Is it possible to use ESP8266's OTA capabilities?

[Anduril]

Hey there,

I just found out about the possibility to upload a new sketch to the ESP by using an OTA network port in the IDE. But therefore you have to configure your sketch to allow incoming connections for upload and have enough free space to store the new firmware before reboot.
Is it possible to combine one of the multiple upload scenarios with the wifi gateway sketch? Has anyone tried to do this?
That would make the ESP even more powerful, for example when changing to a new version of dev branch or when you have locally attached sensors on it.

[Anduril]

Today I found an example in dev branch named GatewayESP8266OTA... does this mean it is already implemented? Or at least it's been worked on? Could please someone explain how to use?

[tekka]

@Anduril yes, I've added the esp8266 OTA example, works nicely for sketch updates.

Read here for instructions.

[Anduril]

@tekka thanks a lot for that info. I already tried that some time ago and gave up.

I flashed the OTA gateway and it works fine. Only when trying to ota upload I get problems. The Arduino IDE says [ERROR]: No response from device and in the serial console I see the following:

0;255;3;0;9;read: 1-1-0 s=1,c=1,t=1,pt=7,l=5,sg=0:39.1
sleep disable
Error[1]: Begin Failed
0;255;3;0;9;read: 1-1-0 s=2,c=1,t=0,pt=7,l=5,sg=0:23.8

Do you know whats happening there?

[Anduril]

@tekka did you used password protection for OTA update or any other security feature? Did you change anything in the sketch except SSID and password for wifi?

[tekka]

@Anduril No, I simply followed these instructions:
https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino/blob/master/doc/ota_updates/readme.md and used this sketch for testing:
https://github.com/mysensors/Arduino/tree/development/libraries/MySensors/examples/GatewayESP8266OTA

[Anduril]

@tekka do you have and NodeMCU Devkit 0.9 or 1.0? I have a 1.0 and get the error. But I use it with fixed IP on the gateway sketch, maybe that's a problem. It uploads ok via serial. But when uploading via wifi (changed static ip for testing) it stuck. Maybe I will try it with dhcp enabled.

[tekka]

@Anduril I'm using a NodeMCU 1.0 (MySensors 2.0.0beta and ESP8266 lib 2.1.0) with fixed IP. Both, OTA and serial FW updates work flawlessly...

[Anduril]

@tekka thanks for that info, I'm also using MySensors 2 beta but ESP lib 2.0 (as far as I know, corrently at work). I will check that later and test with updated ESP library.

[Anduril]

@tekka did you changed any of the standard settings for ESP flashing? I simply updated ESP8266 library and reflashed, but I get an reboot loop. In the serial monitor I see:

0‚~?–4“Ò¶£ÿOAaû0;255;3;0;9;Starting gateway (RNNGE-, 2.0.0-beta)
0;255;3;0;9;Radio init successful.
scandone
state: 0 -> 2 (b0)
state: 2 -> 3 (0)
state: 3 -> 5 (10)
add 0
aid 2
cnt 

connected with mDjEKlujYacByG5JtxlY, channel 1
ip:192.168.38.19,mask:255.255.255.0,gw:192.168.38.1
.IP: 192.168.38.19
¥üÊæ” ×Åü1¤ñþ0;255;3;0;9;Starting gateway (RNNGE-, 2.0.0-beta)
0;255;3;0;9;Radio init successful.
scandone
state: 0 -> 2 (b0)

When going back to 2.0.0 it works without problems. Here my settings for flashing:

[tekka]

@Anduril I'm using the NodeMCU 1.0 (ESP-12E Module) settings / ESP 2.1.0 lib / and the latest MySensors dev (including PR#419 - there was indeed a rebooting issue before #419)...

[Anduril]

thanks a lot, working with newest dev build and ESP8266 lib version 2.1.0 as you said.

[tekka]

@Anduril excellent! Have fun

[Rasenheizung]

I'm trying to use the serial monitor but I'm always ask entering a password? Although I didn't used one?

Reflashing sketch via OTA worked without any issues.

Edit: Tried to use a real OTA password and it's still not working although I'm using the correct. ESP8266 Tools 2.2.0

[Anduril]

to my last knowledge this feature is implemented but not working. If you want to see the serial monitor you have to connect physically.

[NeverDie]

@Anduril

Regarding the bootloops: how you structure your code seems to have an effect. If you have busy-waits in your code, you're more likely to encounter the WDT timeout. I restructured my code to be more interrupt driven and to complete more frequent cycles through the main loop(). After doing that, the WDT timeouts stopped.

That said, I don't know whether your bootloop is caused by a WDT timeout or something else. At least in my case, the debug messages being printed in the serial window specifically mentioned WDT being involved.

[Mark Swift]

I presume debugging via network is not supported, I read some posts on Github but couldn't be sure if it was implemented?

[NeverDie]

@Mark-Swift

By debugging, do you mean looking at the serial console output over the network, or something else?

[Mark Swift]

@NeverDie said:

@Mark-Swift

By debugging, do you mean looking at the serial console output over the network, or something else?

Yes, serial monitor via network within IDE...

[mfalkvidd]

I haven't tried it yet but this plugin for serial monitor over network looks nice https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino/issues/1360