Problems with alternative ESP32 arduino core 3

[noobmastha]

Hi, I have a working project that was working good with arduino ESP32 core 2 or platform = espressif32 @ ^6.7.0 in platformio.

Now I’m trying to switch to ESP32 core 3 and the code compiles and upload to the dev board without errors. This is my ini file:

[env:esp32dev]
platform = https://github.com/platformio/platform-espressif32.git#develop
platform_packages=
  framework-arduinoespressif32 @ https://github.com/espressif/arduino-esp32.git#3.0.1
  framework-arduinoespressif32-libs @ https://github.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/releases/download/3.0.1/esp32-arduino-libs-3.0.1.zip
board = esp32dev
framework = arduino
monitor_speed = 115200
monitor_rts = 0
monitor_dtr = 0

I’m using classic ESP32 dev board.
The problems are related to ledc (pwm) parts of the code and digitalWrite commands. These are the errors I get on the serial monitor:

[122854][E][esp32-hal-ledc.c:219] ledcDetach(): pin 18 is not attached to LEDC
[122861][E][esp32-hal-gpio.c:166] __digitalWrite(): IO 18 is not set as GPIO.
[122868][E][esp32-hal-ledc.c:63] ledcAttachChannel(): Channel 0 is not available (maximum 16) or already used!
[122878][E][esp32-hal-ledc.c:219] ledcDetach(): pin 4 is not attached to LEDC
[122885][E][esp32-hal-gpio.c:166] __digitalWrite(): IO 4 is not set as GPIO.
[122892][E][esp32-hal-ledc.c:63] ledcAttachChannel(): Channel 1 is not available (maximum 16) or already used!
[122902][E][esp32-hal-ledc.c:219] ledcDetach(): pin 12 is not attached to LEDC
[122909][E][esp32-hal-gpio.c:166] __digitalWrite(): IO 12 is not set as GPIO.
[122916][E][esp32-hal-ledc.c:63] ledcAttachChannel(): Channel 2 is not available (maximum 16) or already used!
[122926][E][esp32-hal-ledc.c:219] ledcDetach(): pin 26 is not attached to LEDC
[122933][E][esp32-hal-gpio.c:166] __digitalWrite(): IO 26 is not set as GPIO.
[122939][E][esp32-hal-ledc.c:63] ledcAttachChannel(): Channel 3 is not available (maximum 16) or already used!

Any ideas?

[sivar2311]

Please provide a minimal code to reproduce the error.

Arduino 3.x has some breaking API changes. See Migration from 2.x to 3.0 - - — Arduino ESP32 latest documentation
Especially the ledc API has changed.

Did you perform a “Full Clean” after switching to Arduino 3.0.1 ?
Otherwise there might be some Arduino 2.x leftovers.

Meanwhile Arduino 3.0.2 has been released:

platform_packages=
  framework-arduinoespressif32 @ https://github.com/espressif/arduino-esp32.git#3.0.2
  framework-arduinoespressif32-libs @ https://github.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/releases/download/3.0.2/esp32-arduino-libs-3.0.2.zip

Please note that Arduino 3.x is not (yet) officially supported by PlatformIO.
Hence the question: Does the problem also occur with the ArduinoIDE?

[noobmastha]

@sivar2311

Did you perform a “Full Clean” after switching to Arduino 3.0.1 ?

What do you mean by “Full Clean”? It works in ArduinoIDE, so as you said it must be “Arduino 2.x leftovers”. I deleted platform ESP32 6.7.0 I had but that didn’t helped.
I also tried to use platform = https://github.com/Jason2866/platform-espressif32.git#Arduino/IDF5 as a platform in the ini file.
Can you show me how ini file should loook?
This is the minimum code, just in the setup loop:

#include <Arduino.h>
void setup()
{
  Serial.begin(115200);
  delay(1000);
  ledcAttachChannel(MOTOR_1_IN1, PWM_FREQ, PWM_RESOLUTION, PWM_CHANNEL_1);
  ledcAttachChannel(MOTOR_1_IN2, PWM_FREQ, PWM_RESOLUTION, PWM_CHANNEL_1);
  ledcAttachChannel(MOTOR_2_IN3, PWM_FREQ, PWM_RESOLUTION, PWM_CHANNEL_2);
  ledcAttachChannel(MOTOR_2_IN4, PWM_FREQ, PWM_RESOLUTION, PWM_CHANNEL_2);
  ledcAttachChannel(MOTOR_3_IN1, PWM_FREQ, PWM_RESOLUTION, PWM_CHANNEL_3);
  ledcAttachChannel(MOTOR_3_IN2, PWM_FREQ, PWM_RESOLUTION, PWM_CHANNEL_3);
  ledcAttachChannel(MOTOR_4_IN3, PWM_FREQ, PWM_RESOLUTION, PWM_CHANNEL_4);
  ledcAttachChannel(MOTOR_4_IN4, PWM_FREQ, PWM_RESOLUTION, PWM_CHANNEL_4);
}
void loop()
{
}

And after resetting the board I get these errors:

[  1020][E][esp32-hal-ledc.c:63] ledcAttachChannel(): Channel 0 is not available (maximum 16) or already used!
[  1031][E][esp32-hal-ledc.c:63] ledcAttachChannel(): Channel 1 is not available (maximum 16) or already used!
[  1040][E][esp32-hal-ledc.c:63] ledcAttachChannel(): Channel 2 is not available (maximum 16) or already used!
[  1050][E][esp32-hal-ledc.c:63] ledcAttachChannel(): Channel 3 is not available (maximum 16) or already used!

