1) Use Espressif official ESP8266 development environment (recommended) 2) Use a custom development environment: virtual machine VMware (version 12.0) + Ubuntu OS (14.04 64-bit>), then configure the cross-compiler to compile the source code on Ubuntu.
1.1 Using Espressif official development environment (recommended)
1) Download Espressif official development environment installation package
You need to install the virtual machine VirtualBox (VirtualBox-4.3.12-93733-Win.exe), and then start VirtualBox to load the OS image of the development environment (ESP8266_lubuntu_20141021.ova).
xtensa-lx106-elf.tar.bz2 is a cross-compiler that is used in a custom development environment.
2) Configure VirtualBox
After installing VirtualBox 4.3.12, launch it and go through the following steps:
Step 1: Open the “Preferences” dialog.
Step 2: Select “General” tab to set the Default Machine Folder, for example: D:\vm
Step 3: Select the “Import Appliance” option.
Step 4: Select the OS image file to load, for example: D:\vm\ ESP8266_lubuntu_20141021.ova
Step 5: Import the virtual image file.
After importing, you can find the corresponding file D:\vm\ ESP8266_lubuntu_1:
Step 6: Create a shared folder
Create a new folder named “share” under Windows, so that the file transfer between VirtualBox and Windows is convenient. The operation steps are as follows:
Step 7: Verify the development environment
Run the script: “./mount.sh”
Enter the user password: “espressif” and press Enter.
Go into the Gokit3(S) directory (see the section “Gokit3(S) source code compilation”).
Run the compilation script: ./gen_misc.sh
The following messages show that the development environment has been successfully set up.
If you have any questions, please check the official instructions of Espressif:
1) Install VMware (version 12.0) + Ubuntu OS, and create a shared directory “D:\share”.
2) Configure the development environment
Step 1: Copy xtensa-lx106-elf.tar.bz2 to D:\share (The previously created shared folder) as follows:
Step 2: Start Ubuntu and run Terminal in the following order.
First enter sudo su to get a root shell, then enter the password and press Enter.
Update the package lists from the repositories.
1
apt-get update
Install related software libraries:
For 32-bit virtual machine: apt-get install vim git // press Enter all the way through to confirm
For 64-bit virtual machine: apt-get install vim git libc6-dev-amd64 // press Enter all the way though to confirm
Go to the shared folder:
1
cd /mnt/hgfs/share
Run the commands in the following order:
1 2 3
cp xtensa-lx106-elf.tar.bz2 /opt/ cd /opt/ tar -jxvf xtensa-lx106-elf.tar.bz2 // it is shown below after unpacking
1 2 3
cd /home/$ username // $username is the login username vim .profile export PATH=”/opt/xtensa-lx106-elf/bin:$PATH” // append it to the file, save and exit
1 2 3
exit // note that you need to leave the root shell source .profile // execute this script with the current user privilege echo $PATH // the following red box indicates that the configuration is correct
If you have any questions, please check the official instructions of Espressif:
For the SoC source code of Gokit3(S), please refer to the section Generate the source code for SoC scheme in Guide to Gizwits MCU Code Auto-Generator.
Gokit3 (S) source code compilation
1) Unpack the Gokit3(S) source code and copy it to the shared directory:
Note: The source code of the ESP8266 32M module is taken as an example, and 16M and 8M ones are the same.
2) Change the directory of compilation:
1
cd /mnt/hgfs/share/SoC_ESP8266_32M_source/app/
3) Set the compiling script to Unix format to prevent the Windows OS from affecting the script (Note: This method can be used once the script cannot be run):
1 2 3
vim gen_misc.sh :set ff=unix // this is a vim command, not added content :wq! // this is a vim command, not added content
4) Run the compiling script:
1
./gen_misc.sh
Note: As shown in the figure, the compilation is successful.
5) The generated binaries location:
1
share/SOC_ESP8266_32M_source/bin/upgrade
It shows the following operation result on Windows.
Gokit3(S) firmware downloading
1 Run the flash download tool Download the flash download tool “ESPFlashDownloadTool_v3.3.4.exe” at:
After downloading, unpack and click to run “ESPFlashDownloadTool_v3.3.4.exe”
2. Flash configuration
Gokit3(S) firmware has SoC edition and MCU edition. Developers should download the corresponding edition of firmware according to Gokit3(S) mode. For details, please refer to the section “2. Difference between SoC mode and MCU mode” of Introduction to Gokit3(S) development kit.
2.1 Gokit3(S) SoC Edition
The firmware file name for the SoC edition is:
user1.4096.new.6.bin
The default save location of the firmware file after compilation is:
share/SOC_ESP8266_xxM_source/bin/upgrade
2.2 Gokit3(S) MCU Edition
The firmware file name for the MCU edition is:
GAgent_00ESP826_04020029_32Mbitcombine.bin
Click here to download
For details, please see the section “5. Using Gokit’s MCU Mode” of Introduction to Gokit3(S) development kit.
2.3 Confirm flash configuration
The flash options are set as follows:
Note:
1) The first three ‘.bin’ files are in the directory D:\share\SoC_ESP8266_32M_source\bin, and you can choose the ‘.bin’ files with the corresponding names. The last .bin file defaults to the SoC edtion of the firmware: user1.4096.new.6.bin Location: D:\share\SoC_ESP8266_32M_source\bin\upgrade\user1.4096.new.6.bin If you are flashing the MCU edition firmware, please choose GAgent_00ESP826_04020029_32Mbitcombine.bin
2) COM is set to the COM number of the TTL-to-USB converter (described below)
3) BAUD is set to 115200 (slow flash speed but high success rate)
3. Connect TTL-to-USB converter
Connect TTL-to-USB converter to your computer:
Find the corresponding serial port number in Device Manager: (here is COM4).
4. Power on Gokit
Note:
Here the Gokit can be connected directly to the power supply via USB. If you want to check the log, connect to the computer (you need to distinguish the COM number).
5. Flash firmware
First, toggle the switch as is shown in the following figure to the lower side to enter the download mode.
Press the “START” button of the flash download tool and the “Reset” button of the Wi-Fi module to start the flash process:
If “FINISH” is displayed, the flash is successful.
Note: If it is not successful, first check if COM port number is correct, and set lower BAUDRATE values and try several times.
Next, set the Gokit to working mode by toggling the switch to the upper side.
Press the Reset button to restart the module and the program starts working.
6. Check log
After downloading firmware, you can connect the USB port (i.e. power supply interface) to the computer and check the log printed in the terminal by using Gizwits Serial Port Debugger (baud rate: 115200).
Note: If the log message is garbled, you can restart Gizwits Serial Port Debugger to work normally.
Firmware Upgrade (OTA)
The network connectivity to Gizwits IoT Cloud server allows the development board to download and run a new version of the firmware without connection to any development tool.
1. Upload firmware file
Log in to the Gizwits Developer Center and find the product that needs to upgrade firmware via OTA. Go to the OTA page as shown below.
Click the “Create new firmware” button and fill out the OTA panel following the indications:
Description:
The directory where the firmware file is located is bin/upgrade/*bin
The Changelog file has been added since the version 03000003. The OTA software version number will be described in the Changelog file.
For the version 03000001, please use 040200xx as the version number.
The OTA firmware version number must be greater than the version number of the firmware running in the module.
2. Verify the firmware
After the firmware is uploaded, you can see the following page:
Clicking the “Verify firmware” button will prompt you the page as shown below.
Type the MAC, click “Push” and wait for the OTA push result.
FAQ
Q: Why the setting of the custom development environment shared folder is unsuccessful?
A: Run the following commands to reinstall VMware Tools.
Docs
