Visual Studio 2022 Device Explorer does not find the device

[grallbring]

Tool

Visual Studio extension

Description

Hello, I have a esp32-s3-touch-lcd-1.28 (https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-1.28) and I'm trying to develop something for it using the nanoFramework.
When trying to flash using nanoff (command: nanoff --update --serialport COM4 --baud 115200 --verbosity diag) the progress simply gets stuck at the Flashing firmware... step and nothing happenes (waited around 10 minutes).
When adding --masserase the flashing works with a simple green Ok after Flashing firmware... and I can also connect to it with putty and see the various booting messages.

Still, the device is neither found by the Device Explorer window in Visual Studio 2022 nor by the nanoff --listdevices command.

How to reproduce

No response

Expected behaviour

The device should show up in the Device Explorer window and when using the nanoff --listdevices command.

Screenshots

No response

Aditional context

Extension Version: 2022.3.0.78
Visual Studio 2022 Version: 17.10.1
Visual Studio Output:

23:28:37.406 [NanoDevices: dropping device in exclusion list COM1]
23:28:37.406 [NanoDevices: new device arrival COM4]
23:28:37.416 [NanoDevices: candidate nano device COM4]
23:28:37.431 [NanoDevices: checking device  COM4 @ 921600]
23:28:38.445 [NanoDevices: checking device  COM4 @ 460800]
23:28:39.451 [NanoDevices: checking device  COM4 @ 115200]
23:28:42.438 [NanoDevices: checking device  COM4 *** 2nd attempt ***]
23:28:42.439 [NanoDevices: checking device  COM4 @ 921600]
23:28:44.445 [NanoDevices: checking device  COM4 @ 460800]
23:28:46.451 [NanoDevices: checking device  COM4 @ 115200]
23:28:48.975 [NanoDevices: quitting device COM4]
23:28:48.976 [NanoDevices: Serial device enumeration completed. Found 0 devices]

[nfbot]

Hey @grallbring! 👋
If you are a commercial user, time to market maybe be important to you. Know that Professional Support options are available.
If you are stuck on something, need your bug fixed in a hurry or would like to sponsor the feature that you're currently missing, feel free to reach out to us here or on the project's Discord server.
If this it not of interest to you, that's fine too. This issue will get into the queue and will be eventually addressed.

[networkfusion]

Try nanoff --platform esp32 --serialport COM4 --update

[AdrianSoundy]

The command @networkfusion menioned will upload the generic ESP32_S3 firmware
There is another which may be better which includes a generic display driver. Although it doesn't currently support your display type it should be able to with a lttle work looking at specs of device.

Use comand for this firmware
nanoff -target ESP32_S3_BLE --serialport COM4 --update

On first load after flashing the S3 can take upto 30 secs before its visible to Visual studio.

[grallbring]

Thanks for your answers, I've tried nanoff --platform esp32 --serialport COM4 --update - this simply gets stuck at the Flashing firmware... message and nothing further happens (no additional output is shown when adding --verbosity diag).
I've also tried the command with --target ESP32_S3_BLE and --target ESP32_S3_ALL. Both only flash when adding the --masserase flag.
I also tried using esptool directly and erasing the flash before running the commands but it doesn't change anything.
In conclusion, the flashing of the firmware only seems to work when using the --masserase flag, but even then the device isn't detected by either nanoff --listdevices or by the Device Explorer in Visual Studio.

I also tried waiting a couple of minutes after flashing the firmware, restarting Visual Studio, unplugging and replugging the device, to no avail sadly.

[AdrianSoundy]

What device board are you using ?

[grallbring]

As mentioned in the first post a esp32-s3-touch-lcd-1.28 (link: https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-1.28).

[AdrianSoundy]

I just looked at the device and I see the problem. The usb port is connected via a usb to serial chip to the uart on the ESP32_S3. Our firmware expects the connection to use the direct USB connection. A new firmware would need to be built to support this device.

Are you able to build your own firmware ?
See https://docs.nanoframework.net/content/building/using-dev-container.html

You would need to make a copy of the ESP32_S3_BLE config and turn off the option "ESP32_USB_CDC"

[AdrianSoundy]

You flashed this firmware to your device with nanoff I assume.

[grallbring]

Yes, I did nanoff --update --platform esp32 --serialport COM4 --clrfile nanoCLR.bin - this however again gets stuck at the Flashing firmware... message and I had to add --masserase for it to go through.

