Which Bin for flashing ESP32-C3 ETH01 evo

[PieterS]

Yesterday my ETH01 evo arrived so I want to flash it for the first time. I downloaded this software ESPEasy_mega_20240229_ESP32c3_binaries from Github but that sip-file consists of 36 bin-files. I don't know which one I need to flash..

Especially the plugin-sets are not clear to me. No idea what CDC means.. I read that I need to use the factory.bin-version for the first time with a new device..

I want to use the "energy-pack" for monitoring the SDM120 and 630-energycounters..

Thanx in advance

[TD-er]

Currently we only have a "Custom 4M LittleFS ETH" build for this board.
If you send me the plugins/controllers you need, I can make a build for you.
Just to get started, you can already start to flash it from here: https://td-er.nl/ESPEasy/latest/
There is also the link to "all.zip" if you want to flash it low-level using other flash tools.

You indeed need to use a "factory" bin file.
Keep in mind you need to pull GPIO-8 down to GND on an ESP32-C3 board before power on to force it to flash mode.
See: https://espeasy.readthedocs.io/en/lates ... n-esp32-c3

See here for the Ethernet configuration for SPI Ethernet: https://espeasy.readthedocs.io/en/lates ... p32-boards

[PieterS]

H Gijs,

I want to read the Eastron SDMxxx Modbus energy counters with this device in ethernet-mode. In your Docs that is Energy (AC) - Eastron SDMxxx Modbus - ENERGY - P078.

The pin-layout is a bit curious... This is a picture of the bottom. Not many (documented) pins



I found a picture on this forum so I guess I need the pin near GND as GPIO-8 to force it to flash mode?



I wired from the usb-serial interface to the ESP32-C3:

GND - black - GND
VCC - red - 3V3
TX0 - brown - TX0
RX0 - orange - RX0
Maybe I have to swap those last 2 wires?

The blue wire at the PCB of the ESP is connected now to IO09 and to GND on the breadboard. I do not see a pin marked as GPIO-08 Do you have a suggestion?

I am not sure about the name of the bin-file you mention. I guess it is ESP_Easy_mega_20240229_custom_ESP32c3_4M316k_LittleFS_CDC_ETH.factory

I have to pause this project for a couple of days. So no hurry.

Thanks in advance.

[TD-er]

Yep you need to connect TX on the USB adapter to RX on the ESP board and vice verse.

Also double check your USB adapter really outputs 3V3 as not all adapters do even when set to 3V3.
Maybe it is even better to use 5V from the USB port instead of 3V3 as Ethernet may consume 100 mA more than without.

According to this blogpost, you apparently need to pull GPIO-9 to GND
So I might have made a mistake on the docs page ...

[TD-er]

The file you name is the right one, but you should have todays date in the filename if you downloaded the all.zip I linked: https://td-er.nl/ESPEasy/

[Ath]

So I might have made a mistake on the docs page ...

The current documentation correctly lists GPIO-9 as the boot-mode pin

* GPIO-8 is the strapping-pin for suppressing boot-messages

[PieterS]

Download the latest zipfile from here: https://td-er.nl/ESPEasy/latest/
Download from Espressif the latest flash download tool V3.9.6
Configured that tool but not sure about the startaddress 0x1000 but found that somewhere before.. Is that address ok?

When i connect the usb-cable into the USB2serialboard the GPIO9 is connected to GND of the breadboard.
After a few seconds I release that wire.
The flashproces starts and after about a minute the app says Finished!!

This is in the logscreen:

Code: Select all

test offset :  4096 0x1000
case ok
.
Uploading stub...
Running stub...
Stub running...
Changing baud rate to 115200
Changed.
NO XMC flash  detected!
SPI_BOOT_CRYPT_CNT 0
SECURE_BOOT_EN False
Compressed 1506176 bytes to 919017...

 is stub and send flash finish

But what now???

When I connect the POE-cable there is no sign of life on the board and in the air. No accesspoint from the ESP...

When I connect wires from VCC and GND on the USB2Serial to the 3V3 and GND on the PCB a (red) led on the ESP goes on. But no SSID from the ESP...

