ESP32 with update FTDI contoller

PlatformIO IDE
1

esp32_ftdi
esp32_ftdi1299×1399 536 KB

I am trying to program an ESP32 board (left) with two FTDI controllers (right).
I connected 3.3V , GND, TxD ans RxD from the FTDI to the ESP32 board.
Debug messages on the console are shown fine!

But Upload does nor work.

I tried to:

  • press the BOOT button of the ESP32 on the board during upload
  • set of the ESP32 RST to GND with or without the option above
  • add a 1µF capacitor between 3.3V and GND

→ Nottingham!

Any suggestions what I might have done wrong?

2
  1. It looks to me as if the TTGO board already has a built-in USB to serial converter on the back? Does that not work out of the box?
  2. What board = ... definition are you using in the platformio.ini?

press the BOOT button of the ESP32 on the board during upload

  1. If anything you need to do the proper reset-into-bootloader procedure, that is, hold down BOOT and reset the chip (pulse RST to GND). Only pressing the BOOT (=GPIO0) button during upload will do absolutely nothing.
  2. Since your board doesn’t look like it has a reset button but rather an on-off slider switch (IF the button on the side is for BOOT and not for RST), you should try turning off the board power, holding the BOOT button and then powering it on with the button still pressed. When you do that you shoudl also see bootloader messages

rst:0x1 (POWERON_RESET),boot:0x23 (DOWNLOAD_BOOT(UART0/UART1/SDIO_REI_REO_V2))
waiting for download

3

Thanks for your quick response.
Regarding your questions and remarks.

  1. Yes the board has an working USB controller.
    It is a LILYGO® TTGO MINI 32 V1.3
    But I need to be able to program the device with an
    FTDI controller in another project.

  2. Here are my settings
    platform = espressif32
    board = esp32dev
    upload_protocol = esptool

  3. I tried to press BOOT and

  4. I connected RST to GND with a cable.
    The button on the side is for BOOT.

Yes I see this message when I set both RST and BOOT to GND!!

rst:0x1 (POWERON_RESET),boot:0x3 (DOWNLOAD_BOOT(UART0/UART1/SDIO_REI_REO_V2))
waiting for download

But then the tiny fellow is not receiving data.

4

After you’ve done that exact reset-into-bootloader mode and closed the serial monitor again, what is the complete log when you execute the project task “Advanced → Verbose Upload”?

5

You cannot program the TTGO board with another board as both the on-board USB-to-serial converter and the additional FTDI board try to drive the ESP32’s RX pin. They will fight each other and the resulting signal will be unusable.

This is no problem for the debug output as multiple chips can be listening on the ESP32’s TX pin.

If you really need to program it with the FTDI board, you need to desolder the on-board USB-to-serial chip or cut the RX trace close to the chip.

6

Here we go.
Also sounds logical.
Thanks for your help!
:+1: