Bootloader + OTA Server
Posted: 29 Sep 2017, 13:12
Considering the rate of improvements currently going on, i suggest to make a Bootloader/OTA Server part of the initial firmware next to the regular version. Meaning three ESPEasy firmware versions:
- OTA version: Bootloader, OTA Server, ESPEasy
- Non-OTA version: ESPEasy (what we have currently)
- OTA update version: ESPEasy
There's no need to build the bootloader or OTA server, everything is already done. The product is called YaOta8266, where the bootloader is 4K and the bootloader and OTA server together is only 245K, leaving around 700K for ESPEasy for memory stressed 1MB esp's. For the 4MB or up esp's memory is no longer an issue. The OTA Server is activated by the bootloader when pressing a button at startup OR (in this clone version) when a memory flag is set in the RTC memory area and then a reboot. When nothing happens within a few seconds, the normal firmware is started. The RTC memory flag can be set by ESPEasy's Tools/Flash command. The product can be found here: https://github.com/ulno/yaota8266
uPyEasy will be using this method, since it provides a seamless update experience. Using it means that you can switch from ESPEasy to uPyEasy and back, or anything else as a matter of fact, without any trouble.
- OTA version: Bootloader, OTA Server, ESPEasy
- Non-OTA version: ESPEasy (what we have currently)
- OTA update version: ESPEasy
There's no need to build the bootloader or OTA server, everything is already done. The product is called YaOta8266, where the bootloader is 4K and the bootloader and OTA server together is only 245K, leaving around 700K for ESPEasy for memory stressed 1MB esp's. For the 4MB or up esp's memory is no longer an issue. The OTA Server is activated by the bootloader when pressing a button at startup OR (in this clone version) when a memory flag is set in the RTC memory area and then a reboot. When nothing happens within a few seconds, the normal firmware is started. The RTC memory flag can be set by ESPEasy's Tools/Flash command. The product can be found here: https://github.com/ulno/yaota8266
uPyEasy will be using this method, since it provides a seamless update experience. Using it means that you can switch from ESPEasy to uPyEasy and back, or anything else as a matter of fact, without any trouble.