What to do?

@Gijs: earlier this week you mentioned:

For PoE on that specific board you need some add-on module which is also sold via Ali.
I have not tried this PoE add-on module myself for this specific board.

I guess it is way less expensive to buy one of those PoE "dongles" like these IEEE802.3af/at PoE modules as they do cost next to nothing and can be used for a lot of other projects too.
You can pick them with a lot of different connectors. I guess using the 5.5mm "DC" connector is the most practical for your purpose.

Some PoE adapters (like the one sold by M5stack for the Atom series of modules) can get quite warm.
No idea how hot the ones I linked above may get, but having them separate can also be useful to manage the heat.
(I have bought several of them but not yet tested myself)

I have such a dongle in stock. But which pins on the board do I feed for power?

[Ath]

Download the latest zipfile from here: https://td-er.nl/ESPEasy/latest/
Download from Espressif the latest flash download tool V3.9.6
Configured that tool but not sure about the startaddress 0x1000 but found that somewhere before.. Is that address ok?

The factory.bin file must be flashed at offset 0, the 0x1000 offset is when separately flashing the partitioning and bootloader, but they are included in the factory.bin for convenience.

NB: You could have used the Web-flasher (from Chrome or Edge) instead of the Espressif tool, but that's fine too.

When i connect the usb-cable into the USB2serialboard the GPIO9 is connected to GND of the breadboard.
After a few seconds I release that wire.
The flashproces starts and after about a minute the app says Finished!!

This is in the logscreen:

Code: Select all

test offset :  4096 0x1000
case ok
.
Uploading stub...
Running stub...
Stub running...
Changing baud rate to 115200
Changed.
NO XMC flash  detected!
SPI_BOOT_CRYPT_CNT 0
SECURE_BOOT_EN False
Compressed 1506176 bytes to 919017...

 is stub and send flash finish

But what now???
[/code]

See previous answer...

When I connect the POE-cable there is no sign of life on the board and in the air. No accesspoint from the ESP...

When I connect wires from VCC and GND on the USB2Serial to the 3V3 and GND on the PCB a (red) led on the ESP goes on. But no SSID from the ESP...

What to do?

@Gijs: earlier this week you mentioned:

For PoE on that specific board you need some add-on module which is also sold via Ali.
I have not tried this PoE add-on module myself for this specific board.

I guess it is way less expensive to buy one of those PoE "dongles" like these IEEE802.3af/at PoE modules as they do cost next to nothing and can be used for a lot of other projects too.
You can pick them with a lot of different connectors. I guess using the 5.5mm "DC" connector is the most practical for your purpose.

Some PoE adapters (like the one sold by M5stack for the Atom series of modules) can get quite warm.
No idea how hot the ones I linked above may get, but having them separate can also be useful to manage the heat.
(I have bought several of them but not yet tested myself)

I have such a dongle in stock. But which pins on the board do I feed for power?

Best would be to supply 5V to a 5V pin on the board, the board has a regulator to bring that down to 3.3V.

[TD-er]

Yesterday Ton and I found issues with the ESP32-C3/-C6 on the latest build, so you might want to stay at the build you mentioned earlier.
All builds upto beginning of March will work fine. Not sure yet when the issue was introduced.

[PieterS]

@TD-er:
I succeeded in upload ESP_Easy_mega_20240331_energy_ESP32c3_4M316k_CDC.factory.bin and tried to configure the firmware for ethernet. But I found no options, only the wellknown wifi-part.

So searching again in the my local all.zip but no ESP_Easy_mega_20240331_energy_ESPc3_4M316k_littleFS.bin. That version was advised?



Edit:
Sorry, misunderstanding... I guess you mean: ESP_Easy_mega_20240229_custom_ESP32c3_4M316k_LittleFS_CDC_ETH.factory.bin
In this version I can play with ethernet I guess? Will give it a try.

I have no idea what the difference is with the CDC-version. Which one do I need?
And what is the difference between CDC and LittleFS?
I want to read the Eastron SDMxxx-meters with ESPeasy on ethernet.

