Cannot use esp07s board - Error: Unknown board ID 'esp07s'

[normandunbar]

Hi @bobswede,

@bobswede

I am not very used to PlatformIO and VSCode - this is my first project on this IDE.

Ok, no worries. Things work a little different here than in the Arduino IDE – which does an awful amount of work behind the scenes to “protect” you from having to know stuff, and just lets you get on with your project. This has good and bad points.

@bobswede

Do I enter new information into platformio.ini in my project or do you mean to use one or several of these command links:

No, those links you show in your screen shot are fine. I almost never use those myself, which is why I didn’t mention them. You do not need to change platformio.ini or use a version control system.

The dustbin is on the PlatformIO toolbar at the bottom of the VSCode window, circled in black below. This toolbar will appear whenever you open a folder or workspace where there is a file named platformio.ini.

@bobswede

If so does it in any way change my source files so I have to protect them

No, all it does is remove the compiled objects created by the compiler. So all the intermediate files and the final executable. Your source files are safe.

@bobswede

I still do not understand why there is mention of:
Flash: [===== ] 45.7% (used 477069 bytes from 1044464 bytes)

I tried deleting all the ESPRESSIF8266 packages that were installed on my laptop, I created a new sketch, just the blank one with nothing in setup or loop, and used this platformio.ini:

[env:esp07s-serial]
platform = espressif8266
board = esp07s
framework = arduino
board_upload.maximum_size = 4194304
board_upload.maximum_ram_size = 81920

Using the board_build options, I was able to see that changing maximum_ram_size showed up in the compiler output, however, changing the maximum_size did not. Even making it smaller still resulted in a 1044464 size for Flash RAM – this is 1MB - 4Kb.

I found this post from @maxgerhardt (resident genius) [esp8266] builder tools CheckUploadSize ignores board_upload.maximum_size override in platformio.ini - #3 by maxgerhardt in which he mentions that the flash size is extracted from the compiler’s linker script.

Following that, there was another post, [esp8266] builder tools CheckUploadSize ignores board_upload.maximum_size override in platformio.ini - #5 by boxofrox which mentions:

Unbeknownst to me, while the ESP has 4MB of flash, it is only capable of running a 1MB program

There are a few issues on the web about t his fact, which I was unaware of, but it seems that the hardware is the problem here, it has 4MB RAM on board, but only 1 MB can be used for program code. (Less the size of the bootloader, around 4KB apparently!)

I assume, but I’m not an 8266 guru, that the remaining 3MB can be used for “littlefs” filestore, or its replacement which I forget the name of.

It looks like your problem can’t be resolved with the current state of the hardware I’m afraid. Sorry.

Cheers,
Norm.