ESP32 not responding to boot button

ESPHome
1

I successfully got an ESP32 working with ESPHome but am now struggling to get another identical ESP32 to get the basic firmware flashed onto it. As before I am using ESPHome Web on my Windows PC with the ESP32 connected to a USB port. It is connecting but is failing to initialize.

I have tried looking at the logs/terminal window when I press the reset button and it is giving exactly the same sequence whether or not I am holding down the boot button. In case the boot button is faulty, I have also tried putting a jumper between GPIO0 and GND, then tried between GPIO0 and 3v, but still the same results in the terminal window and still not able to initialize in ESPHome Web.

Please can anyone shed any light on what might be happening here and how to get it to accept the new firmware?

Here is what comes out of the terminal window:


rst:0x1 (POWERON_RESET),boot:0x13 (SPI_FAST_FLASH_BOOT)
configsip: 0, SPIWP:0xee
clk_drv:0x00,q_drv:0x00,d_drv:0x00,cs0_drv:0x00,hd_drv:0x00,wp_drv:0x00
mode:DIO, clock div:2
load:0x3fff0018,len:4
load:0x3fff001c,len:5564
load:0x40078000,len:0
load:0x40078000,len:13756
entry 0x40078fb4
I (28) boot: ESP-IDF v3.0.3 2nd stage bootloader
I (28) boot: compile time 08:53:32
I (28) boot: Enabling RNG early entropy source...
I (33) boot: SPI Speed      : 40MHz
I (37) boot: SPI Mode       : DIO
I (41) boot: SPI Flash Size : 4MB
I (45) boot: Partition Table:
I (49) boot: ## Label            Usage          Type ST Offset   Length
I (56) boot:  0 phy_init         RF data          01 01 0000f000 00001000
I (63) boot:  1 otadata          OTA data         01 00 00010000 00002000
I (71) boot:  2 nvs              WiFi data        01 02 00012000 0000e000
I (78) boot:  3 at_customize     unknown          40 00 00020000 000e0000
I (86) boot:  4 ota_0            OTA app          00 10 00100000 00180000
I (93) boot:  5 ota_1            OTA app          00 11 00280000 00180000
I (101) boot: End of partition table
I (105) boot: No factory image, trying OTA 0
I (110) esp_image: segment 0: paddr=0x00100020 vaddr=0x3f400020 size=0x200f4 (131316) map
I (165) esp_image: segment 1: paddr=0x0012011c vaddr=0x3ffc0000 size=0x02d6c ( 11628) load
I (170) esp_image: segment 2: paddr=0x00122e90 vaddr=0x40080000 size=0x00400 (  1024) load
I (172) esp_image: segment 3: paddr=0x00123298 vaddr=0x40080400 size=0x0cd78 ( 52600) load
I (202) esp_image: segment 4: paddr=0x00130018 vaddr=0x400d0018 size=0xdf390 (914320) map
I (523) esp_image: segment 5: paddr=0x0020f3b0 vaddr=0x4008d178 size=0x01f14 (  7956) load
I (527) esp_image: segment 6: paddr=0x002112cc vaddr=0x400c0000 size=0x00064 (   100) load
I (539) boot: Loaded app from partition at offset 0x100000
I (539) boot: Disabling RNG early entropy source...
I (611) wifi: wifi firmware version: de47fad
I (612) wifi: config NVS flash: enabled
I (612) wifi: config nano formating: disabled
I (622) wifi: Init dynamic tx buffer num: 32
I (622) wifi: Init data frame dynamic rx buffer num: 32
I (622) wifi: Init management frame dynamic rx buffer num: 32
I (627) wifi: wifi driver task: 3ffded44, prio:23, stack:3584
I (632) wifi: Init static rx buffer num: 10
I (636) wifi: Init dynamic rx buffer num: 32
I (640) wifi: wifi power manager task: 0x3ffdfe10 prio: 21 stack: 2560
I (678) wifi: mode : softAP (84:cc:a8:5e:71:e9)
I (686) wifi: mode : sta (84:cc:a8:5e:71:e8) + softAP (84:cc:a8:5e:71:e9)
I (690) wifi: mode : softAP (84:cc:a8:5e:71:e9)

Thanks for any pointers!

Phil

2

Try an initial install with the ESPhome flasher. Always worked for me.
Thereafter, the updates can be done with the webui.

3

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately that tool is giving a similar error message,

Unexpected error: ESP is not in flash boot mode.

Does anyone have tips about forcing an ESP32 into flash mode, please?

4

Try pressing and holding the Boot button, and then press and release the Reset button, keep holding the Boot button, start flashing, once the flashing starts you can release Boot button.

1 Like
5

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried that and it still wouldn’t accept the flash. For the time being I’m giving up on it, as I suspect it may be faulty hardware, and working with another identical one.

6

THANKS! Ran into this issue and couldn’t remember the right combo of button presses (been a while since I did a manual FW download…) - Works perfectly fine now!