PiBox » Iron Man

Downloaded esptool 4.8.1, which is a binary release (not python). Unpacked it under /home/mjhammel/src/ximba/arduino/esp8266/Arduino//tools/ and moved the toplevel directory to "esptool", which is where the build seems to want it.

I then had to change the perms on esptool/esptool because, out of the archive, the binary had 644 perms. Changing to 755 allowed it to be run. However, the build still fails because the version of makeEspArduino I installed doesn't work with that version of esptool.

usage: esptool [-h]
               [--chip {auto,esp8266,esp32,esp32s2,esp32s3beta2,esp32s3,esp32c3,esp32c6beta,esp32h2beta1,esp32h2beta2,esp32c2
,esp32c6,esp32c61,esp32c5,esp32c5beta3,esp32h2,esp32p4}]
               [--port PORT] [--baud BAUD] [--port-filter PORT_FILTER]
               [--before {default_reset,usb_reset,no_reset,no_reset_no_sync}]
               [--after {hard_reset,soft_reset,no_reset,no_reset_stub}] [--no-stub] [--trace]
               [--override-vddsdio [{1.8V,1.9V,OFF}]] [--connect-attempts CONNECT_ATTEMPTS]
               {load_ram,dump_mem,read_mem,write_mem,write_flash,run,image_info,make_image,elf2image,read_mac,chip_id,flash_i
d,read_flash_status,write_flash_status,read_flash,verify_flash,erase_flash,erase_region,read_flash_sfdp,merge_bin,get_securit
y_info,version}
               ...
esptool: error: argument operation: invalid choice: '/home/mjhammel/src/ximba/arduino/esp8266/Arduino//bootloaders/eboot/eboo
t.elf' (choose from 'load_ram', 'dump_mem', 'read_mem', 'write_mem', 'write_flash', 'run', 'image_info', 'make_image', 'elf2i
mage', 'read_mac', 'chip_id', 'flash_id', 'read_flash_status', 'write_flash_status', 'read_flash', 'verify_flash', 'erase_fla
sh', 'erase_region', 'read_flash_sfdp', 'merge_bin', 'get_security_info', 'version')
make: *** [/home/mjhammel/src/ximba/arduino/esp8266/makeEspArduino/makeEspArduino.mk:260: /home/mjhammel/src/ximba/xarduino/l
ightsw/bld/imlightsw.bin] Error 2

The problem is in makeEspArduino.mk:260, which calls ELF2BIN_COM. Printing that out in showconfig I get this.

ELF2BIN_COM : /home/mjhammel/src/ximba/arduino/esp8266/Arduino//tools/esptool/esptool -eo /home/mjhammel/src/ximba/arduino/esp8266/Arduino//bootloaders/eboot/eboot.elf \
  -bo /home/mjhammel/src/ximba/xarduino/lightsw/bld/imlightsw.bin -bm qio -bf 40 -bz 1M -bs .text -bp 4096 -ec -eo /home/mjhammel/src/ximba/xarduino/lightsw/bld/imlightsw.elf \
  -bs .irom0.text -bs .text -bs .data -bs .rodata -bc -ec

The args used don't come close to matching what the tools wants. I'm guessing esptool needs to be the python version instead. A python version is available in

/home/mjhammel/.arduino15/packages/esp8266/hardware/esp8266/3.1.2/tools/esptool

So I could symlink that to

/home/mjhammel/src/ximba/arduino/esp8266/Arduino//tools/esptool/

and see if that works (though esptool is not there - it's esptool.py).

esptool was installed by bump Arduino from 2.1 to 3.1.2. Doing this create esptool directory, but that directory is empty.

