Tech Note 089 - ESP Programming (Break-out boards)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 มิ.ย. 2024
- After development using a 'Development Board' it is useful to transfer your programme/sketch to a bare ESP32/ESP8266 so that it uses the minimum of power and gives the best possible battery life, this video explains the relatively simple process required for programming, an activity that can seem to be quite daunting.
More info: g6ejd.dynu.com/index.php/micro...
ESP32 Breakout board: www.aliexpress.com/item/5Pcs-... - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
I thought I knew everything about these breakout boards. Proved I didn't. Thanks for this wide-scale overview.
A really excellent tutorial on getting these boards running. Thanks so much for your help!
Many thanks for the video. The wow for me was the large breakout boards. On order and grateful for you sharing.
Have a good Easter
Thank you for clarifying the how and why. I came into this as a hobbyist and only purchased the devices with the USB to UART connection onboard. Had seen others using the device you used and wondered what that was all about. Now with your video, I fully understand and can appreciate the saving in money when I do finish a project. Will keep using my NodeMCU but when I am ready to finish the project will use the setup you have shown here.
Plus you get huge decreases in power consumption so if you have a battery powered project that uses sleep it will only require 6uA which is close to zero power. Also the space requirement is less. Have fun.
Green ESP32/ESP8266 Prototype-boards: www.aliexpress.com/item/7x9CM-70X90mm-Prototype-PCB-Breadboard-Board-For-ESP8266-ESP-12F-ESP-12E-ESP12-ESP32-ESP-32S/32844385506.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.07kfZS
those esp32 boards are so interesting
i'm into 3d printing myself, and i saw that there is a work in progress to use esp32 with marlin on it.
nice presentation btw, keep up the good work
There are few if any 3D cases that I’ve seen I might put some time aside to make a case to hold one of these boards.
Loved the informative video. One question, probably I should know the answer, but when uploading, what programmer do you use? Maybe you mentioned, but I missed it.
Thanks for the video. I now know what to do with my broken dev boards by recycling the esp32
thanks my skills increase the more I look at your vids!
Good to hear, I hope we can all learn from each other and continue to spread knowledge - that’s my aim
Nice video. Could you please link to the green boards with spots for the ESP32 and 8266 on the other side? Thanks
Done that above - enjoy, they are very good quality boards cost me £0.78 each
7x9CM Prototype PCB Breadboard For ESP8266
Great video, I wonder if it is possible to program the boards directly via j-tag instead of using the serial?
Yes you can using OpenOCD, but only if the current loaded application has not changed the configuration of the JTAG pins 12-15. Espressif have a GitHub page on the subject with examples.
@@G6EJD Thanks for the reply. I have programmed the esp32 with the JTag but only after first programming it via the serial port. What I wonder if it's possible to program it for the first time via Jtag. From what I've read it seems like the JTag pins are used for something else in the default configuration the esp32 comes from the factory..
@@GeekyMino The only pin that's in-use is GPIO12 that must be low during start-up, so is your JTAG programming setting that low to enable a start
With the ESP8266 white breakout board, did you need to use additional resistors or jumpers to program? I would assume you did as there are no switches/buttons on the board. I had a great deal of trouble flashing via this board. There seems to be many different suggested methods on the web. In the end the only method that worked was based on the diagram on this page: www.letscontrolit.com/wiki/index.php/Basics:_Connecting_and_flashing_the_ESP8266 This means I was putting resistors in parallel or something because of the two (one is just a link) on the board already.
With the white boards aprt from a jumper between GPIO-0 and Gnd no additional switches or resistors are required. With the short in-place and the ESP8266 restarted it immediately goes into programming mode every time. When programming is complete remove the GPIO-0 to Gnd jumper and it all works as expected. Ideally it could use a simple series R-C to reset to give a power-on reset.
Hi, nice video. i got a few questions i can use any USB to UART converter as long as i got the driver for it?
Yes any USB to UART would do, nearly every device is recognised by Windows. Remember to cross connect Tx-Rx and Rx-Tx
Very nice subject 👍
Hi
Esp breakout boards does keep out the antenna zone for proper radiation or is there any ground plane in breakout board below the antenna?
