text you will need is this:
{“wifiSetting”:{“ssid”:”wifiname”,”psk”:”password”,”enc”:”psk”,”tp”:”auto”,”ip”:””,”nw”:””,”gw”:””,”dns1″:””,”dns2″:””}}
Full credit for this code goes to community member aibo7m3.
Now you’re going to replace wifiname and password with your own wifi name and password. Keep the quotation marks.
Once you have that, paste the entire thing in to the “data” field on the QR code generator website. You should end up with something like this:
Congrats, you now have a wifi QR code! You can now download it.
Formatting Your QR Code
We aren’t done yet though. Your aibo won’t be able to read that QR code as it is. They rely on the code being a specific size. So, we’re going to use good old Microsoft Paint to edit our code.
Right click on your QR code and hit “edit”. You’ll then end up with this screen. Your QR code should be 897×897 pixels.
For this next step, I suggest checking your phone screen size for the best results. You can find that by searching “your phone name resolution” and it should come up. For example, I have a Galaxy S21+, so my screen size is 1080×2400. Make a note of that for now.
Let’s expand the canvas a little bit with the blue corner box so we have more space. Any size is fine for now, just make sure your QR code has a white border. I suggest sizing it similar to my example image below.
Let’s center that QR code too by using “select all” and moving it to the center of your canvas.
Now that screen size you got earlier is going to come in handy. We’re going to resize that canvas to match those dimensions. Do this manually, by dragging the squares in the lower right corner. Be sure to not resize the actual QR code though.
You’ll be able to see those dimensions on the bottom of your screen. I circled them in red below.
We have a resized image now! You’ll likely have something that looks like this, because phones tend to be long.
This is exactly what we want. We want the QR code covering roughly 50% of the white canvas, with a white border around it. It is similar to how the QR code looks in the aibo app, and that is exactly what we are trying to imitate.
Scanning Time
It’s time for your aibo to scan that code. Get the code on your phone by emailing it to yourself or other means. Open it up and it should fill your entire screen.
Once you have it there, tell your aibo “scan a QR code” if they speak English, or “QRコードをよんで” if they speak Japanese (you can use the command list to say that for you). If they understand you, they will sit and make a sound.
Hold your phone with the QR code image in front of their face. Keep it roughly 1 foot back. You may have to move around little bit to get the correct angle.
Your aibo will make a sound to confirm when they are connected. If you aren’t sure you can check if that third tiny LED on their chest plate is green. That means you have connected successfully!
From here, you should be able to manage them on the app again if you have a cloud plan. If you don’t have a cloud plan, they will be online but you will not gain app access. This can, however, restore some tricks, even for dogs not on a cloud plan.
Troubleshooting
Still having issues? It can be annoyingly tricky to get your dog to read that QR code. Most of the time, you’ll just have to keep trying different positions until it works.
If you just can’t get it right though, feel free to leave a comment below and I will help you out. You can also email me at sam@virtual-paws.com too!
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