But that doesn't matter, yet. By bumping to 3.1.2 the build no longer works. It fails with this.

sqrt32.cpp
core_esp8266_waveform_pwm.cpp
In file included from /home/mjhammel/src/ximba/arduino/esp8266/Arduino//cores/esp8266/Arduino.h:234:0,
                 from /home/mjhammel/src/ximba/arduino/esp8266/Arduino//cores/esp8266/core_esp8266_waveform_pwm.cpp:42:
/home/mjhammel/src/ximba/arduino/esp8266/Arduino//cores/esp8266/mmu_iram.h:119:4: warning: #warning "MMU_IRAM_SIZE was undefi
ned, setting to 0x8000UL!" [-Wcpp]
   #warning "MMU_IRAM_SIZE was undefined, setting to 0x8000UL!" 
    ^
In file included from /home/mjhammel/src/ximba/arduino/esp8266/Arduino//cores/esp8266/Arduino.h:292:0,
                 from /home/mjhammel/src/ximba/arduino/esp8266/Arduino//cores/esp8266/core_esp8266_waveform_pwm.cpp:42:
/home/mjhammel/src/ximba/arduino/esp8266/Arduino//cores/esp8266/pgmspace.h:8:26: fatal error: sys/pgmspace.h: No such file or
 directory
 #include <sys/pgmspace.h>
                          ^
compilation terminated.
make: *** [/home/mjhammel/src/ximba/arduino/esp8266/makeEspArduino/makeEspArduino.mk:122: /home/mjhammel/src/ximba/xarduino/l
ightsw/bld/obj/core_esp8266_waveform_pwm.cpp.o] Error 1

Looks at Arduino/coresw/esp8255/pgmspace.h we see that sys/pgmspace.h is no longer included in esp8266:

// This file's contents have been moved to newlib.  This file simply
// includes the newlib pgmspace file as well as some ets headers
// to preserve backwards compatibility
// current source: https://github.com/earlephilhower/newlib-xtensa/blob/xtensa-4_0_0-lock-arduino/newlib/libc/sys/xtensa/sys/pgmspace.h

So I have to find that library (newlib) and install it too.

At this point I can either continue down the path of upgrading everything starting with Arduino and makeEspArduino.mk to latest versions, or I can just try to migrate the build to use arduino-cli. The latter might be easier. I need to review the getting started video to see how to install external libraries.

I tried it with arduino-cli (aliased to ac ). The first caveat is that the directory is passed to the compile command and the "main" needs to be named the same thing, as in PiBox/PiBox.ino.

$ ac compile -b esp8266:esp8266:generic PiBox
/home/mjhammel/src/ximba/xarduino/lightsw/src/PiBox/PiBox.ino:25:10: fatal error: AES.h: No such file or directory
   25 | #include <AES.h>
      |          ^~~~~~~
compilation terminated.

Used library      Version Path
ESP8266WiFi       1.0     /home/mjhammel/.arduino15/packages/esp8266/hardware/esp8266/3.1.2/libraries/ESP8266WiFi
ESP8266WebServer  1.0     /home/mjhammel/.arduino15/packages/esp8266/hardware/esp8266/3.1.2/libraries/ESP8266WebServer
ESP8266HTTPClient 1.2     /home/mjhammel/.arduino15/packages/esp8266/hardware/esp8266/3.1.2/libraries/ESP8266HTTPClient
WiFiManager       2.0.17  /home/mjhammel/Arduino/libraries/WiFiManager
DNSServer         1.1.1   /home/mjhammel/.arduino15/packages/esp8266/hardware/esp8266/3.1.2/libraries/DNSServer

Used platform   Version Path
esp8266:esp8266 3.1.2   /home/mjhammel/.arduino15/packages/esp8266/hardware/esp8266/3.1.2
Error during build: exit status 1

Not a bad start. So I need to find out how to add libraries to the cli.

Update 1¶

• Show libraries installed: ac lib list
• Find libraries (and show extended details for them) that have this string in their name: ac lib search "string"
• Show just the library names: ac lib search "string" | grep Name
• Install library by name: ac lib install "name"

To install a library that is not known by Library Manager you need to use --git-url . However, before you can use that it must be enabled in the yaml configuration. Add the following lines to ~/.arduino15/arduino-cli.yaml.

library:
  enable_unsafe_install: true

  ac lib install --git-url <url to git repository of library>

Doing this for the AES library worked, and I got a little further.