Mist breakout boards are bare pcb materiel with no copper and anyway copper is not a ferrous material so it has minimal impact on antenna operations. Nothing to worry about.
Excellent video. It could be due to being south of the equator. The Aliexpress link does not give me a link to the dual-sided green boards for ESP32 and ESP8266. Thanks
Works OK for Northern Hemisphere, just tried them all again. Try searching for this '7x9CM 70X90mm Prototype PCB Breadboard Board For ESP8266 '
Thank you, I've purchased 5 off. they look very useful.
Many thanks for the explanation, clear, concise and very useful. The figure with the connections helped a lot. Could you explain how to do hello world? Blinking a led
If you install the Arduino IDE the Blink sketch is in the examples and the Hello World one you can probably copy from my video as it's only 3 lines.
The thing to note about the Arduino C environment is there is a setup section that runs only once when the CPU starts and then a loop section that keeps repeating (looping). SO we need to put the serial.begin(9600) statement in the setup section to start the serial services at 9600buad in this example and then in the loop section enter Serial.println("Hello World");
delay(1000);Then it will continuously print 'Hello World' wait 1-sec (1000 mS) and then repeat (loop).
Once you get to grips with that process the programming is actually very simple and if you get a development board even easier.
Thanks. I just received the Elektor ESP32 dev board. I installed the SDK following EspressIf programming guides and tried successfully the hello world. Now, installing Eclise and studying the examples, starting with the blinking led. Doubts regarding how to connect a led and change the GPIO port number. Feeling rusty about embedded dev. 20 years passed away since i finished electronics degree. Found your channel, very helpful to update my knowledge
Tiago Romao To connect an LED choose your port and wire the led via at least a current limiting resistor so pin to resistor to led to gnd. Maximum source current is 12mA or there abouts or you could wire it from Vcc to resistor to led to the pin and sink the current via the ESP32 pin about the same safe limit of 12mA you choose the pin in the programme by its gpio number but stay clear of pins already assigned to bus functions such as I2C SPI and serial ports e.g 18, 23, 5, 16, 17, 4, 5 the Espressif data has more details.
First! :) Great Video! Ive never seen the black breakout board? Where did you get it from? I have a question for the white breakout board. Under the writing "v1.1"... These are two places for resistors right? What resistor would you use there? How much ohm is recommended? They also say you need to solder a pullup resistor between 3,3V and EN pin. Can you provide the links for the breakout boards in the description? Many thanks!
You can get the black ones from AliExpress just search for ESP32 break out
If I can find time I’ll draw the circuit
I find them by typing "ESP32F" but I just find them in a bundle with an ESP32 Module which is not an official WROOM32.
But i just want to have the breakout board itself. Searching for "ESP32 break out" gives me no good results :(
I’m wondering if anyone other that Espressif is making the silicon and if they are where are they getting the detailed design information so that makes me think all WROOM devices are from Espressif but some unbadrged and of lower yield quality or slightly out of specification.
I use 10K resistors. See here: g6ejd.dynu.com/index.php/micro-controllers/esp32/esp32-programming/
A small electrolytic capacitor from en to ground (negative pole to ground) solves most autoupload problems. My boards simply accept the new code... is less of a hassle than my boards with discrete buttons for this.
I’ve never had a problem with the Lolin D32 boards they are well designed and have the lowest sleep current of any development board plus very stable.
Also you have to sequence the buttons correctly hold down prog then reset to get it in flash programming mode
@@G6EJD I got some of the newer devkits from digikey, and I only have to press one button on those but you need to do it while it is looking for a com port during loading. still less effort to just slap a small say 2.2 to 100uf electroytic on and forget about it.
I am looking for one of those break-out boards for ESP32 - I have the white one but I am unable to solder the ESP32 onto it. Can you provide a link for the breakout-board with the yellow headers? It seems like that is sold ready to use and that would be great for me.