[TD-er]

There is a number of things showing in the filename:
- ESP32C3 -> ESP type/model
- LittleFS -> Showing the file system type, but since recently it also signifies the SDK version I used to build it (more on this later)
- CDC -> Allows to use ESPEasy console on those ESP32 boards which have native USB port instead of (or next to) some external USB to serial chip
- Factory -> You need a file with "factory" in the name to flash ESP32-boards via serial as this also includes the bootloader partition, flash starting at address 0.

Now what you were missing in the filename you picked was "ETH" to show it supports Ethernet.
This brings us also back to the "LittleFS" part as for boards which are not using the "ESP32-classic" to have Ethernet, you need to have an Ethernet chip connected via SPI to the ESP.
There are 2 types of interfaces for Ethernet chips:
- RMII
- SPI

The RMII interface is not present on ESP32-S2/-S3/-C2/-C3/-C6 etc.
Thus those can only be used with a SPI connected Ethernet chip.
However support for SPI Ethernet is only present in ESP-IDF5.x, which is the later/latest SDK.
This SDK also does not allow me to use the old SPIFFS file system format, only LittleFS.
So when implementing support for ESP-IDF5.x I made a simple distinction in the builds:
- LittleFS builds => ESP-IDF5.x
- SPIFFS builds (thus not having "LittleFS" in the name) => ESP-IDF 4.4

So for your board you _need_ to have "LittleFS" in the name and "ETH"

The latest build does appear to have some issues with ESP32-C3/-C6 on LittleFS builds, so I am working on this right now.
Also there isn't an "energy" build for ESP32-C3 with Eth now.
I will make you a build for this as soon as I have fixed this and will send you a link via a message when I have it ready.

Right now I think it is best to keep this build on your module as it will make it much easier for you to upload the new build when ready. (the WiFi credentials are also stored outside the file system, so it will format the file system and create new default settings including the current WiFi credentials)

I think I will leave out the "CDC" part for your specific build as you don't have any native USB on that board and it seems to be the part causing the issues I'm now looking into.

[PieterS]

@TD-er:
Thanks Gijs for all this information. I feel a bit sorry for all the work I give to you. Explaining this knowledge and building and maintaining this software.

I now better understand differences in software like littleFS, CDC and Factory.
It is a bit a pitty that there are so many flavours in hardware, processors and interfaces.

I will wait patiently for your message. Thanks for all the good work!

[PieterS]

Refering to this thread: viewtopic.php?p=69036#p69036

That version is not in list of the above link... So I think your answer should be No.

yes it is:
Screenshot - 12-04-2024 , 21_22_25.png

I want to use that pcb to read the Eastron SDM630M

But that plugin isn't included in the Custom build.
Getting that PR local in VSCode, you're able to create a Custom build that includes the Eastron plugin, but if not, you can use this one, that has the Eastron plugin included:
ESP_Easy_mega_20240412_custom_ESP32c3_4M316k_LittleFS_CDC_ETH.zip

H @TD-er and @Ath,

Thnx a lot for all effort!
Upload ESP_Easy_mega_20240412_custom_ESP32c3_4M316k_LittleFS_CDC_ETH.factory.bin to the pcb with Flash download tool went well.
After disconnecting the USB2serial-board and connecting 5 Volt from a lab-psu to the pcb it shows a wifi accesspoint.

But now the strange part: I cannot reach the webserver: 192.168.4.1 on my phone. I can ping the device at that IP.

I was wondering why the pcb uses so much current, about 450 mA... Should be around the 75 mA normally I had in mind..

Inspecting the wiring: I was feeding at the 3V3-pin. When I changed to the 5V-pin the current is over 1 Amp..

My fault I guess. I will order a new one. Still the same model? ETH01 evo or do you have a better suggestion for this purpose..

Was considering: why are there not so many GPIO-pins available on this board? See the picture above.

[Ath]

Was considering: why are there not so many GPIO-pins available on this board? See the picture above.

The ESP32-C3 doesn't have that many GPIO pins, and a couple are directly wired to the Ethernet chip it seems (they are partly for SPI, so these could have been external as well for other SPI devices ).

