Future of ESP32 ?

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Sasch600xt
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Future of ESP32 ?

#1 Post by Sasch600xt » 11 Dec 2019, 19:00

Hello All :)

will the future be to continue working on the ESP32 ?

So i design a few PCBs for next year and i would love to work with the ESP32 in future.

For me it will not important to have it as soon as possible.
I just wanted to ask, will you guys put energy into the ESP32 to get it working like the fantastic firmware for the 8266 ?

Thank you
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grovkillen
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Re: Future of ESP32 ?

#2 Post by grovkillen » 11 Dec 2019, 20:16

Yes we will start officially target the bigger sibling after we have the stable release and right after that the new GUI is scheduled. So the future is looking bright for both the ESP82XX and ESP32.
ESP Easy Flasher [flash tool and wifi setup at flash time]
ESP Easy Webdumper [easy screendumping of your units]
ESP Easy Netscan [find units]
Official shop: https://firstbyte.shop/
Sponsor ESP Easy, we need you :idea: :idea: :idea:

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Re: Future of ESP32 ?

#3 Post by Sasch600xt » 11 Dec 2019, 20:19

Great :)
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Re: Future of ESP32 ?

#4 Post by TD-er » 11 Dec 2019, 23:25

I recently did some tests with the ESP32 and was a bit disappointed with the WiFi stability, so that's for sure one point that needs a lot of TLC on the ESP32.

I am running more and more into resource limits on the ESP82xx, so for me it is for sure a platform that will allow us to implement all future ideas.
We still keep the ESP8266 supported, but I think by the end of next year we may have shifted focus to ESP32 as it does give a lot more resources.

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Re: Future of ESP32 ?

#5 Post by mrwee » 12 Dec 2019, 14:11

TD-er wrote: 11 Dec 2019, 23:25 .....but I think by the end of next year we may have shifted focus to ESP32 as it does give a lot more resources.
I understand that the possibilities in ESP32 is more fun, but considering the fact that most "Wi-Fi IoT" devices are based on ESP82xx, you vill be loosing out on a huge market potential unless "China" moves to ESP32. I'd be sad to see focus moving away from implementing ESPEasy on all the nice IoT gadgets out there :(

On that account, have you considered where you're going with ESPEasy? I love all the nice GUI stuff/functionality, but I'm a bit afraid that it will influence e.g. running multiple plugins on cheap IoT devices due to small flash. IMHO the strength in ESPEasy was/is simplicity and many possibilities for small devices :D

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Re: Future of ESP32 ?

#6 Post by grovkillen » 12 Dec 2019, 14:56

mrwee wrote: 12 Dec 2019, 14:11
TD-er wrote: 11 Dec 2019, 23:25 .....but I think by the end of next year we may have shifted focus to ESP32 as it does give a lot more resources.
I understand that the possibilities in ESP32 is more fun, but considering the fact that most "Wi-Fi IoT" devices are based on ESP82xx, you vill be loosing out on a huge market potential unless "China" moves to ESP32. I'd be sad to see focus moving away from implementing ESPEasy on all the nice IoT gadgets out there :(

On that account, have you considered where you're going with ESPEasy? I love all the nice GUI stuff/functionality, but I'm a bit afraid that it will influence e.g. running multiple plugins on cheap IoT devices due to small flash. IMHO the strength in ESPEasy was/is simplicity and many possibilities for small devices :D
No worries, ESP82XX will be supported for a long time. What Gijs meant is that we can (after the release) start putting in hours to get ESP32 into the official release cycle.

And regarding the new GUI, please understand that we do this to put LESS pressure on the MCU itself. The entire frontend will be a single file that you can store on a single unit (we refer these as "queen bee's"). So you will log into that unit and load its frontend, from the frontend you can jump to all other nodes in the "swarm".
The ordinary bee's will not need their own GUI this way. So it's really a win-win deal. Finally we can do all out web development and not have to care about mixing that with low level backend code.
ESP Easy Flasher [flash tool and wifi setup at flash time]
ESP Easy Webdumper [easy screendumping of your units]
ESP Easy Netscan [find units]
Official shop: https://firstbyte.shop/
Sponsor ESP Easy, we need you :idea: :idea: :idea:

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Re: Future of ESP32 ?

#7 Post by TD-er » 12 Dec 2019, 15:44

As Jimmy also stated, by splitting the core functionality and the GUI, we allow for even larger sketches in the sense of compiled code.
The GUI can be served from the file system, or from another node if desired.
So this means it will give us more room and maybe less issues with blocking plugins.

And maybe the word "focus" is not entirely correct.
What I mean is that the ESP32 is now behind with regard to stability and supported plugins.
So in order to get them even again, I (as a developer) have to shift focus to ESP32.
But please by no means read it as we will abandon ESP82xx.

RIght now the vast amount of nodes available is ESP82xx based. But that may shift very quickly as the ESP32 is getting cheaper and offers way more GPIO pins for example.
Also the Bluetooth can be useful in some devices.
If you look at LoRa boards, almost all have ESP32 and also the M5stack is ESP32.
So it may shift very rapidly and if we have to start focus on the ESP32 when that will happen, we're simply too late.

There is also a growing number of very low power modules on the market which I would also like to be ESPeasy compatible, so we can also combine those ultra low power nodes, which we now miss. The ESP82xx (and also a bit the ESP32) is not really a power friendly processor.

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Re: Future of ESP32 ?

#8 Post by mrwee » 12 Dec 2019, 18:15

Ok, that really sounds like a brilliant solution and will clearly remove a lot of the burden from each device making room for lots of fun :D. It is also great that the future (easily) supports ESP82xxx and ESP32, that makes it much more versatile and ready when ESP32 "takes over".
Really looking forward to a stable version which the community can start building more plugins on top of. In that sense, ESPEasy is by-far the best choice.

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