Rudolf Ziegaus Unfurtunately none of the boards on the market come with the ESP32 soldered to the break-out board. I have done endless searching for a supplier but without success. The black boards can be found on AliExpress but they sell out quickly then don’t show up until in stock again! Actually soldering the ESP32 to the boards is relatively easy but you must use a tiny soldering iron tip and place flux on the board before starting and I use magnifying glasses to see in great detail the soldering activity, finally get hold of some fine solder to reduce the amount of solder used. The alternative is to use very small amounts of solder paste on each pad then carefully align the ESP32 then place the board in/on a frying pan and heat until you see the solder flow, or place it in an oven 220°c again until the solder melts. There is a gap in the market as we need pre-soldered ESP32’s but it must be expensive to get it done. Hope this helps. There are videos around that demonstrate reflow soldering of surface mount devices to help out.
Rudolf Ziegaus th-cam.com/video/5uiroWBkdFY/w-d-xo.html
Fancii LED Light Helping Hand Magnifier Station - 2X 4X Illuminated Hands Free Magnifying Glass Stand with Clamp and Alligator Clips - For Soldering, Assembly, Repair, Modeling, Hobbies and Crafts www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01882K0OC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_6Oy3AbR6V7KFX
One more question - do I also need to solder the cooling pad? How would that be done with an soldering iron? Or is this an optional step?
Rudolf Ziegaus If your using solder paste then I would solder it otherwise it’s impossible and not necessary IMO
I have a doubt...are those ESP32 Breakout board SoC's have arduino bootloader burnt previously to them or is it first time you're programming them directly through the USB to UART dongle?
The ESP32 has a Boot. Loader
@@G6EJD Hi thanks for the reply. What do I have to do, If my chip is a bare IC and I wanna upload my programme into it without using arduino IDE. I know I can use esptool but I only have Rx, tx, EN and IO0 lines exposed on my custom PCB to hook up some wires.
Gudimetla Kowshik you have to use a FTDI UART and some IDE to compile your source code then upload it. Connect FTDI Txd to ESP Rxd and FTDI Rxd to ESP Txd, to ready the ESP32 for upload you need to press and hold the EN gpio-0 then press reset momentarily then upload. If you monitor the ESP serial port it will say waiting for upload.
@@G6EJD thank you very much for your kind replies David. I will try it.
Can you post the link to the 3.3/5V USB/Serial board?
Just about any type will do, I have these: www.aliexpress.com/item/1Pcs-USB-to-TTL-converter-Micro-UART-module-CH340G-CH340-3-3V-5V-switch-for-downloader/32835759588.html?spm=2114.search0104.3.15.464f5263d08LFR&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_4_10152_10065_10151_10344_10068_10130_5722815_10324_10342_10547_10325_10343_10340_10341_10548_5722915_10698_10697_5722615_10696_10192_10190_10084_10083_10618_10307_10301_10303_5722715_5711215_10059_5723015_10184_10534_308_100031_10103_441_10624_10623_10622_5711315_5722515_10621_10620,searchweb201603_25,ppcSwitch_4&algo_expid=a8ddadd3-801d-4907-9169-92ea660a7e46-1&algo_pvid=a8ddadd3-801d-4907-9169-92ea660a7e46&priceBeautifyAB=0
You need Gnd, Vcc TX and RX
I'm Looking for a cheap breakout board for the ESP32-WROVER module.
I haven’t seen any but you can get them made for about $10 for 10 delivered with screen printing and solder mask all you have to do is draw the layout using Fritzling. You can get the white ESP32 boards for about $5 for 5 on Aliexpress but standard ESP32. We could do with some wroom variants maybe we could design one - if I can find the time I may do that have you seen the drawing for them?
I am seeing brown outs with my esp32 when I power it with my ftdi. I put a 1000uF cap between the ground and vcc, but it doesn't seem to help. Do you have any advice?
The ESP32 requires a lot of power typically 250-300mA for a few mS (say 2mS), so you need a really good power supply and large reservoir capacitor :g6ejd.dynu.com/index.php/micro-controllers/calculate-smoothing-capacitor-values/ to get trough the start-up, a quick calc says 2000-3000uF
@@G6EJD that is really helpful. I will give that a try. I appreciate your willingness to share your knowledge. Your channel is fabulous.
Hey David. What's happening? No news from you for a long time.
Happy new year.
Hi Marc, I’m sort of OK, constant hospital visits largely prevent me from devoting much time to producing any content, but I’m beginning to feel better, so watch this space, Happy New Year to you and thank you for thinking about me, Dave
Well that was incredibly well timed? Guess what I am about to try and do?
