How to Flash ESP32-S2 / Wemos S2 mini v1.0.0 purple pcb with usb-c

[grundy]

hello everyone,

i recently got these wemos s2 mini boards wich are nice because of the high gpio count but i cant really get it to work, did anyone get one of these running?

i connected the board to a win10 pc then holding 0 button - press rst button - release 0 button to put it in download mode -> serial port comes up on the pc

first i tried with the expressif 3.8.5 downloadtool from the espeasy release, it has a s2 button but does not work with the s2 over usb, so i got the 3.9.2 from the expressif site
there i (think i ) could download the (EDIT, wrong filename earlier ) ESP_Easy_mega_20220616_normal_ESP32s2_4M316k.factory.bin to address 0 , at least it gave no errors.

so finally i press reset on the board but then nothing happens , the serial port disappears so i cant get any output, no wlan appears and i cant enter settings to connect to my routers wlan -> how to continue at this point?

do i need to get an additional usb-serial and connect it to the board to enter settings or did i anything wrong because no ap appears ? hope anyone has a little hint for me ^^

[Ath]

On an ESP32s2 board you must use an ESP32s2 build, as that CPU isn't compatible with the 'regular' ESP32 CPU. There are a few builds available that support the ESP32s2.
The princple of flashing the factory.bin at address 0x0000 is correct though

NB: I'm running a NeoPixel build here, as my s2 board as such pixel on-board

[grundy]

sorry i copied the wrong filename in the post earlier, of course i used
ESP_Easy_mega_20220616_normal_ESP32s2_4M316k.factory.bin

i hope the esp easy flasher tool supports the esp32 boards too one day , would make things easier

[Ath]

The flashtool should support the ESP32s2, though my initial flash is usually via VSCode, as I'm in 'developer mode'
AFAIK, the Espressif flasher does support the s2, so that should work as expected. You might want to check the 'DoNotChgBin' checkbox, that may help

[MagTer]

I'm new to ESPEasy but i have it running on a couple of Wemos D1 mini's. When installing the images on the D1's I used the ESP.Easy.Flasher were the com port was identified and i just selected the "normal" build for my chip.

I tried the same on one of my S2 mini boards but the tool does not recognize the Com-port even though windows shows them as available. One in normal mode and another one in flash mode.
I have seen that there are other tools available for flashing, but so far the newbie in me, does not feel comfortable with espressif_flash tool.

Is there any way to have the ESP.Easy.Flasher identify/support the S2 Mini COM ports?

Just to clear out missunderstandings, I am using the ESP32 build, targeting to use the ESP32s2 image.

[Ath]

If the COM port is not detected, that's a known issue with the ESPEasyFlasher as it doesn't seem to correctly identify some types of serial drivers, unfortunately.
Best alternative is to download the Espressif Windows flash tool from here, as that seems to be better in recognizing the COM ports.

[Ath]

NB: For any ESP32 based build, using the serial flash tool it requires to use a firmware name ending with factory.bin, and flashing it at address 0x0000, as it already includes the required boot and other partitioning data.
When later upgrading the unit you can use the OTA upgrade from the Tools page, using the regular .bin file (without factory in the name)

[MagTer]

I managed to flash the card but I must have done something wrong since now I can only get the COM port show up in windows when the card is in flashing mode.
The normal mode COM port never shows up so I cant connect and configure it.

Image flashed: ESP_Easy_mega_20220809_normal_ESP32s2_4M316k.factory.bin
Address: 0x0000
SPI Speed: 40
SPI Mode: DIO
DoNotChgBin: Checked

Any documentation available with the correct settings for the S2 mini?

[TD-er]

Usually connecting GPIO-0 to GND at boot (or power cycle) will let the unit enter flash mode.

However, the S2 does have support for native USB, which is not implemented in ESPEasy.
I never tried using the native USB port option of that chip. If this is the only way how your board is connected to the USB port, then I hope it will enter this flashing mode again when pulling GPIO-0 down to GND.

The only S2 boards I used so far have an external USB to serial chip.

Do you have a link to this board?

[MagTer]

Here is the link to wemos page on it: https://www.wemos.cc/en/latest/s2/s2_mini.html

It has a button that can be pressed during boot/reset for entering Device Firmware Upgrade (DFU) mode and i would guess that connects GPIO0 to GND?
When in that mode, I get the COM port in windows and i can flash the image as per above post.

However, when i reboot without pressing the DFU mode button i dont get anything so i suspect that the image is not correctly written by me based on that I am setting something wrong.

Screenshot:

Screenshot.png (39.71 KiB) Viewed 40 times

[Ath]

a) You can attach screenshots as attachments in the Forum, your pasteboard link will probably expire soon, and we won't be able to see it anymore.

b) If the serial chip isn't external, ESPEasy won't know how to initialize that properly, so there will be no serial port.
When using a phone, tablet or laptop, can you detect a WiFi access point named ESPEasy (or similar, it depends on the build) that you can connect to?
When logging in to that AP using the password configesp (all lowercase) you will be presented the setup screen for ESPEasy, that enables you to select your WiFi the device should connect to, enter the password, and it should report the IP address it has obtained.
If you can't find the IP address there, you can probably get it from the WiFi router admin screen, or by using a network scanner like Fing.

[MagTer]

Thanks, I will update the previous post with the image as an attachment. Since it worked it might help someone else.

I used "post flash actions" when installing my D1 boards to configure wifi so I didn't think of the AP mode.
I was set on finding that com port to send the post flash action commands myself.

The WLAN is indeed available. Configuration went smooth now. Thanks.