This is the problem I have!
Appreciate suggestion how to solve this?
This is one of the boards I tried. It flashes pefectly with the FluidNC diff. versions from latest and down the list of versions.
As said above the interface works in standalone mode separated from the Jackpot board and powered thru the micro-USB.
Please take pictures of the ESP on the Jackpot, I donât have my 
with me at the moment. 
Will do when at it again later on today!
On first inspection, the ESP32 is powered from the +5V regulator on the Jackpot board through a Schottky diode that it there to prevent the controller from being powered by the USB should you ever plug it in. This will result in a ~0.5V voltage drop from +5V to ~+4.5V being supplied to the ESP. During the ESP boot sequence it has a fairly heavy current demand as the wifi sparks up with the possibility of the process failing.
While you would never want the controller powered via the USB I think I would (in the absence of any other ideas) temp short out the schottky diode and re-try the booting. If that works then perhaps a better solution would be making up a special USB lead with the +V disconnected for use just when the jackpot is powered up and you need to communicate with the ESP over USB (obviously then leave the schottky shorted out.)
Not all devkits were created equal!
I notice the V1 ESP32 Devkit-C has a different schottky diode from the âofficialâ ESP32 version, which has a 1A although the forward voltage drop between the two are similar but even a small difference may well be making a difference when the ESP is firing up the wifi.
How many amps does your 12v PSU supply?
hi, we donât doubt your abilities to count the pins on your own board, could you upload a picture of the ESP32 mounted on your jackpot please?
Iâve seen the following cause this issue:
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On early versions of the Jackpot (you have version 1.2.1 so this is not the issue or at least the same issue), a resistor needed to be added to properly boot.
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If you have a USB cable plugged into the Jackpot when power is added. This causes it to be powered via USB and causes problems. You can either power on first and then plug in the USB or if youâre using a sender via USB, you can get/make a cable without the power pin connected.
To debug this, you will want to use FluidTerm. This will show the serial output and a backtrace if an error is occurring. You would need to power on the Jackpot, then plug in the USB cable, then run FluidTerm.
Iâve also seen mention of some wifi related issues on the FluidNC discord with some boards. You could try changing the wifi power saving mode but Iâd wait to see your output from FluidTerm before trying that.
http://wiki.fluidnc.com/en/features/commands_and_settings#wifipsmode
Iâm not confident in your ESP32 either. An official Espressif ESP32 devkit or one from the V1 store should work. I havenât seen anyone use the brand you are using before.
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Here you have the specs!
NodeMCU is an open source IoT platform. ESP32 is a series of low cost, low power system-on-chip (SoC) microcontrollers with integrated Wi-Fi & dual-mode Bluetooth.
Our AZDelivery ESP32 Dev Kit C V4 corresponds 100% to the manufacturer Espressif, employs a Tensilica Xtensa LX6 microprocessor in both dual-core and single-core variations, with a clock rate of up to 240 MHz.
ESP32 is highly integrated with built-in antenna switches, RF balun, power amplifier, low-noise receive amplifier, filters, and power management modules.
It integrates a radio for WLAN (802.11b/g/n) and Bluetooth (Classic and LE). With the new board layout, both the power supply and the reset circuit for automatic programming have been significantly improved.
The WROOM module has been repositioned by Espressif to achieve a significant increase in transmission and reception quality without increasing performance. The WLAN function supports all common encryption methods such as WPA2.
It can also act as an access point or sniffer in the WLAN. There are more than 32 GPIO pins available, including UART, I2C, SPI, DAC, ADC (12 Bit), all GPIO pins can be used as input or output.
Features:
Able to achieve ultra-low power consumption.
Built-in ESP-WROOM-32 chip.
Breadboard Friendly module.
Light Weight and small size.
On-chip Hall and temperature sensor
Uses wireless protocol 802.11b/g/n.
Built-in wireless
Built-in wireless connectivity capabilities.
Built-in PCB antenna on the ESP32-WROOM-32
Capable of PWM, I2C, SPI, UART, 1-wire, 1 analog pin.
Uses CP2102 USB Serial Communication interface module.
Programmable with ESP-IDF Toolchain, LuaNode SDK supports Eclipse project (C language).
Specifications
| Wireless Standard | FCC/CE/IC/TELEC/KCC/SRRC/NCC |
|---|---|
| Wireless Protocol | 802.11 b/g/n/d/e/l/k/r |
| Frequency Range | 2.4 - 2.5 GHz |
| Memory | 4 MB Flash. 520KB SRAM |
| Wireless Form | On-board PCB Antenna |
| Electrical Characteristic | 3.3V Operated; 15 mA output current per GPIO pin; 80 mA average working current |
| Operating Temperature | -40 to +125 °C |
| Wireless Network Type | Station/ SoftAP/ SoftAP + Station/ P2P |
| Encryption Type | AES/ RSA/ ECC/ SHA. |
| Bluetooth Protocol | Bluetooth v4.2 BR/EDR and BLE specification |
| Firmaware Upgrade | UART Download/ OTA/ Host |
| User Configuration | AT + Order Set, Web Android/ iOS, Cloud Server |
The specs are correct. Itâs more a question of quality and reliability which can vary with clones. It may very well be fine.
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It is a German company and here is their web site AZ-Delivery - Your expert for microelectronics
The Devkit has not shown any problem to connect with and flash to and Iâve tried the difference ver. of the flash back and forth several times with no problems.
This is how it looks with the computer I use for my CNC projects, boots up fine!
Do the LEDs on the Devkit light? When you say the motors are powered, are they engaged and preventing free movement or can you just hear them, but they donât offer much resistance to movement?
Having a USB plugged in can absolutely prevent the ESP32 from completing the boot. So you wonât see any wifi, and it canât load the config.yaml necessary to properly power the motors. My motors would get warm if the default config was loaded instead of my proper config.
For initial debugging, I would assume the ESP32 is ok, but Iâm still not confident. That main part is not the official Espressif one so itâs an unknown. Just because it generally functions doesnât mean it is 100% compatible with the Jackpot.
Youâre going to need to connect with FluidTerm to debug further. Without that information, weâre just guessing.
You can tell itâs good, it supports wireless protocols that donât even exist yet!
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Turns out they do exist but are more like specific features than wifi generations. See the âStandards and amendmentsâ section.
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