Craig Fryer I forgot to mention that if you try to start a programme that enables the WiFi the ESP32 will likely report a panic error and error 1000 can’t read the flash memory this is not an error it’s because most UART boards barely have enough regulator capacity to drive an ESP32 at startup with the radio on, normal operations are resumed when correctly powered. Good smoothing (capacitors) are essential too. Good luck.
Why is it some hardware needs the reset and flash buttons pressed and others don't? What do they do when the button press combo is carried out?
It’s the boards that dictate what to do, if you check out the Espressif documentation on programming you will see that the devices have to be preset with certain pins high or low to initiate a boot for either normal read from flash memory or programming and ready to programme. For the ESP32 this means hold one pin low gpio-2 and then reset the device then is restarts in programming mode, same for the esp8266 but the method is different again.
This is what I find so interesting about the 8266 families of boards. I have the NodeMCU running with Arduino IDE. When it comes to uploading a sketch the button combo you mention is not carried out during this process. Do these boards, NodeMCU, carry out the sequence using the software as opposed to manually carrying out the button sequence?
Rud Dog if you check out the schematic you will see cross connected logic gates (usually) evident by angled wiring lines and these gates are reset at power on to provide the correct states to gpio-0 and 2 then when you go to programme the device this register is toggled and so changes the conditions needed to place the ESP into programming mode. A fully automatic process but for one-off programming or slow turn around the manual process is adequate. The same arrangement is used on the ESP32 as well.
BTW does your TH-cam handle have a significance? G6EJD
Yes, it’s my Amateur Radio operator call sign, I’ve held my licence for 40 years.
What is the purpose of those pull-up resistors?
You need them to set the correct boot conditions for the ESP32 one is on GPIO-0 the other 2. Without them the ESP32 won’t start, you can see the options in the ESP32 data sheet. One switch acts as a boot button the other a reset.
i am using esp32E module can i program it with Texas instruments usb to ttl converter?
Yes that will work
A nice trick with these break-out boards is to use OTA programming, so only program this way once. Remember it must be resetted after the first OTA program install.
Indeed yes, but quite easy to add a series RC with the intersection to the reset pin. They could have usefully done that on these simple boards.
David are both of those pull up resistors 10K?
Should have mentioned "On the white breakout board"
.
@@rjpeterson1 yes they are surface mount 10K, but just about any value less than 1M and greater than 1K would do.
Thank you David!
@@G6EJD Hi, are 0805 size?
Yes and quaintly in imperial inches at 0.08”x0.05”
Useful video. 73 de G8AYC :)
Unfortunately aliexpress is no longer going to be cheap anymore in some EU countries. I heard vat and other charges are going to be imposed on each non EU purchase :( especially from China
I’m not sure, it would mean that AliExpress would need to collect VAT for the EU or UK and manage that and then pay it to the Governments and that costs money. At present we pay VAT if the threshold (unknown and random) is exceeded plus import duty. I wonder if the EU has secured a trade agreement with China then?
I think this is going to be the EU levying taxes not the UK
In Australia they are proposing a minimum A$5 (USD$4.50) PER package! This is to cover customs/quarantine costs. I think they will also apply GST, but an additional 10% is nothing compared to the A$5 per package.
Craig Fryer this means even few cents product is going to cost at least 5$+few cents. Apparently poor hobbyists are going to be in trouble:(. Seems trade war effect ;).
Why have you turned off ratings?
I can’t remember why, it was some time ago now
Video is helpful, I am using the white adapter plate. I have soldered the board ( I believe correctly) with the test program on it. Unfortunately I am not getting any serial output. Any advise? Thx
Brian, are you using the ESP32 or 8266, I’m guessing ESP32. Soldering the ESP32 is very tricky and I recommend you check each soldering point of the ESP32 with a magnifying glass for bridges as it’s very easy to bridge any pins together, a swipe with an tinned iron from the ESP32 towards the outer pins usually resolves those. Next you will be using a UART and along the top edge is a row of connections, God, Vcc, Rxd and Txd. It is important to ensure the (usually USB to) UART can supply adequate 3.3v and that UART Txd is connected to ESP32 Rxd and Rxd to UART Txd so there is a cross coupling of comes lines. The default speed of the ESP32 is 115200 and as soon as it’s powered up and reset, it will begin reporting it’s boot mode and you should see this always. The next thing to check is the presence of a pull-up resistor of say 10K on the left-hand pad on the white board with the ESP32 antenna upper most. If you have a meter check that the ESP32 is getting 3.3v at the board. Using soldering paste is not generally successful unless the paste is measured out on each pad and in tiny amounts.