[AdrianSoundy]

If it's a S3 with large flash it can take some time to flash. I have seen it take 8 minutes to flash, not sure why. If --masserase works then thats OK

If you put a serial monitor on the COM port, either from Visual Studio, putty etc. Set baud rate to 921600, 8bit, 1 stop bit, no parity.
See if you get the NFPKTV1.......... signature output which is the start of wire protocol. The first time firmware runs it can take up to a minute to start as its formatting internal drive. Try rescan device and if still not found then restart Visual Studio.

If you don't see WP signature. Switch serial monitor to 115200 baud and record what you see.

[josesimoes]

@grallbring you have to specify the full path of "nanoCLR.bin" file... unless you've moved it to the tool folder... 🤔
Can you make sure of that? Also adding verbose diagnostic will show you all that's happening with esptool.

When launching nanoCLR check if the version and build date/time match your build.

[grallbring]

Okay, when connecting to it with putty using baudrate 921600 it doesn't output anything.
The console simply stays empty.

Here is the output when connecting to it with baudrate 115200:

ESP-ROM:esp32s3-20210327
Build:Mar 27 2021
rst:0x1 (POWERON),boot:0x38 (SPI_FAST_FLASH_BOOT)
SPIWP:0xee
mode:DIO, clock div:1
load:0x3fce3818,len:0x1380
load:0x403c9700,len:0x4
load:0x403c9704,len:0xba4
load:0x403cc700,len:0x2c5c
SHA-256 comparison failed:
Calculated: ed9a3e74b109345b29c852c067a06feed1ba1e4c8f5cb0e29b0fb133b7ae28cf
Expected: ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff
Attempting to boot anyway...
entry 0x403c98f0
I (45) boot: .NET nanoFramework 2nd stage bootloader ESP-IDF v5.1.3
I (45) boot: build Jun 10 2024 08:56:51
I (46) boot: chip revision: v0.2
I (49) boot.esp32s3: Boot SPI Speed : 80MHz
I (54) boot.esp32s3: SPI Mode       : DIO
I (59) boot.esp32s3: SPI Flash Size : 16MB
I (64) boot: Enabling RNG early entropy source...
I (69) boot: Partition Table:
I (73) boot: ## Label            Usage          Type ST Offset   Length
I (80) boot:  0 nvs              WiFi data        01 02 00009000 00006000
I (87) boot:  1 phy_init         RF data          01 01 0000f000 00001000
I (95) boot:  2 factory          factory app      00 00 00010000 001a0000
I (102) boot:  3 deploy           Unknown data     01 84 001b0000 002e0000
I (110) boot:  4 config           Unknown data     01 82 00490000 00300000
I (117) boot: End of partition table
I (122) esp_image: segment 0: paddr=00010020 vaddr=3c130020 size=30dcch (200140) map
I (152) esp_image: segment 1: paddr=00040df4 vaddr=3fc9d100 size=04804h ( 18436) load
I (155) esp_image: segment 2: paddr=00045600 vaddr=40374000 size=0aa18h ( 43544) load
I (165) esp_image: segment 3: paddr=00050020 vaddr=42000020 size=121each (1187500) map
I (300) esp_image: segment 4: paddr=00171ed4 vaddr=4037ea18 size=0e62ch ( 58924) load
I (309) esp_image: segment 5: paddr=00180508 vaddr=600fe000 size=00064h (   100) load
I (320) boot: Loaded app from partition at offset 0x10000
I (320) boot: Disabling RNG early entropy source...

I suppose not getting any output when using baudrate 921600 is not good.

Edit: I also ran .\esptool.exe --port COM4 verify_flash --diff yes 0x10000 nanoCLR.bin and that outputted that it worked:

esptool.py v4.7.0
Serial port COM4
Connecting....
Detecting chip type... ESP32-S3
Chip is ESP32-S3 (QFN56) (revision v0.2)
Features: WiFi, BLE, Embedded PSRAM 2MB (AP_3v3)
Crystal is 40MHz
MAC: 84:fc:e6:52:4a:c8
Uploading stub...
Running stub...
Stub running...
Configuring flash size...
Verifying 0x170570 (1508720) bytes @ 0x00010000 in flash against nanoCLR.bin...
-- verify OK (digest matched)
Hard resetting via RTS pin...

[josesimoes]

As described in the instructions, we're using issues to track workloads and confirmed bugs. Being a question, I've move it to questions.

[grallbring]

Alright, I just realized my mistake.
I had to flash manually using esptool, also flashing the built bootloader.bin and the built partition-table.bin.
(When flashing using nanoff it used the files from the .fw_cache folder in %USERPROFILE% and apparently those didn't work).
Now it is detected by Visual Studio!