I have a custom ESP32-S2-based circuit board with USB-C which does not have a USB-serial converter IC like a common dev board might. On this board, USB(-) is on GPIO19, and USB(+) is on GPIO20. USB works great for powering the board and for uploading firmware.
The board works well and I have access to good old-fashioned serial console via a USB-to-logic level serial interface, but it would be nice to be able to get serial out to USB along with the firmware upload (like a dev board).
I’m using PlatformIO in Visual Studio Code, and writing with arduino-esp32 rather than ESP-IDF.
I understand by these instructions from Espressif that when using ESP-IDF I can configure log output to go to USB CDC rather than UART, and this has been done successfully on my custom board. But I would like to be able to do this without having to switch over to ESP-IDF.
I’m presuming that one of the partitions that PlatformIO is building for me is this configuration with some nice common sense defaults, but I can’t see how I might alter those defaults to do what I’m looking for.
Any thoughts or pointers?
Related
Problem
I'm looking for a way to flash an ESP32 module's memory without installing the whole IDF software suite.
Why
Because I want to integrate ESP32 onto a custom board along with a low-performance ARM-powered CPU which runs a tiny Linux distro (based on Debian), and I want to flash ESP32 from this tiny Linux distro.
I know I could use the bootloader, but who will upload the initial bootloader? I don't want to do extra steps, so my idea is to embed the ESP32 module onto my custom board, and let the Linux to flash it from factory-state (when it's flash is empty, ie. no preloaded bootloader). Or is the serial bootloader always preinstalled on all ESP32 modules (like on ESP-WROOM-32)?
Why I don't want to use IDF? Because I don't want to build or debug anything, I just want to flash myprogram.bin onto ESP32. Also, as the board is low-performance, it would take ages to download everything for running IDF.
Current state
The ESP32 module is now visible via UART (RX,TX,GND), and if I held low the GPIO0, it runs the bootloader (my current module is embedded onto a NodeMCU - but there is no USB connected, this is raw UART!):
rst:0x1 (POWERON_RESET),boot:0x3 (DOWNLOAD_BOOT(UART0/UART1/SDIO_REI_REO_V2))
waiting for download
Could I expect the same behavior (controlling GPIO0 for running the bootloader) for all ESP32 modules, or this works just because guys at NodeMCU preprogrammed already some bootloader onto it?
I'm looking for a way to flash this ESP32 preferrably without any python script.
The ESP32 has a first-stage bootloader in ROM capable of writing to Flash - that's what's printing your output. You can talk to it if you know the protocol - this is implemented by the Python scripts in ESP IDF. If you don't want to use the official implementation because it's too heavy, you'll have to write your own implementation of this protocol which scratches your specific itch. Fortunately it's more or less documented and you can likely reverse engineer any missing knowledge from official Python scripts.
Actually Espressif also provides a nice and small binary for flashing ESPs:
https://github.com/espressif/esp-serial-flasher
Serial flasher component provides portable library for flashing Espressif SoCs (ESP32, ESP32-S2, ESP8266) from other host microcontroller. Espressif SoCs are normally programmed via serial interface (UART). Port layer for given host microcontroller has to be implemented, if not available.
One more (but very important) addition:
You have to modify this repo to make it work correctly, and also you might have to upload not just your binary, but also bootloader and partition_table.
I am working on an esp project and compiled my code by using the esp32s2 toolchain and created a binary that ready to run on a real device. But I don't have a real device to test my binary. Is there any simulator to simulate the ESP32-S2 chip or the ESP32 chip?
