I solved my issue using the UART directly from the Pins P21(TX) and P22(RX). I’ve also deduped UART 1 and use it to communicate with my peripheral.
To monitor with the REPL I’m using /dev/ttyACM0 (Ubuntu system)

Hi Christian Ehlers and @wilsonto, Thanks very much! This helps a lot.

These are the defaults when using SPI mode according to the MicroPython source code ext/micropython/ports/esp32/machine_sdcard.c

if (is_spi) { // SPI interface #if CONFIG_IDF_TARGET_ESP32S3 STATIC const sdspi_slot_config_t slot_defaults[2] = { { .gpio_miso = GPIO_NUM_36, .gpio_mosi = GPIO_NUM_35, .gpio_sck = GPIO_NUM_37, .gpio_cs = GPIO_NUM_34, .gpio_cd = SDSPI_SLOT_NO_CD, .gpio_wp = SDSPI_SLOT_NO_WP, .dma_channel = 2 }, SDSPI_SLOT_CONFIG_DEFAULT() };

Thanks very much!

OK, thanks.

Yes, you can use lte.pppsuspend() to run AT commands, but then please use lte.connect() to re-connect. If you switch modes, you need to attach again first as the modem resets.

OK, thanks. This is good to know.

OK, excellent. Thanks!