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The specific board can be selected with the BOARD makefile variable. This defaults (if not specified) to BOARD=GENERIC, which is the original default firmware build. For the 512k target use BOARD=GENERIC_512K.
5.7 KiB
MicroPython port to ESP8266
This is an experimental port of MicroPython for the WiFi modules based on Espressif ESP8266 chip.
WARNING: The port is experimental and many APIs are subject to change.
Supported features include:
- REPL (Python prompt) over UART0.
- Garbage collector, exceptions.
- Unicode support.
- Builtin modules: gc, array, collections, io, struct, sys, esp, network, many more.
- Arbitrary-precision long integers and 30-bit precision floats.
- WiFi support.
- Sockets using modlwip.
- GPIO and bit-banging I2C, SPI support.
- 1-Wire and WS2812 (aka Neopixel) protocols support.
- Internal filesystem using the flash.
- WebREPL over WiFi from a browser (clients at https://github.com/micropython/webrepl).
- Modules for HTTP, MQTT, many other formats and protocols via https://github.com/micropython/micropython-lib .
Work-in-progress documentation is available at http://docs.micropython.org/en/latest/esp8266/ .
Build instructions
The tool chain required for the build is the OpenSource ESP SDK, which can be
found at https://github.com/pfalcon/esp-open-sdk. Clone this repository and
run make
in its directory to build and install the SDK locally. Make sure
to add toolchain bin directory to your PATH. Read esp-open-sdk's README for
additional important information on toolchain setup.
Add the external dependencies to the MicroPython repository checkout:
$ git submodule update --init
See the README in the repository root for more information about external dependencies.
The MicroPython cross-compiler must be built to pre-compile some of the built-in scripts to bytecode. This can be done using:
$ make -C mpy-cross
Then, to build MicroPython for the ESP8266, just run:
$ cd ports/esp8266
$ make
This will produce binary images in the build-GENERIC/
subdirectory. If you
install MicroPython to your module for the first time, or after installing any
other firmware, you should erase flash completely:
$ esptool.py --port /dev/ttyXXX erase_flash
Erase flash also as a troubleshooting measure, if a module doesn't behave as expected.
To flash MicroPython image to your ESP8266, use:
$ make deploy
This will use the esptool.py
script to download the images. You must have
your ESP module in the bootloader mode, and connected to a serial port on your PC.
The default serial port is /dev/ttyACM0
, flash mode is qio
and flash size is
detect
(auto-detect based on Flash ID). To specify other values, use, eg (note
that flash size is in megabits):
$ make PORT=/dev/ttyUSB0 FLASH_MODE=qio FLASH_SIZE=32m deploy
The image produced is build-GENERIC/firmware-combined.bin
, to be flashed at 0x00000.
The default board definition is the directory boards/GENERIC
.
For a custom configuration you can define your own board in the directory boards/
.
The BOARD
variable can be set on the make command line, for example:
$ make BOARD=GENERIC_512K
512KB FlashROM version
The normal build described above requires modules with at least 1MB of FlashROM
onboard. There's a special configuration for 512KB modules, which can be
built with make BOARD=GENERIC_512K
. This configuration is highly limited, lacks
filesystem support, WebREPL, and has many other features disabled. It's mostly
suitable for advanced users who are interested to fine-tune options to achieve a
required setup. If you are an end user, please consider using a module with at
least 1MB of FlashROM.
First start
Be sure to change ESP8266's WiFi access point password ASAP, see below.
Serial prompt
You can access the REPL (Python prompt) over UART (the same as used for programming).
- Baudrate: 115200
Run help()
for some basic information.
WiFi
Initially, the device configures itself as a WiFi access point (AP).
- ESSID: MicroPython-xxxxxx (x’s are replaced with part of the MAC address).
- Password: micropythoN (note the upper-case N).
- IP address of the board: 192.168.4.1.
- DHCP-server is activated.
- Please be sure to change the password to something non-guessable
immediately.
help()
gives information how.
WebREPL
Python prompt over WiFi, connecting through a browser.
- Hosted at http://micropython.org/webrepl.
- GitHub repository https://github.com/micropython/webrepl. Please follow the instructions there.
upip
The ESP8266 port comes with builtin upip
package manager, which can
be used to install additional modules (see the main README for more
information):
>>> import upip
>>> upip.install("micropython-pystone_lowmem")
[...]
>>> import pystone_lowmem
>>> pystone_lowmem.main()
Downloading and installing packages may requite a lot of free memory, if you get an error, retry immediately after the hard reset.
Documentation
More detailed documentation and instructions can be found at http://docs.micropython.org/en/latest/esp8266/ , which includes Quick Reference, Tutorial, General Information related to ESP8266 port, and to MicroPython in general.
Troubleshooting
While the port is in beta, it's known to be generally stable. If you experience strange bootloops, crashes, lockups, here's a list to check against:
- You didn't erase flash before programming MicroPython firmware.
- Firmware can be occasionally flashed incorrectly. Just retry. Recent esptool.py versions have --verify option.
- Power supply you use doesn't provide enough power for ESP8266 or isn't stable enough.
- A module/flash may be defective (not unheard of for cheap modules).
Please consult dedicated ESP8266 forums/resources for hardware-related problems.
Additional information may be available by the documentation links above.