You can use Wokwi to simulate the ESP32, and soon also the ESP32-S2.The Wokwi is a free online simulator for electronics, and it runs in your browser. This means you can simulate code that interacts with 3rd-party sensors, display modules, LEDs and many other common parts. There's also initial support for WiFi simulation, and the developers are working on extending it to support connecting to any host on the internet (e.g. HTTPS/MQTT)
Simulator Examples
Arduino Examples
Blink
Seven segment counter
APA102 Color Cycles (TinyPico Board)
WiFi Scanning
MicroPython Examples
SSD1306 Example
NeoPixels
WiFi Scanning
ESP-IDF Examples
The following examples use the ESP-IDF functions. They are compiled using Arduino ESP32 Core:
Blink using FreeRTOS API
Binary LED counter using FreeRTOS tasks
GPIO button input + interrupts
https://docs.wokwi.com/guides/esp32
You can try QEMU from https://github.com/espressif/qemu or https://github.com/Ebiroll/qemu_esp32
Not sure if they are supporting ESP32-S2, but it seems to be working with ESP32.
I'm new with NodeMCU firmware use. I have a Amica ESP-12E (v2?) dev kit connected to a DHT22 which I program using the Arduino IDE. All is setup and working fine.
My problem came when I wanted to update NodeMCU firmware. Since I don't really know what came pre installed from China, I downloaded ESPlorer to try to determine NodeMCU version. I get the following "error" when I reset the dev board:
Communication with MCU..Got answer! Communication with MCU established.
AutoDetect firmware...
Can't autodetect firmware, because proper answer not received (may be unknown firmware).
Please, reset module or continue.
{{a long string of weird characters that I can't copy and paste appear here}}
At this point I'm totally clueless about what version of firmware I have. Is there a way to obtain NodeMCU firmware version by software via Arduino IDE code, ESPlorer GUI or something similar?
On the other hand, is there a really easy way to compile/download latest NodeMCU firmware BIN file? Even one with all the modules active will be fine for me now, I'm just trying to understand and test things.
You seem to be confusing two very different platforms. I leave out some details as not to confuse you any further.
Arduino: you use Arduino programming in the Arduino IDE then build and install a binary to your device whenever the application changes. No NodeMCU firmware needed!
NodeMCU: you flash the NodeMCU firmware once (e.g. using esptool.py) and then upload Lua code (e.g. using ESPlorer) whenever the application changes. This is more lightweight than the Arduino platform.
On the other hand, is there a really easy way to compile/download
latest NodeMCU firmware BIN file?
Yes, have a look at the NodeMCU documentation at http://nodemcu.readthedocs.io/en/latest/en/build/. The easiest is to use the cloud builder at https://nodemcu-build.com/. I currently suggest to build from the dev branch because flashing is easier with it.
As pointed out you have several options for firmware and you'll need to make a choice as to which suits you going forward. If you are going to stick with the Nodemcu LUA firmware you can determine the version by typing:
print(node.info())
at the command line prompt.
There are alternatives to using ESPlorer e.g. Putty or Coolterm that will give you the raw output from the device with no interpretation. So if you have the correct serial port settings and the device plugged into the USB port it will show the banner when you reset giving an indication of the origin and version of the installed firmware.
In ESPlorer, there is an option under settings which if unchecked will stop looking checking for the version of the code.
For whatever reason, ESPlorer is not designed to read nodemcu version.
The error message throws you off, could lead you to think, there is an error.
At best, the above error can be ignored. It has no impact at all. In background, init.lua is up and running.
I am working with Sasebo GII board that has two FPGAs on it:
Xilinx Spartan and Xilinx Virtex5 (and the board has several separate JTAG interfaces for configuration of fpgas).
I am useing ISE 14.4 under Linux and I have some troubles to configure the Virtex 5 FPGA.
(no problems with Spartan).
I am using "Impact" to send the configuration files to FPGAs.
At the beginning Impact scans the board and finds Spartan FPGA without problems
and I can configure it, but when I plug the cable to the other interface and press scan on Impact it says:
"There are many unknown devices being detected. Press Yes to continue or press No to stop."
If I press the NO option, well, obviously nothing happens :-)
And if I click on YES it fails, I can manually add Virtex5 FPGA, but than it fails to upload the config file to it (and even fails when I try to detect the device ID).
