# esp-serial-flasher

`esp-serial-flasher` is a portable C library for flashing or loading apps to RAM of Espressif SoCs from other host microcontrollers.

## Using the library
Espressif SoCs are normally programmed via serial interface (UART). The port layer for the given host microcontroller has to be implemented if not available. Details can be found in section below.

Supported **host** microcontrollers:

- STM32
- Raspberry Pi SBC
- ESP32
- Any MCU running Zephyr OS

Supported **target** microcontrollers:

- ESP32
- ESP8266
- ESP32-S2
- ESP32-S3
- ESP32-C3
- ESP32-C2
- ESP32-H2
- ESP32-C6

Supported hardware interfaces:
- UART
- SPI (only for RAM download, experimental)

For example usage check the `examples` directory.

## Supporting a new host target

In order to support a new target, following functions have to be implemented by user:

- `loader_port_read()`
- `loader_port_write()`
- `loader_port_enter_bootloader()`
- `loader_port_delay_ms()`
- `loader_port_start_timer()`
- `loader_port_remaining_time()`

For the SPI interface ports
- `loader_port_spi_set_cs()`
needs to be implemented as well.

The following functions are part of the [io.h](include/io.h) header for convenience, however, the user does not have to strictly follow function signatures, as there are not called directly from library.

- `loader_port_change_transmission_rate()`
- `loader_port_reset_target()`
- `loader_port_debug_print()`

Prototypes of all functions mentioned above can be found in [io.h](include/io.h).

## Configuration

These are the configuration toggles available to the user:

* `SERIAL_FLASHER_INTERFACE_UART/SERIAL_FLASHER_INTERFACE_SPI`

This defines the hardware interface to use. SPI interface only supports RAM download mode and is in experimental stage and can undergo changes.

Default: SERIAL_FLASHER_INTERFACE_UART

* `MD5_ENABLED`

If enabled, `esp-serial-flasher` is capable of verifying flash integrity after writing to flash.

Default: Enabled
> Warning: As ROM bootloader of the ESP8266 does not support MD5_CHECK, this option has to be disabled!

* `SERIAL_FLASHER_WRITE_BLOCK_RETRIES`

This configures the amount of retries for writing blocks either to target flash or RAM.

Default: 3

* `SERIAL_FLASHER_RESET_HOLD_TIME_MS`

This is the time for which the reset pin is asserted when doing a hard reset in milliseconds.

Default: 100

* `SERIAL_FLASHER_BOOT_HOLD_TIME_MS`

This is the time for which the boot pin is asserted when doing a hard reset in milliseconds.

Default: 50

Configuration can be passed to `cmake` via command line:

```
cmake -DMD5_ENABLED=1 .. && cmake --build .
```

### STM32 support

The STM32 port makes use of STM32 HAL libraries, and these do not come with CMake support. In order to compile the project, `stm32-cmake` (a `CMake` support package) has to be pulled as submodule.

```
git clone --recursive https://github.com/espressif/esp-serial-flasher.git
```

If you have cloned this repository without the `--recursive` flag, you can initialize the submodule using the following command:

```
git submodule update --init
```

In addition to configuration parameters mentioned above, following definitions has to be set:

- STM32_TOOLCHAIN_PATH: path to arm toolchain (i.e /home/user/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2019-q4-major)
- STM32_CUBE_<CHIP_FAMILY>_PATH: path to STM32 Cube libraries (i.e /home/user/STM32Cube/Repository/STM32Cube_FW_F4_V1.25.0)
- STM32_CHIP: name of STM32 for which project should be compiled (i.e STM32F407VG)
- CORE_USED: core used on multicore devices (i.e. M7 or M4 on some STM32H7 chips)
- PORT: STM32

This can be achieved by passing definitions to the command line, such as:

```
cmake -DSTM32_TOOLCHAIN_PATH="path_to_toolchain" -DSTM32_CUBE_<CHIP_FAMILY>_PATH="path_to_cube_libraries" -DSTM32_CHIP="STM32F407VG" -DPORT="STM32" .. && cmake --build .
```

Alternatively, those variables can be set in the top level `cmake` directory:

```
set(STM32_TOOLCHAIN_PATH path_to_toolchain)
set(STM32_CUBE_H7_PATH path_to_cube_libraries)
set(STM32_CHIP STM32H743VI)
set(CORE_USED M7)
set(PORT STM32)
```

### Zephyr support

The Zephyr port is ready to be integrated into Zephyr apps as a Zephyr module. In the manifest file (west.yml), add:

```
    - name: esp-flasher
      url: https://github.com/espressif/esp-serial-flasher
      revision: master
      path: modules/lib/esp_flasher
```

And add

```
CONFIG_ESP_SERIAL_FLASHER=y
CONFIG_CONSOLE_GETCHAR=y
CONFIG_SERIAL_FLASHER_MD5_ENABLED=y
```

to the project configuration `prj.conf`.

For the C/C++ source code, the example code provided in `examples/zephyr_example` can be used as a starting point.

## Licence

Code is distributed under Apache 2.0 license.

## Known limitations

Size of new binary image has to be known before flashing.
