I’ve got a solid red light, nothing else has changed.
Windows is making the usual connection sound when it’s plugged in, still ‘connecting’ to the point of install, and then same bootloader message.
Leave it powered with the red LED on.
Now hold boot, then hit reset, then let go of boot.
Then try the web installer again.
same bootloader message. Frustrating little thing.
Yes they can be frustrating.
Might try the boot/reset button dance a couple more times.
If that fails let me get directions for you to try the native installer.
I have a lake behind my house and some rubberbands…
So the light stays on solid, no changes when the buttons are pushed so no feedback at all. The bottom/between the pins is noticeably warmer on the antenna side. It doesn’t look or smell like any magic smoke has been let out, and tonight is the first time I’ve ever plugged into the usb, first time I’ve pulled it from the card itself and the pins are all straight, so no signs of physical damage.
It’s just sitting on my desk, mocking me.
I hate it when hardware mocks me.
Warm, or really hot? ESP-32s run warm.
Here’s how to try using the native Windows installer:
Go here:
Scroll down to assets, and download fluidnc-v3.8.0-win64.zip.
Unzip that file to a working directory on your machine.
Unplug then re-plug plug the ESP32 into your laptop with a USB cable.
Make sure you have a LED on.
On your windows laptop, run the following files:
- erase.bat
(this will attempt to completely wipe the FluidNC install, and leave useful messages for us even if it fails.)
If that first one works, then run thee steps below.
Otherwise, tell us what you see in messages from the installer.
- install-wifi.bat (this will install the WiFi version of FluidNC 3.8.0)
- install-fs.bat (this will put the default file system back on the ESP32)
If these work we do the steps below, otherwise we stop.
Unplug the ESP32, put it back in the jackpot, and power back up.
Now you need to put a config.yaml back on (I suggest using the V1 version)
power cycle the jackpot and tell us what happens.
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win64\esptool.exe --chip esp32 --baud 921600 dump_mem 0x3ff5a018 4 SecurityFuses.bin
esptool.py v3.1
Found 6 serial ports
Serial port COM8
COM8 failed to connect: could not open port ‘COM8’: OSError(22, ‘The semaphore timeout period has expired.’, None, 121)
Serial port COM7
Connecting…
COM7 failed to connect: Write timeout
Serial port COM6
COM6 failed to connect: could not open port ‘COM6’: OSError(22, ‘The semaphore timeout period has expired.’, None, 121)
Serial port COM5
Connecting…
COM5 failed to connect: Write timeout
Serial port COM4
COM4 failed to connect: could not open port ‘COM4’: OSError(22, ‘The semaphore timeout period has expired.’, None, 121)
Serial port COM3
Connecting…
COM3 failed to connect: Write timeout
A fatal error occurred: Could not connect to an Espressif device on any of the 6 available serial ports.
esptool failed
Press any key to continue . . .
I’m guessing this isn’t great. I’ve been messing with this off and on all day and it’s after 11. I think I’m calling it a night. I do appreciate the help so far.
Happy to help. More things to try tomorrow or whenever you next have time:
Did you install the drivers on your Windows desktop?
When you have drivers installed, we want to get into windows device manager and look at the COM ports.
When you plug in the ESP32, a new COM port should appear.
If not, then that’s part of our problem.
And here we go again…
Right now I get a new com, silicon labs cp210x USB to UART Bridge (COM12) that comes and goes with the esp being plugged/unplugged. It’s showing as working, no error icons.
Running the windows erase, same result as last night.
Running the online, same result as before.
The only change is when it’s trying 12 I get
Serial port COM12
Connecting…………………_____
COM12 failed to connect: Failed to connect to ESP32: Timed out waiting for packet header
So it looks like it’s trying to talk to it and failing.
With the last few days it having new communication issues and then dying entirely I’m thinking this is a hardware failure. I’m guessing it ran 30-50 actual hours of machine time.
Yep, looks like the CP2102 is alive (USB/Serial/GPIO bridge), but the ESP-32 is no-start.
Dead ESP32 is my diagnosis. No idea why. I didn’t see anything obviously wrong in the pictures you’ve posted so far.
Ok, let’s get a little weirder. I left the error in the background and started looking for other options to reset on youtube. As I’m closing out tabs I end up back on the tool page and as it’s closing I see there’s a different error pop up, but I was in close mode so it was gone before I realized it had changed. So back to youtube, kept pushing buttons as other options kept failing, checking back on the tool and seeing the bootloader error, giving up. While I’m closing out tabs again(and softly crying so my wife won’t hear me) and found
" Done
The controller has been successfully installed and is ready to be used."