I already tried all JTAG interfaces on the board, nothing.
Same operations work on the same board with SPARTAN FPGA, so I'm stuck. Any ideas ?
Well, I am not familiar with that particular board, but there are many things you can look into when it comes to your JTAG problem.
Check the voltage of your VCC, make sure it has a good value for the board
Make sure your ground connection is well connected and you don't have much impedance
between the connector's GND and the boards GND
Try other JTAG connectors and see if you see any difference in the detection of the
devices.
Try to run the IMPACT in debug mode. Capture the data and see if the patterns look OK
Also something that may not be JTAG related, is to make sure your V5 device has all the powers it needs, if there are any power problems, it may cause the JTAG interface to behave like you explained here.
Also, look on the board and see if there are any switches or jumpers to chose different way of configuring the V5 device. This can be a big issues with multi-FPGA board, maybe the V5 is configured to be programmed from a controller or other devices on the board and the JTAG chain is not set up for programming.
These are just different thoughts, they may help you toward the right direction.
Found this on their site:
User guide for the board
To reprogram the flash ROM (ST45DB16D, U11) for the control FPGA (Spartan-3A), attach the configuration
cable to CN7. For configuration, use the provided mcs file sasebo_gii_ctrl.mcs.
Reprogram the flash ROM (ST45DB16D, U4) for the cryptographic FPGA (Virtex-5 LX30) with the provided
mcs file sasebo_aes_comp_lx30.mcs as well. Connect the configuration cable to CN4.
To configure the FPGA immediately after reprog
ramming of the flash ROM, cycle the power.
Blockquote
This means you can't program the FPGA directly, you need to convert your bit file into MCS file and then load it into the FLASH memory on the board.
I have developed a USB device that communicates with linux over a simple but proprietary interface and some custom Linux drivers. My goal is to port this to Windows without writing windows drivers. What I would like to do is find an open source or inbuilt class driver for windows that would look like a COM port in Windows. Then I would tailor the embedded software to match what ever protocol and descriptors the virtual COM port expects to see.
The idea would be that I could plug my device in to a Windows machine and a relatively high speed COM port would appear with out me having to develop Windows drivers for it.
I have been looking at the USB CDC (Communications Device Class) documentation and it looks promising, but I don't know which sub interface would be best to use so that it would show up as a COM port.
Has anyone here done any work like this before or could provide some insight?
Specifically:
Are there virtual COM drivers "built in" to windows or would I need a 3rd party driver.
Which CDC sub class should I use for simple RS232 emulation (No need for modem AT commands, etc)
Is there a better option to do what I am trying to do.
Thanks
There is a USB-to-serial driver built in to Windows that will do what you want. It is called usbser.sys:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/837637
You will have to write an INF file and distribute that to your users, but that will not be too hard because it is only a few kilobytes of text and you can find examples online.
I'm not aware of any great documentation for this driver by Microsoft, so my advice would be to find some other device that uses it, such as Pololu Wixel, and copy what they did.
Here are the device descriptors we used and the special control tranfers we had to implement:
https://github.com/pololu/wixel-sdk/blob/master/libraries/src/usb_cdc_acm/usb_cdc_acm.c
You can see our INF file, wixel_serial.inf, by downloading the software and looking in the drivers folder:
http://www.pololu.com/docs/0J46/3.a
(There are other files in there that are not necessary for you.)
You can also look at the Arduino Uno because they use the same driver.
Whatever you do, please don't use our USB Vendor ID in your product! You need to get your own.
Update: In Windows 10, you don't need an INF file anymore because of the new usbser.inf driver that comes with Windows.
If you are using a UART you can easily interface it to a FTDI USB chip like http://www.ftdichip.com/Products/ICs/FT232R.htm or a Prolific like http://www.prolific.com.tw/eng/products.asp?id=59
For development, prototype and testing I have half dozen of these laying around http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/391
I connect it directly to the UART pins on AVR and 8051 micros.