Install Miniconda and packages

You need to use Python on your PC to program the ESP32. This assumes that you already have miniconda installed. For more instructions, see here for detailed instructions.

1. Installing Thonny and other Packages: Open up your anaconda environment (start–>anaconda prompt)

   1. (optional) Activate your desired environment conda activate <environment_name>.

      You can ignore if you want to install in the base environment

   2. type the following to install a prerequisite package

      conda install -y -c conda-forge wrapt
      

   3. Install the ESP32 commandline flashing tool

      pip install esptool
      

   4. To install Thonny type the following (This is optional):

      pip install thonny
      

      Note: on Mac, open up terminal or xterm and type pip3 install esptool thonny

Install Device Drivers (Required for Windows)

The device drivers will help your computer recognize the ESP32 as a USB Device

1. Install Silabs cp210x driver (windows download)

   This step is required if the device is not recognized as a virtual COM port.

   Open Device Manager and Select Update Driver

   Browse specific directories

   Select the directory

   Let it Install

   Done

Flashing the ESP32 Firmware for MicroPython

1. download firmware

   Note: For this class you must use 1.19 or less. I don’t recommend v1.18 due to PWM issues.

Option 1: Thonny approach

Requires thonny to be installed, see above

1. open cmd and type thonny

   Start Thonny

2. open up tools–>options, select the “interpreter” tab and ensure that “Micropython (ESP32)” is selected. Select the “Silicon Labs CP210X USB to UART Bridge Com(XY)” down below.

   Open Tools–>Options

   Select Interpreter Tab, then the ESP32 Interpreter

   Select the Port

   Selection Made

3. Before selecting ok, in the bottom right hand corner select “install or update firmware”. select the right port corresponding to the “Silicon Labs CP210X USB to UART Bridge Com(XY)”

   Install or Update Firmware

4. select the firmware you downloaded and hit “install”.

   Select Firmware File

   Hit install

5. wait for the install to finish

   Done

6. Look at the interpreter window. You should see something similar to:

   MicroPython v1.XX on 20XX-YY-ZZ; ESP32 module with ESP32
   
   Type "help()" for more information.
   >>> 
   

   Blank

7. type print('hello, world!') into the shell and that’s it! You should have a working python interpreter loaded on your ESP32!

   Hello World!

Option 2: Command-line approach with esptool

windows:

esptool --chip esp32 --port COM7 erase_flash

linux:

esptool.py --chip esp32 --port /dev/ttyUSB0 erase_flash

Now flash it using the template below. Check device manager in windows to identify the appropriate COM port

Windows:

esptool --chip esp32 --port <serial_port> write_flash -z 0x1000 <esp32-X.bin>

For Example:

esptool --chip esp32 --port COM7 write_flash -z 0x1000 Downloads/esp32-20220618-v1.19.1.bin

Linux:

esptool.py --chip esp32 --port <serial_port> write_flash -z 0x1000 <esp32-X.bin>

For Example:

esptool.py --chip esp32 --port /dev/ttyUSB0 write_flash -z 0x1000 esp32-20220618-v1.19.1.bin

Mac Specific Suggestions

• use terminal or xterm if you have it as Macs do not have powershell

• use pip3 install ... instead of pip install ... with the most recent flavors of MacOS

• make sure pip or pip3(Mac) is updated to avoid installation errors

  python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
  

• Mac doesn’t do COM, but can list USB devices. In your terminal, type:

  ls -al /dev/tty.
  

  then unplug your ESP32 and run the previous command again to see which name for the device is the ESP32

• when selecting the port, there may be two Silicon Labs CP210X USB to UART Bridge (ESP device name here) devices. Watch the messages in the terminal to determine the correct selection (obviously, don’t use the one that says error/cannot find/etc.)

• when running the program you may need to press ctrl + c twice within thonny

External Resources

• https://micropython.org/download/esp32/
• https://randomnerdtutorials.com/flashing-micropython-firmware-esptool-py-esp32-esp8266/

Issues

If you install on a computer where you don’t have administrative access, it is still possible to install but you have to remember a couple things:

After instlling anaconda, you must add it to your path every time you want to run it.

1. Start –> “cmd”

   set PATH=C:\Users\<MYUSERNAME>\Miniconda3;C:\Users\<MYUSERNAME>\Miniconda3\Library\mingw-w64\bin;C:\Users\<MYUSERNAME>\Miniconda3\Library\usr\bin;C:\Users\<MYUSERNAME>\Miniconda3\Library\bin;C:\Users\daukes\Miniconda3\Scripts;%PATH%

   • Replace with your username; confirm the path exists.
   • This step is required every time you load thonny if you installed “just for me” or are on an administratively locked pc.