So something new. Now I’m here:
Try running erase.bat in the native windows installer.
win64\esptool.exe --chip esp32 --baud 921600 dump_mem 0x3ff5a018 4 SecurityFuses.bin
esptool.py v3.1
Found 7 serial ports
Serial port COM8
COM8 failed to connect: could not open port ‘COM8’: OSError(22, ‘The semaphore timeout period has expired.’, None, 121)
Serial port COM7
Connecting…
COM7 failed to connect: Write timeout
Serial port COM6
COM6 failed to connect: could not open port ‘COM6’: OSError(22, ‘The semaphore timeout period has expired.’, None, 121)
Serial port COM5
Connecting…
COM5 failed to connect: Write timeout
Serial port COM4
COM4 failed to connect: could not open port ‘COM4’: OSError(22, ‘The semaphore timeout period has expired.’, None, 121)
Serial port COM3
Connecting…
COM3 failed to connect: Write timeout
Serial port COM12
COM12 failed to connect: could not open port ‘COM12’: PermissionError(13, ‘Access is denied.’, None, 5)
A fatal error occurred: Could not connect to an Espressif device on any of the 7 available serial ports.
esptool failed
Press any key to continue . . .
I still have the web window up, will it only allow 1 connection at a time?
In any case I can now type on the terminal of the board so it’s alive.
Grbl 3.8 [FluidNC v3.8.0 (wifi) ‘$’ for help]
$SS
[MSG:INFO: FluidNC v3.8.0 GitHub - bdring/FluidNC: The next generation of motion control firmware]
[MSG:INFO: Compiled with ESP32 SDK:v4.4.7-dirty]
[MSG:INFO: Local filesystem type is littlefs]
[MSG:ERR: Cannot open configuration file:config.yaml]
[MSG:INFO: Using default configuration]
[MSG:INFO: Axes: using defaults]
[MSG:INFO: Machine Default (Test Drive)]
[MSG:INFO: Board None]
[MSG:INFO: Stepping:RMT Pulse:4us Dsbl Delay:0us Dir Delay:0us Idle Delay:255ms]
[MSG:INFO: Axis count 3]
[MSG:INFO: Axis X (-1000.000,0.000)]
[MSG:INFO: Motor0]
[MSG:INFO: Axis Y (-1000.000,0.000)]
[MSG:INFO: Motor0]
[MSG:INFO: Axis Z (-1000.000,0.000)]
[MSG:INFO: Motor0]
[MSG:INFO: Kinematic system: Cartesian]
[MSG:INFO: STA SSID is not set]
[MSG:INFO: AP SSID FluidNC IP 192.168.0.1 mask 255.255.255.0 channel 1]
[MSG:INFO: AP started]
[MSG:INFO: WiFi on]
[MSG:INFO: Captive Portal Started]
[MSG:INFO: HTTP started on port 80]
[MSG:INFO: Telnet started on port 23]
ok
correct
At a minimum, the filesystem is corrupt.
Get out of the web installer, then try the native erase.bat.
If that works, the other steps.
win64\esptool.exe --chip esp32 --baud 921600 dump_mem 0x3ff5a018 4 SecurityFuses.bin
esptool.py v3.1
Found 7 serial ports
Serial port COM8
COM8 failed to connect: could not open port ‘COM8’: OSError(22, ‘The semaphore timeout period has expired.’, None, 121)
Serial port COM7
Connecting…
COM7 failed to connect: Write timeout
Serial port COM6
COM6 failed to connect: could not open port ‘COM6’: OSError(22, ‘The semaphore timeout period has expired.’, None, 121)
Serial port COM5
Connecting…
COM5 failed to connect: Write timeout
Serial port COM4
COM4 failed to connect: could not open port ‘COM4’: OSError(22, ‘The semaphore timeout period has expired.’, None, 121)
Serial port COM3
Connecting…
COM3 failed to connect: Write timeout
Serial port COM12
Connecting…………………_____
COM12 failed to connect: Failed to connect to ESP32: Invalid head of packet (0x0D)
A fatal error occurred: Could not connect to an Espressif device on any of the 7 available serial ports.
esptool failed
Press any key to continue . . .
New failure.
Headed to work.
It’s a sick ESP32; might succeed after enough tries.
Between the corrupt filesystem and the running hot, this feels like a hardware failure.
I suppose it could be a bad flash, in which case if you get it to erase it might recover.
Worth trying a few more times.
Also, since it runs hot, the last try before you give up you could go crazy Jimmy on it.
Put the cable on, put the ESP32 and the cable into a ziplock freezer bag, tape it closed.
Put that in the freezer for 20 minutes.
Pull it out of the freezer, quickly plug it into the desktop, and try again.
(Keep the ziplock sealed so it doesn’t condense water.)
Our files have not been loaded so there is not real Yaml on there yet.
On this screen you need to hit file browser and load all of out files. then the error goes away and it should work.
But the boot isn’t repeatable. I think this thing is booting one time in 10 or 20 tries??
Very curious.
I wonder what it does this evening, if it comes right up and presents an AP.