Fun with ESP32 board.

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Frank B

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Fun with ESP.

I had decided - because I wanted to try some special software that exists for the ESP32 - to buy a development board. In the past I often heard the name "NodeMCU" and thought, yes, then it should be a NodeMCU.
On Amazon I also found an offer - where a free eBook was supposed to be included.
German seller... everything good?

Haha.

- The eBook turned out to be three single PDFs with the schematic, the pin assignment and an advertising text for the module "Wroom-32".

- The schematic shows a LED which is not built in at all. Probably more is wrong with it and it belongs to a completely different board. Found out after trying multiple pins in a blink-sketch. - would have been easier and better for my poor finger if the following had worked:

- Installing the software for Arduino was surprisingly easy. Not uploading. It worked ONLY when you push the button every f***ing time.
After a lot of surfing and finding 25 wrong solutions on the www(every single one didn't work), with studying the maybe wrong schematic and experimenting I found a solution on my own (had to add 10uF on EN and GND, and 1kOHM between GPIO0 and GND).
Uploading takes ages compared to Teensy.

When beginners are confronted with such cr*p, all they can really do is give up.

It's taken me 2 hours to do/find out all this - before I can even start :)

I'm sure I will install the thing I want to see, see how it works, do only minimal things and then put it faar away...

..and to be "on topic" again, I'll try to do it with Teensy ;)
 
p.s.: Is there any way to keep written code for different boards in separate directories?

I'm not sure if this is what you're asking for, but here's what I've done to stem the plethora of directories under sketchbook. Rather than have each sketch for every board right under the sketchbook directory, each board type has its own directory, and all that board's sketches are in that directory.

Code:
sketchbook
|
+-- Arduino_Zero
|   |
|   +-- DAC_example
|   |
|   +-- WaveGen
|
+-- Feather_M0
|   |
|   +-- DDS
|   |
|   +-- talking_weather_station
|
+-- NodeMCU_10
|   |
|   +-- RTS_CTS_test
|   |
|   +-- Weather_Station
|   |
|   +-- Wifi_modem
|
+-- Pro_Micro
|   |
|   +-- KODI_remote
|   |
|   +-- MIDI_adapter
|
+-- STM32
|   |
|   +-- AzAlt_Calculator
|   |
|   +-- GPS_SSD1306
|
+-- Teensy40
|   |
|   +-- RTC_fix
|   |
|   +-- RunCPM
|   |
|   +-- Serial3_CTS_RTS
|
+-- Wemos_D1_R1
|   |
|   +-- Weather_transmitter
So when I look in the sketchbook directory, all I see is:

Code:
sketchbook
|
+-- Arduino_Zero
|
+-- Feather_M0
|
+-- NodeMCU_10
|
+-- Pro_Micro
|
+-- STM32
|
+-- Teensy40
|
+-- Wemos_D1_R1
 
you can change compiler optimization in platform.txt
.arduino15/packages/esp32/hardware/esp32/1.0.4/platform.txt
 
...tried the desired project.. result
Code:
rst:0xc (SW_CPU_RESET),boot:0x13 (SPI_FAST_FLASH_BOOT)
configsip: 0, SPIWP:0xee
clk_drv:0x00,q_drv:0x00,d_drv:0x00,cs0_drv:0x00,hd_drv:0x00,wp_drv:0x00
mode:DIO, clock div:1
load:0x3fff0018,len:4
load:0x3fff001c,len:1044
load:0x40078000,len:8896
load:0x40080400,len:5816
entry 0x400806ac
Guru Meditation Error:[COLOR=#ff0000] Core  0 panic'ed (Unhandled debug exception)[/COLOR]
Debug exception reason: BREAK instr 
Core 0 register dump:
PC      : 0x00000001  PS      : 0x00060a20  A0      : 0x18191a1a  A1      : 0x80058b6c  
A2      : 0x3ffd2950  A3      : 0x3ffd2f38  A4      : 0x3ffb6610  A5      : 0x3ffd28f0  
A6      : 0x00000000  A7      : 0x00000000  A8      : 0x00000000  A9      : 0x800dd764  
A10     : 0x3ffd2970  A11     : 0x3ffd2f38  A12     : 0x3f472158  A13     : 0x00000007  
A14     : 0x00000080  A15     : 0x00000009  SAR     : 0x00000001  EXCCAUSE: 0x00000001  
EXCVADDR: 0x181919fa  LBEG    : 0x3ffd2f38  LEND    : 0x3ffb6610  LCOUNT  : 0xfffffffd  

Backtrace: 0x00000001:0x80058b6c
I'm so tired..
 
i haven't seen that error. i've gotten watchdog crash
Stack canary watchpoint triggered
I had to increase stack size in cores/esp32/main.cpp
xTaskCreatePinnedToCore(loopTask, "loopTask", 16384,...
 
Oh yeah, lots of noise out there in regards to ESP32. Wear waders. I like the dual core possibilities. For the most part, the arduino core is very much the same for the gazillion variant boards. When in doubt, choose "dev module".

There is a "esp exception decoder" thing you can add to the Arduino IDE which does a remarkably good job of pointing to code that triggers an exception.

Personally I find the devices way too idiosyncratic.
 
..not important.. I just wanted to get rid of my anger :)
That helped.

Found an other version which prints tons of warnings, but it at least outputs something and this is enough.
And, not the ESP is the problem - it's the specific board I use, and crappy software. I think the HW-Developers did a great job - Software devs .. not so... ;)

Everything solved - more or less - .
Thanks.
 
Last edited:
I will be going down this route soon. Thanks for the warning. I plan on doing BT audio via I2S to the Teensy 4. I really am starting to dig wireless audio.
 
I love my esp32's! There was a lot of s**t when I started using then, but as stated above, the esp exception decoder is a good piece of software. What I needed to do was to find a good dev board among the gazillions of boards out there. A lot of them is crap and doesn't work with my code and libraries I need to use.
What I like is the wifi and BT inside. I have started using a ps4 controller for my projects and then the esp32 works. I have bought a few Teensy 4's to try with the Usb host and a bt dongle. Good luck to me!
All my microcontrollers is arduino compatible, and I only use the arduino ide.
 
...
What I like is the wifi and BT inside. I have started using a ps4 controller for my projects and then the esp32 works. I have bought a few Teensy 4's to try with the Usb host and a bt dongle. Good luck to me!
All my microcontrollers is arduino compatible, and I only use the arduino ide.

Teensy 4.0 does have USB Host software code working for ps4 controllers and Bt dongle if that was the goal - there is a thread on that with test usage - titled as USB Host T_3.6 in some fashion because the USB Host hardware is common between the T_3.6 and T_4.0.

THIS THREAD :: forum.pjrc.com/threads/49358-T3-6-USB-Host-Bluetooth

It is nice having radio support on the esp. The IDE is nice in the ease of consistent setup with IDE then TeensyDuino setup, and the editor is basic - but there are work arounds for that.
 
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