[sivar2311]

@noobmastha

It works in ArduinoIDE

First of all: In contrast to the ArduinoIDE, there is no official PlatformIO support for Arduino 3.x yet. Incompatibilities can therefore always occur. There is no guarantee.

@noobmastha

, so as you said it must be “Arduino 2.x leftovers”

There “might be” leftovers if you compiled the sketch before switching to Arduino 3.x.
You can perform a Full Clean either by clicking on the PIO-Icon / Project Tasks / Full-Clean:

or simply delete the .pio/build folder in the current project.

@noobmastha

Can you show me how ini file should loook?

Your platformio.ini file looks okay.

I’m not (yet) familiar with the new Arduino 3.x API’s.

Have you tried ledcAttach instead of ledcAttachChannel ?
After defining the missing constants, this code compiles, uploads and work without errors on the serial monitor:

void setup() {
    Serial.begin(115200);
    delay(1000);
    ledcAttach(MOTOR_1_IN1, PWM_FREQ, PWM_RESOLUTION);
    ledcAttach(MOTOR_1_IN2, PWM_FREQ, PWM_RESOLUTION);
    ledcAttach(MOTOR_2_IN3, PWM_FREQ, PWM_RESOLUTION);
    ledcAttach(MOTOR_2_IN4, PWM_FREQ, PWM_RESOLUTION);
    ledcAttach(MOTOR_3_IN1, PWM_FREQ, PWM_RESOLUTION);
    ledcAttach(MOTOR_3_IN2, PWM_FREQ, PWM_RESOLUTION);
    ledcAttach(MOTOR_4_IN3, PWM_FREQ, PWM_RESOLUTION);
    ledcAttach(MOTOR_4_IN4, PWM_FREQ, PWM_RESOLUTION);
}

void loop() {}

[noobmastha]

@sivar2311

Have you tried ledcAttach instead of ledcAttachChannel ?

I need ledcAttachChannel() function because for every of my 4 motoros, I need a different PWM channel. Btw, I tried ledcAttach() just to check that and there are no errors on the Serial with it.

@sivar2311

First of all: In contrast to the ArduinoIDE, there is no official PlatformIO support for Arduino 3.x yet. Incompatibilities can therefore always occur. There is no guarantee.

Yes, I know about that but I’ve seen that people had success with it? I find it odd that no one experienced a problem with this ledc function. I did a full clean but that didn’t help.
Any other ideas?

[sivar2311]

For some reason, when using ledcAttachChannel, all channels seem to be already allocated.

In contrast, ledcAttach automatically selects a “free” channel - See arduino-esp32/cores/esp32/esp32-hal-ledc.c at master · espressif/arduino-esp32 · GitHub

Unfortunately I could not find anything in the source code why the channels are considered allocated.

[noobmastha]

Ok, thank you for your time! Just one more question, is there maybe a way to use old ledc API with this core?

[sivar2311]

The API has changed with version 3.x! (See link “Migration from 2.x to 3.0” from above).
If you want to use the old API you have to stay with Arduino 2.x!

[noobmastha]

Ok, that was a stupid question…
I really hope there will be official PlatformIO support for Arduino 3…

[naidol]

Have you managed to compile in platformio using the Arduino core 3. I am having shortcomings with ver 2 in that I need to invert the pwm and this is only supported in ver 3.
I understand pwm channels are auto assigned and no longer params for the hal-ledc API in ver 3

[maxgerhardt]

You can easily get Arduino-ESP32 3.x into PlatformIO. Just set the platform to a fork that supports it. There’s posts about that all over this forum, e.g. How do I determine release version of arduino-esp32 used in latest framework-arduinoespressif32? - #2 by maxgerhardt

If you set

platform = https://github.com/pioarduino/platform-espressif32.git#51.03.04

you’ll get Arduino-ESP32 3.0.4.

[noobmastha]

This package is breaking my platformio.
I have a project with ESP32 core 2. When I change platform in my ini file to platform = https://github.com/pioarduino/platform-espressif32.git#51.03.04 I’m getting the message : ** The terminal process failed to launch: Path to shell executable “c:\platformio.exe” does not exist.**
I delete my entire C:\Users\<user>\.platformio restart VS Code, everything installs and when I want to build my project I’m getting the same error message.

[sivar2311]

I don’t think that it is related to pioarduino.

Seems more related to

Problem: shell executable can't find “d:\Docs\PlatformIO\Projects\project_oled\platformio.exe”。

No, i have tried this way.

and

Incorrect executable path (platformio.exe)

Unfortunately, I don’t know. cc @ivankravets : Do you know where this crazy path “c:\Users\me\source\masthead\platformio.exe” comes from and how to fix this issue?

[marian.mlcoch]

Plus when build works , can somebody explain why identic code builded for 3.x is +400kB in size vs 2.x ??? Some Mars rover cntrol and bitcoin miner and many more thinks can be in this size.

[sivar2311]

Yes - see below. But this is not related to PlatformIO or pioarduino, but Espressif Arduino Core 3.x

See Core versions 3.0.0 and newer use 14% more flash memory after compiling for LOLIN ESP32-S2 Mini · Issue #10386 · espressif/arduino-esp32 · GitHub