ESP-IoT-Flasher

The ESP-IoT-Flasher is web-based tool which is made for simplicity of use. A device tester just needs to install the UART driver. After opening the application in his browser he selects the device and clicks Flash & Test. The web application then flashes a firmware to the device and the device responds with tests results from tests running on the device.

Development server

Run ng serve for a dev server. Navigate to http://localhost:4200/. The application will automatically reload if you change any of the source files.

Build

Run ng build to build the project. The build artifacts will be stored in the dist/ directory.

Running unit tests

Run ng test to execute the unit tests via Karma.

Building docker image

Building docker for local machine architecture

docker build -t thingpulse/esp-iot-flasher:1.0.2 .

building docker on ARM for x86

docker buildx build --platform linux/amd64 -t thingpulse/esp-iot-flasher:1.0.2 .

Running with docker-compose

The repository contains a sample docker-compose.yaml file. By executing docker-compose up -d in the root of this repository you can start the service. The example docker-compose configuration will start the service at http://localhost:8081

Changing device configuration

Default configurations loads the browser from the server. The angular application looks for a configuration file at /assets/defaultDeviceConfiguration.json:

esp-iot-flasher/src/assets/defaultDeviceConfiguration.json

Lines 1 to 24 in 1c669c1

	[
	{
	"id": "epulse-feather",
	"name": "ePulse Feather",
	"imageSource": "assets/feather/epulsefeather.jpg",
	"partitions": [{
	"name": "Firmware",
	"data": [],
	"offset": 0,
	"url": "./assets/feather/app-firmware.bin"
	}]
	},
	{
	"id": "espgateway",
	"name": "ESPGateway",
	"imageSource": "assets/espgateway/espgateway.jpg",
	"partitions": [{
	"name": "Firmware",
	"data": [],
	"offset": 0,
	"url": "./assets/espgateway/app-firmware.bin"
	}]
	}
	]

Explanation

• id: unique id within this file
• name: displayed name of the device
• imageSource: relative url to the displayed device image
• partitions: one or several partitions. We recommend to use just one partition if possible
  • name: of the partition, will be displayed during flashing
  • data: leave empty
  • offset: address in the flash at which this partition should be written
  • url: relative url where the binary file is. Adapt CORS headers if loading from a different domain

Changing device configuration when running with docker-compose

Adapt and uncomment the following lines to use your own configuration files in docker-compose.yaml

        volumes:
          - ./src/assets:/usr/share/nginx/html/assets:ro

Creating firmware to run the test

The following repository shows how to build a firmware which can be used together with the esp-iot-flasher: https://github.com/ThingPulse/esp32-epulse-feather-testbed

FAQ

• Question: The tool doesn't work with Safari or Firefox

• Answer: This is expected, since neither Safari nor Firefox support WebSerial. Currently only Chrome, Edge and Opera support this feature: https://caniuse.com/web-serial

• Question: When I connect my ESP32 no device shows up in the device pop-up

• Answer: If your operating system does not support the Serial-To-UART chip you still have to install the driver. Check with your device manufacturer where to get this driver