Getting started

Installing MicroPython for ESP32 (firmware)

Read this quiet easy and straightforward instructions. Basically you need a Python-package "esptool" and a corresponding ESP32-MicroPython-Firmware to flash on.

Deploy your own program without the whole toolchain

You can run single commands via serial-console. But how do you get your program working which was developed on your PC?

Small note to serial port: This was developed on my Windows-PC. The ESP was connected on COM8. Change it to your corresponding serial port (or on unix to your /dev/ttyXYZ).

Create your project

Main-file

File test_main.py in this repository. Every 0.5 second it will print "Hello world" with it's current iteration and toggle a LED on ESP32:

import time
from machine import Pin

led = Pin(2, Pin.OUT)  # On-Board LED

for i in range(5):
    print("Hello World", i)
    time.sleep(0.5)
    led.on() if i % 2 else led.off()  # Toggle LED

Deployment

ampy

Adafruit MicroPython Tool (ampy) is a tool to interact with CircuitPython or MicroPython boards over serial connections.

pip install adafruit-ampy

Test if ampy is working

ampy --port COM8 ls

If this is your initial call there should be at least one item called /boot.py

Get it your script working

It is quiet simple:

ampy --port COM8 run test_main.py

Attention: ampy's run waits for the code to finish and THEN return its output. So if you're writing code which runs forever, this script will never return (or put something in stdio).

Autostart of project, uploading files

If you want your script to be started automatically on boot of the ESP, you need to upload your files. The entry script must be called main.py. If this file exists, it will be executed after boot.py is called. E.g. in this project:

ampy --port COM8 put test_main.py main.py

Note: If you want to keep its original name, just leave out the last parameter.

If you run ampy --port COM8 ls again you should see you main.py.

Note: You can NOT directly run internal files with ampy's run! run only uploads given script. So if you have further scripts to import, you have to upload them with:

ampy --port COM8 put another_file.py

Pre-Compile

Install mpy-cross

You may want to cross-compile your code for optimization reasons: This can be done with the library mpy-cross:

pip install mpy_cross (note the underscore instead of dash).

Compile your test_main

python -m mpy_cross test_main.py

Now a further file called test_main.mpy was created.

Upload your test_main

Upload it using:

ampy --port COM8 put test_main.mpy

But how do you call it?

Simply by importing it via a Standard-Script

import test_main

This will directly execute given code. So if you just run or upload the python file mentioned content. It will be executed.