Your photo shows the WT32C3 ETH01 Evo board, but the wiring diagram seems to be the ESP32 ETH01, based on the ESP32 Classic, that has a different Ethernet setup, and also not that much GPIO pins available, as there these pins are dedicated for the ETH chip.

If you really need a lot of GPIO pins, and want to connect via Ethernet, you could get a general purpose ESP32-S3 board, and a separate W5500 SPI Ethernet board (as used in the other thread), as currently the ESP32-S3 boards have the highest number of available GPIO pins. (But you'll have to be a bit careful what board you get with enough GPIO pins available, and are advised to order one with 16MB Flash, so you can use a MAX build, that includes all plugins and features.)

[TD-er]

Typically the ESP board(s) consume 80 - 120 mA when WiFi is active in STA mode (connected to another AP)
When AP+STA is active you can add about 40 mA to this.

Ethernet is also quite power hungry.
About 50 mA when the Ethernet chip is powered and another 50 mA when it is connected to a switch.

N.B. this is at 3V3.

Most boards only have a linear voltage regulator, meaning the current remains the same and the voltage drop times the current is converted to heat.
The ESP32-C3 ETH01 EVO does have a switching power supply, which does need a higher input voltage to convert to 3V3.
It is rather efficient, so the input power (in Watt) is only slightly higher than what the board needs.

Not sure what you may have damaged by putting 5V to the 3V3 input.
The DC/DC switching voltage regulator may have tried to pull the high voltage on the output to 3V3 which caused the higher current but still I am afraid some parts may have been fried.

[PieterS]

H Ton and Gijs,

Thnx for all info and all the good work.
I am pretty sure I fried the Evo so I ordered a new one. Next time I will limit the current to 300mA.
I keep you informed as soon as it arrives.

[TD-er]

Maybe already prepare some pinheader to put on a clamp where you're sure the voltages are OK
And maybe just to be sure, start with only 3V3
Unless you reverse polarity, 3V3 is unlikely to damage anything when applied to the wrong pin.

[PieterS]

I will give that device its own, correct prepared and checked breadboard. Problem of that pcb is that just a few pins are marked on top, the rest at the bottom. So in a hurry it went wrong.. lesson learned.

[PieterS]

Recieved a new ETH01 evo, downloaded and flashed ESP_Easy_mega_20240414_custom_ESP32c3_4M316k_LittleFS_CDC_ETH.factory.bin.
The AP starts and I can fill in the password configesp and Android asks to connect once or allways. I choose once.
But I am not able to connect to the site 192.168.4.1 after I start the browser on my phone

The pcb runs with 5V and a current of about 75 mA.

When I scan the wifi network with the app Lan-analyzer on the phone there are two devices: 192.168.4.1 an 192.168.4.2 (the phone itself)
When I do a portscan on the device 192.168.4.1 port 80-87 are blocked...



How to solve that problem?

[Ath]

How did you upload the binary to the ETH unit, via the Web Flasher or via the Espressif Flash Download tool?

[PieterS]

With the Espressif Flash Download tool..

[PieterS]

There is a number of things showing in the filename:
- ESP32C3 -> ESP type/model
- LittleFS -> Showing the file system type, but since recently it also signifies the SDK version I used to build it (more on this later)
- CDC -> Allows to use ESPEasy console on those ESP32 boards which have native USB port instead of (or next to) some external USB to serial chip
- Factory -> You need a file with "factory" in the name to flash ESP32-boards via serial as this also includes the bootloader partition, flash starting at address 0.

