This is an experimental port of MicroPython for the WiFi modules based on Espressif ESP8266 chip.
WARNING: The port is experimental and many APIs are subject to change.
Supported features include:
Work-in-progress documentation is available at http://docs.micropython.org/en/latest/esp8266/ .
The tool chain required for the build is the OpenSource ESP SDK, which can be found at https://github.com/pfalcon/esp-open-sdk. Clone this repository and run make
in its directory to build and install the SDK locally. Make sure to add toolchain bin directory to your PATH. Read esp-open-sdk's README for additional important information on toolchain setup.
Add the external dependencies to the MicroPython repository checkout:
$ git submodule update --init
See the README in the repository root for more information about external dependencies.
The MicroPython cross-compiler must be built to pre-compile some of the built-in scripts to bytecode. This can be done using:
$ make -C mpy-cross
Then, to build MicroPython for the ESP8266, just run:
$ cd esp8266
$ make axtls
$ make
This will produce binary images in the build/
subdirectory. If you install MicroPython to your module for the first time, or after installing any other firmware, you should erase flash completely:
esptool.py --port /dev/ttyXXX erase_flash
Erase flash also as a troubleshooting measure, if a module doesn't behave as expected.
To flash MicroPython image to your ESP8266, use:
$ make deploy
This will use the esptool.py
script to download the images. You must have your ESP module in the bootloader mode, and connected to a serial port on your PC. The default serial port is /dev/ttyACM0
. To specify another, use, eg:
$ make PORT=/dev/ttyUSB0 deploy
The image produced is firmware-combined.bin
, to be flashed at 0x00000.
Serial prompt
You can access the REPL (Python prompt) over UART (the same as used for programming).
WiFi
Initally, the device configures itself as a WiFi access point (AP).
WebREPL
Python prompt over WiFi, connecting through a browser.
Please follow the instructions there.
More detailed instructions can be found at http://docs.micropython.org/en/latest/esp8266/esp8266/tutorial/intro.html
While the port is still in alpha, it's known to be generally stable. If you experience strange bootloops, crashes, lockups, here's a list to check against:
Please consult dedicated ESP8266 forums/resources for hardware-related problems.