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ESP32 DevKit board for FujiNet as of December 2020


E474

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Hi,

 

    I have been way too busy with non-Atari matters, but want to have a go at building a FujiNet device using a DevKit and breadboard. I'm looking at this on AliExpress: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001341522439.html - can anyone, maybe @mozzwald, confirm this board would be good to go? I ordered a couple of earlier ESP32 DevKit boards (WROOM ?), but I have had so little free time they have become FujiNet obsolete while still in their anti-static bags. I know I am going to be busy over the next month or so too, but I want to order the right DevKit board now, and then have a go at setting up a FujiNet when I (hopefully) have more free time, and they are delivered in a month or so.

 

   Sorry to start a new thread, but I am looking for a link to an up to date DevKit board, and maybe this is helpful for others too.

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Probably because now all the development moved to WRover 16MB ones.

I got a 4MB wrover and got it make it work by redefining the pins used for mtr ctl, datain, dataout, etc.

In theory you can do the same with a 16MB version I found in Amazon. Basically the board will come with some of the pins defined for SIO communication already used for other matters, so you need to find unused pins and change the pin assignments.

I just checked : it is out of stock... it is called  Lolin d32 pro

Edit: I believe it might work, but i am not sure, as I have NOT tried to make it work with Fujinet firmware

Edited by manterola
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49 minutes ago, brain said:

Why did the earlier boards become FujiNet obsolete?

 

Basically, we needed more than 320K of RAM. The combination of PDF generation and bluetooth usage overflew the RAM. 

 

The production boards have 8 megabytes of RAM, and 16 megabytes of flash. This is the max for both, and should give years worth of breathing room for new features.

 

-Thom

 

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57 minutes ago, E474 said:

Hi,

 

    I have been way too busy with non-Atari matters, but want to have a go at building a FujiNet device using a DevKit and breadboard. I'm looking at this on AliExpress: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001341522439.html - can anyone, maybe @mozzwald, confirm this board would be good to go? I ordered a couple of earlier ESP32 DevKit boards (WROOM ?), but I have had so little free time they have become FujiNet obsolete while still in their anti-static bags. I know I am going to be busy over the next month or so too, but I want to order the right DevKit board now, and then have a go at setting up a FujiNet when I (hopefully) have more free time, and they are delivered in a month or so.

 

   Sorry to start a new thread, but I am looking for a link to an up to date DevKit board, and maybe this is helpful for others too.

The board you linked says ESP32-WROVER in the title yet the photograph is a ESP32-WROOM board. My instinct says 'run away' :)

 

I have this and used it for breadboarding https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B087TNPQCV (ESP32-DevKitC-VE)

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Hi,

 

   Thanks very much for the feedback. I don't know whether they are showing stock ESP32 pictures, but I agree that there's enough FUD to look for alternatives. With the additional info (thanks!) - I found these two boards:

 

    https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001283558186.html

 

and one on amazon.co.uk : ICQUANZX ESP32 8MByte

 

  though the Amazon board is WROVER-B, and AliExpress WROVER-E, so I am guessing that means the AliExpress is the newer revision. 

 

 I think it makes sense to get the configuration with the most RAM possible, so it's as future proof as possible.

   

 Has anyone else purchased a DevKit ESP32, and if so, would they mind sharing the link to the seller please?

 

 Thanks in advance!

Edited by E474
maybe linked to my account on amazon
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If you search the googles for "ESP32-DevKitC-VE" you'll find a handful of places that sell them including Amazon, Digikey, Mouser & Aliexpress.

 

1 hour ago, E474 said:

though the Amazon board is WROVER-B, and AliExpress WROVER-E, so I am guessing that means the AliExpress is the newer revision.

WROVER-E is a new version of WROVER-B. I doubt you'll find any DevKitC boards with 16MB of Flash. 8MB should be fine for now. We haven't filled it up... yet ;) that said, you'll have to build the firmware yourself as the flash tool only supports boards with 16MB

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Thanks! 

 

Google throws up quite a few, I will whittle down the results tomorrow! It's a bit weird though, usually AliExpress is a fair bit cheaper, but with this board, it's about the same price. On the other hand, with all the Brexit disruption, it might be quicker to order from China (I'm joking of course).

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  • 1 month later...

I can confirm this works on a ESP32-DevKitC-VE board.  Just perf boarded one up and it works fine with the 4MB build target (only has 8MB of flash).

 

Looks like the Lolin D32 Pro would also work with some tweaks.  It doesn't break out IO35 so you won't get SIO voltage display in the web UI (not a big deal), and the CS line for the built in MicroSD card reader is on IO4 instead of IO5, so you would need to update the code to swap that with LED2.

 

 

PXL_20210208_021553368.jpg

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I also made another ESP32 Wrover with only 4MB work with Fujinet. The board included the SD reader. So I needed to redefine the use for several pins... like buttons ,  SD card reader, MTR control, etc.. and also the definition of the different partitions, to enlarge the spiffs. But it worked!.

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

Hi,

 

   I ordered a DevKit from AliExpress and it arrived earlier today (it says Wrover on it, and was about 10 euros, so I'm hoping it's good to go). I would like to test that it's not DOA before trying to breadboard a FujiNet. I tried to install the Espressif-IDE (Ubuntu 16.04, 64 bit), but the install script errored out complaining about python versions, which I tried to fix with the script that they linked to, which also complained about python versions, so I walked away at that point.

 

   Is there a simple way to test if a DevKit board works? I looked at platformIO, but that says it needs python 3.6, and I have 3.5.2. The examples on the Espressif website - https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/en/latest/esp32/get-started/index.html - seem to say that all I need is the ESP32 board, a USB cable and a PC, which I have, so I am hoping there is a simple test program out there that I can run to test the board. Alternative is to jump in to Windows, but I would prefer something I can use on Ubuntu 16.04?

 

    Any ESP32 newbie level help would be appreciated! 

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1 hour ago, E474 said:

Is there a simple way to test if a DevKit board works?

The simplest way to test it would probably be to hook it up to the pc and open a serial terminal. It might be preloaded with some test program.

 

Also, try the Arduino framework. It is probably easy to install and upload a sketch.

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Hi @mozzwald,

 

  Thanks very much for the info - I did a bit more Googling following on from it, and found : https://gunthervd.github.io/connect-ESP32-with-linux.html 

 

   When I followed those instructions, I got the attached screen, the "waiting for download" text appeared when I pressed the "Boot" button, so I'm assuming everything is good to go, and the board just needs flashing?

putty - reboot button pressed.jpeg

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