Now what you were missing in the filename you picked was "ETH" to show it supports Ethernet.
This brings us also back to the "LittleFS" part as for boards which are not using the "ESP32-classic" to have Ethernet, you need to have an Ethernet chip connected via SPI to the ESP.
There are 2 types of interfaces for Ethernet chips:
- RMII
- SPI

The RMII interface is not present on ESP32-S2/-S3/-C2/-C3/-C6 etc.
Thus those can only be used with a SPI connected Ethernet chip.
However support for SPI Ethernet is only present in ESP-IDF5.x, which is the later/latest SDK.
This SDK also does not allow me to use the old SPIFFS file system format, only LittleFS.
So when implementing support for ESP-IDF5.x I made a simple distinction in the builds:
- LittleFS builds => ESP-IDF5.x
- SPIFFS builds (thus not having "LittleFS" in the name) => ESP-IDF 4.4

So for your board you _need_ to have "LittleFS" in the name and "ETH"

The latest build does appear to have some issues with ESP32-C3/-C6 on LittleFS builds, so I am working on this right now.
Also there isn't an "energy" build for ESP32-C3 with Eth now.
I will make you a build for this as soon as I have fixed this and will send you a link via a message when I have it ready.

Right now I think it is best to keep this build on your module as it will make it much easier for you to upload the new build when ready. (the WiFi credentials are also stored outside the file system, so it will format the file system and create new default settings including the current WiFi credentials)

I think I will leave out the "CDC" part for your specific build as you don't have any native USB on that board and it seems to be the part causing the issues I'm now looking into.

I was reading the above message of Gijs again and as I cannot find the build in the list of Webflasher. So that might be my problem. I need a version without CDC. I will try 20240414 Custom 4M LittleFS ETH [ESP32, ESP32-C3].. May I can configure the board with wifi-settings

[PieterS]

Installation with Web Flasher of the above named version was successfull. The SSID ESP-Easy shows up in the list of wifi-points. A connection to the AP is made.

In my browser I fill in: 192.168.4.1 and after a while it says:

de wachttijd voor de verbinding is verstreken

[Ath]

Does your browser automatically use https protocol, instead of http ? as https is not (yet) supported by ESPEasy.

Euhm, why is port 80..87 blocked on your device? The webserver is available at port 80.
Looks like you have some security software running (might be anti-virus or anti-hacking software) that blocks access to http at port 80

You could try to use an Android device to connect to the AP, as after login by default the offered IP address is opened by Android. I often use my Android tablet to set up a new ESP device, but also use the direct commands via USB serial to connect a device to WiFi so I can further configure it via the laptop.

[PieterS]

My phone is a Samsung with Android. No extra security enabled.
To be sure that it was not a setting in my phone I tried with another device: Microsoft Surface with Windows 11. Same problem...

But I will try with that prefix http:// and keep you informed.

[PieterS]

Back again!!

I tried with the Surface again! This time after I connected to the SSID ESP-Easy (the browser was still up) there was an url http://wwwmsftconnecttest.com/setup
So I could choose the correct SSID and fill in the password!

Problem solved. No idea why. But the LAN-analyzer shows a new IP and there you go.

Thnx Ton for replies.

[Ath]

Well, you got where you wanted to go but it took some effort...

Once you connect a few more ESP's you get more experienced, so it will go a bit smoother, we've all been there and done that

[PieterS]

Configuring the software for Ethernet on my ETH01 evo.

I found a table for that at https://espeasy.readthedocs.io/en/lates ... hy-address



But some marks show up when I try to select the GPIO for that pin..



Can I just ignore the warning and submit and reboot?? This is a brandnew pcb..

Or do I have to change some settings in Tools, Advanced?

I read several warnings on this page: Important notice: It is possible to actually damage the Ethernet chip when a wrong configuration is used.

So better safe than sorry

[Ath]

The GPIO pins are wired that way, so it's the only way to make it work... For this device you can ignore the warnings.

F.e. GPIO-9 is the pin to pull the device into flash-mode, but in this setup it's used as an output-pin so no issue.

[PieterS]

Thnx for quick reply. But will there be an issue when i reflash for update or other firmware? I need the energy pack for Eastron energy-readers when that is available.

[Ath]

No problem, you can upgrade via the Firmware Update button on the Tools page, as long as you use the same ESP model (C3), Flash layout (4M316k), Filesystem (LittleFS) and ETH feature. But for the C3 there's no Energy build with those features available...

Here's a Custom C3 build that does include the P078 Eastron plugin, for your configuration:

ESP_Easy_mega_20240419_custom_ESP32c3_4M316k_LittleFS_CDC_ETH.zip

(1.77 MiB) Downloaded 11 times

Just select the non-factory .bin file for uploading via the Firmware Update button.

