Tutorial Basics

Getting Started with MicroPyton and ESP32/ESP8266

In this part of the tutorial, we explain how to get started with MicroPyton and ESP32/ESP8266. This includes how to write the firmware image on the microcontroller and how to use the python shell to interactively program the ESP32/ESP8266.

Success criteria

• you have installed the uPyCraft IDE on your computer
• you have a serial line terminal working on your computer (e.g. Putty)
• you have written the firmware onto the ESP32 and the ESP8266 module
• you could connect via serial line to the ESP32 and the ESP8266 module and let the onboard LEDs blink from the python prompt

Instructional Videos

Setting Up Software on Your Computer

For developing we use in our class the following software:

• uPyCraft IDE which requires Python to be installed
• Putty terminal program on Windows or any other terminal program

There is a short video on Youtube (4:20) that shows the software: https://youtu.be/DnBBB8AcvBg

Writing the MicroPython Firmware Image to the ESP32/ESP8266

• We use the uPyCraft IDE to write the images to the microcontroller, alternatively esptool.py can be used
• the firmware for the ESP32 is available at: http://micropython.org/download/esp32/
• the firmware for the ESP8266 is available at: http://micropython.org/download/esp8266/

In the video on Youtube (17:01) we show, how to write the firmware with the uPyCraft IDE: https://youtu.be/_TrKPDOReJc