$ ac compile -b esp8266:esp8266:generic PiBox
/home/mjhammel/src/ximba/xarduino/lightsw/src/PiBox/PiBox.ino:26:10: fatal error: Timer.h: No such file or directory
   26 | #include <Timer.h>
      |          ^~~~~~~~~
compilation terminated.

Used library      Version Path
ESP8266WiFi       1.0     /home/mjhammel/.arduino15/packages/esp8266/hardware/esp8266/3.1.2/libraries/ESP8266WiFi
ESP8266WebServer  1.0     /home/mjhammel/.arduino15/packages/esp8266/hardware/esp8266/3.1.2/libraries/ESP8266WebServer
ESP8266HTTPClient 1.2     /home/mjhammel/.arduino15/packages/esp8266/hardware/esp8266/3.1.2/libraries/ESP8266HTTPClient
WiFiManager       2.0.17  /home/mjhammel/Arduino/libraries/WiFiManager
DNSServer         1.1.1   /home/mjhammel/.arduino15/packages/esp8266/hardware/esp8266/3.1.2/libraries/DNSServer
AES                       /home/mjhammel/Arduino/libraries/AES

Used platform   Version Path
esp8266:esp8266 3.1.2   /home/mjhammel/.arduino15/packages/esp8266/hardware/esp8266/3.1.2
Error during build: exit status 1

So now I can install all the libraries I'm using this way.

This all worked to start compiling. There are lots of errors. The first thing to fix is the ability to pass compiler flags, like -DIMTYPE=<> .

One more thing: The above commands put the build someplace I don't know about. But that's easily fixed with --output-dir <build>.

$ ac compile -b esp8266:esp8266:generic --output-dir build --build-property compiler.cpp.extra_flags="-DIMTYPE=\"light_switch\" -DIMDESC=\"Toggle_light_switch\"" PiBox
...
$ ls build
PiBox.ino.bin  PiBox.ino.elf  PiBox.ino.map

Decided to test a sample program first, so I added a "blink program": in a PBTest directory and compiled it.
Then I used this command to try to flash the board.

ac upload -b esp8266:esp8266:generic -v -p /dev/ttyUSB5 --build-path $(pwd)/build

$ ac upload -b esp8266:esp8266:generic -v -p /dev/ttyUSB5 --build-path $(pwd)/build
"/home/mjhammel/.arduino15/packages/esp8266/tools/python3/3.7.2-post1/python3" -I "/home/mjhammel/.arduino15/packages/esp8266/hardware/esp8266/3.1.2/tools/upload.py" --chip esp8266 --port "/dev/ttyUSB5" --baud "115200" ""  --before default_reset --after hard_reset write_flash 0x0 "/home/mjhammel/src/ximba/xarduino/lightsw/src/build/PBTest.ino.bin" 
esptool.py v3.0
Serial port /dev/ttyUSB5
Connecting........_____....._____....._____....._____....._____....._____....._____
A fatal esptool.py error occurred: Failed to connect to ESP8266: Timed out waiting for packet header
New upload port: /dev/ttyUSB5 (serial)

This only works if the RESET switch is enabled on my programmer board. I think something isn't setup correctly. Might be that the board is in backwards, though I don't think so.

Update:
I think the problem was I had minicom on that port at the same time. I had to exit that and enable the FLASH switch on the programmer and it acted like it was programming, but failed with the same message.

Fixed.

1. Power off
2. Flash on
3. Power on
4. Flash program
5. Power off
6. Flash off
7. Power on

Program runs!

Discovered that I'm using 3rd party libs wrong. While I CAN add them with arduino-cli lib install --git-url <>, it's probably better to use submodules so I can patch the libraries. That's the case with the aJson library that I use with imlightsw (which is now called pwrctrl).

The structure of an Arduino "sketch" (re: directory of source compiled via arduino-cli) requires requires a src directory with a named-library directory under which a src directory contains the source for the library. That library directory may not need the src directory, which will be useful since not all 3rd party libraries will have the proper format.

I can also use tarballs and unpack them as part of the build, but I like submodules better. I can always mirror the libraries in use to make sure they don't go away.