[PieterS]

H Ton,

Thnx for reply and your dedicated firmware.
Succeeded in configuring ethernet. I had to fill in the tab Config with an IP-address too. After a second reboot and power-off Wifi was down and ethernet up!

I downloaded, unzipped the non-factory.bin and flashed it when ethernet is enabled.



But that process takes at the moment more than 15 minutes.. I guess that updating is only possible when wifi is the selected protocol?
Because of the pinconfiguration you mentioned in your message of 19 Apr 2024, 21:28 hour.

How to handle now? Just unpower, select Wifi as the preferred protocol and update again?

[PieterS]

No progress with uploading the new firmware... After one hour I took off the power.
After reboot no sign of live on ethernet of wifi. So I decided to flash by USB2serial again with the ESP_Easy_mega_20240419_custom_ESP32c3_4M316k_LittleFS_CDC_ETH.factory.bin.

The SSID showed up but same problem as yesterday with configuring, both on android phone and even on the Surface with windows 11.. In the end I plugged in the ethernet and TADA!!??

And as a bonus: the energy-plugins are available too

The only difference I notice on my PSU: the board uses about twice as much power as with wifi... around 165 mA at 5V. I hope it is worth for a stable connection.

Thanks a lot gentlemen.

I start with configuring the AC energy plugins for Eastron.

[Ath]

No progress with uploading the new firmware... After one hour I took off the power.
After reboot no sign of live on ethernet of wifi. So I decided to flash by USB2serial again with the ESP_Easy_mega_20240419_custom_ESP32c3_4M316k_LittleFS_CDC_ETH.factory.bin.

The SSID showed up but same problem as yesterday with configuring, both on android phone and even on the Surface with windows 11.. In the end I plugged in the ethernet and TADA!!??

And as a bonus: the energy-plugins are available too

Sometimes, the updater gets confused, but also, 'modern' browsers (looking at you Chrome ) throttle tabs that are inactive/not currently visible, to receive nearly no CPU-cycles, causing the upload to stall. I've configured Chrome to never throttle tabs (but it still does eventually ). So best is to use the serial connection, like you did, that should be successful. During the upload, Ethernet is best disconnected, and after successful upload via serial, disconnect the unit from power, re-connect Ethernet, then apply power. Now it should boot correctly, and connect via Ethernet. Fall-back to WiFi can take up to a minute, if Ethernet is disconnected 'in-flight'.
And as that is actually an in-place upgrade, no AP should be activated, as all settings are still intact.

The only difference I notice on my PSU: the board uses about twice as much power as with wifi... around 165 mA at 5V. I hope it is worth for a stable connection.

That sounds like an expected difference between WiFi and Ethernet... (as mentioned by TD-er)

Thanks a lot gentlemen.

I start with configuring the AC energy plugins for Eastron.

You're very welcome
Have fun!

[PieterS]

For my knowledge:

And as that is actually an in-place upgrade, no AP should be activated, as all settings are still intact.

I uploaded the factory.bin-version when I used the usb2serial-hardware.. I had in mind that the factory-version will erase all settings.. But that seems not true.. What is the difference between these versions?

[Ath]

The factory.bin includes the bootloader and partitioning data in addition to the sketch (Arduino term), and has to be flashed from address 0x0 on the flash, the non-factory.bin file only includes the sketch, and has to be installed at address 0x10000 (or on the second APP partition, but then the startup-partition has to be set too, and I don't recall the starting address, as it's based on the first APP partition size ).
The Update Firmware button installs the uploaded binary at the currently inactive APP partition on ESP32 (ESP8266 is a different, more complicated, story...), and switches the active partition once the upload is successfully completed.

[Ath]

I had in mind that the factory-version will erase all settings.. But that seems not true..

To reset/clear the flash you have to explicitly erase it, either form the Flash Download Tool, the Web Flasher, or by applying the reset command from ESPEasy, but that last one just 'emulates' a wipe by erasing all known locations where settings are stored, but keeps the binary that's installed.