Thank you so much for the detailed response. I am planning to decouple each piece of your response to ensure that I understand. You are correct, I was referring to the ESP32. I 100% agree with you comment that the ESP32 is very tricky to solder. The process I used for soldering was to first tinned the pads, place the module on the board, apply flux, and finally I touched each pin such that the solder would apply to the module. I have checked a few of the pins (VCC and ground) with a meter to ensure connectivity, but I will try and go through and validate the remaining. Hypothetically, if I were to solder the minimal pins (I assume VCC, GND, EN, TX, RX, ??) I assume the board would be fully functional? Ultimatly, I would want to ensure to solder all of the pins. As far as the pull-up, resistor I do not see a pull up resistor on the device (left hand side) for a pull up 10k. I do however see (what I believe) are resisters between the rest and 00 buttons (on the bottom). I have a version 1.1 of the board if that helps. Let me know if I am missing something about the pull up resistor. As far as hooking up the module I am powering my uart (ftdi set to 3.3V) form USB and powering the ESP32 from a separate 3.3V power source. I then hook up the UART and ESP32 to common GND. After starting up the module and the UART I do press the restart button. As far as that process I think that is correct. Please share any additional thoughts.
I confirmed that VCC, GND, TX, EN, and RX have connectivity. Please let me know if there are any other critical pins I should verify? Thanks so much.
Brian, the two buttons are connected to GPIO-0 and 2 respectively, see here: github.com/espressif/esptool/wiki/ESP32-Boot-Mode-Selection
The ESP32 will enter the serial bootloader when GPIO0 is held low on reset. Otherwise it will run the program in flash, GPIO0 has an internal pullup resistor, so if it is left unconnected then it will pull high.
Many boards use a button marked "Flash" (or "BOOT" on some Espressif development boards) that pulls GPIO0 low when pressed.
GPIO2
GPIO2 must also be either left unconnected/floating, or driven Low, in order to enter the serial bootloader.
In normal boot mode (GPIO0 high), GPIO2 is ignored.
The button sequence is then press and hold the gpIOO button, then momentarily press the RESET button.
When you apply apply just pressing the reset button will start the ESP32 in normal mode and it will output diagnostic text as per the data sheet.
I was able to fix my soldering mistakes. Your video helped as well as your advise. Thank you again for posting
10k for pull up resistors?
The input impedance is quite high, what value would you use then? It only needs to exceed 50nA
You should not use Arduino but FreeRTOS. Arduino is for ATmel mcus
Yes but many 000’s use the Arduino IDE with the ESP extensions by contrast few FreeRTOS.
An alternative poor man's option. Not sure that it would more than a couple of times before the connections lost their pressure: www.andremiller.net/content/solderless-method-to-connect-esp-12-module-to-breadboard
why is it there are all kinds of videos about how to make the hello world app work and virtually nothing about how to use the various libraries, or what the example progrms do or how to build and progrm them. It would be nice if there was a binary that could be loaded that did something useful like give you access via the AT command set. These guys act as if the instructions for ESP32 are easy to follow. ONLY in ARDUINO and then there still isn't any valid explanation of how to make something usefull.
The purpose of this example was to demonstrate that the ESP32 can be made to work with a minimum of components, in this case two push buttons and 1 resistor, after which it can be programmed with the most complex of programmes. For my contribution I have posted 140 videos and nearly everyone shows how various tasks can be accomplished and with code to match. I used to do code walk-through’s but these were met by almost universal unwanted commentary, so I stopped doing that. You can start the ESP32 into its command processor and use the in-built basic command set, or purchase one and don’t programme it as then you’ll have full access to the AT command set and if using python, code can be mixed with AT commands. There are many many videos that shows how to do this.