ESP-EYE User Guide For Raspberry Pi

Hardware Preparation

• ESP-EYE Development Board x 1
• Micro USB Cable x 1
• Raspberry Pi ×1

Software Preparation

• Toolchain to compile code for ESP32
• Build tools - CMake and Ninja to build a full Application for ESP32
• ESP-IDF that essentially contains API (software libraries and source code) for ESP32 and scripts to operate the Toolchain
• Text editor to write programs (Projects) in C, e.g (Eclipse).

Wiring Diagram

Setting up Develpoment Environment

Step 1. Install Prerequisites

To compile with ESP-IDF you need to get the following packages:

• CentOS 7:

sudo yum install git wget ncurses-devel flex bison gperf python pyserial python-pyelftools cmake ninja-build ccache

• Ubuntu and Debian:

sudo apt-get install git wget libncurses-dev flex bison gperf python python-pip python-setuptools python-serial python-click python-cryptography python-future python-pyparsing python-pyelftools cmake ninja-build ccache

• Arch

sudo pacman -S --needed gcc git make ncurses flex bison gperf python2-pip python2-pyserial python2-click python2-cryptography python2-future python2-pyparsing python2-pyelftools cmake ninja ccache

Permission issues /dev/ttyUSB0

With some Linux distributions you may get the Failed to open port /dev/ttyUSB0 error message when flashing the ESP32. This can be solved by adding the current user to the dialout group.

Step 2. Get ESP-WHO

To build applications for the ESP32, you need the software libraries provided by Espressif in ESP-WHO repository.

To get ESP-WHO, navigate to your installation directory and clone the repository with git clone, following instructions below specific to your operating system.

Open Terminal, and run the following commands:

cd ~/esp
git clone --recursive https://github.com/espressif/esp-who.git

Step 3. Set up the Tools

Aside from the ESP-IDF, you also need to install the tools used by ESP-IDF, such as the compiler, debugger, Python packages, etc.

ESP-IDF Tools Installer for Windows introduced in Step 1 installs all the required tools.

If you want to install the tools without the help of the ESP-IDF Tools Installer, open the Command Prompt and follow these steps:

cd ~/esp/esp-idf
./install.sh

• Customizing the tools installation path

The scripts introduced in this step install compilation tools required by ESP-IDF inside the user home directory:

$HOME/.espressif on Linux and macOS, %USERPROFILE%.espressif on Windows. If you wish to install the tools into a different directory, set the environment variables IDF_TOOLS_PATH before running the installtion scripts. Make sure that your user has sufficient permissions to read and write this path.

If changing the IDF_TOOLS_PATH, make sure it is set to the same value every time the install.bat/install.sh and export.bat/export.sh scripts are executed.

Step 4. Set up the Environment Variables

The installed tools are not yet added to the PATH environment variable. To make the tools usable from the command line, some environment variables must be set. ESP-IDF provides another script which does that.

ESP-IDF Tools Installer for Windows creates an "ESP-IDF Command Prompt" shortcut in the Start Menu. This shortcut opens the Command Prompt and sets up all the required environment variables. You can open this shortcut and proceed to the next step.

Alternatively, if you want to use ESP-IDF in an existing Command Prompt window, you can run:

. $HOME/esp/esp-idf/export.sh

Note the space between the leading dot and the path!

You can also automate this step, making ESP-IDF tools available in every terminal, by adding this line to your .profile or .bash_profile script.

Step 5. Start a Project

Now you are ready to prepare your applications for ESP32. You can start with single_chip/recognition_solution project from examples directory in IDF.

Copy single_chip/recognition_solution to ~/esp directory:

cd ~/esp 
xcopy /e /i %IDF_PATH%\examples\ single_chip/recognition_solution

There is a range of example projects in the examples directory in ESP-WHO. You can copy any project in the same way as presented above and run it.

It is also possible to build examples in-place, without copying them first.

Step 6. Connect Your Device

Now connect your ESP32 board to the computer and check under what serial port the board is visible.

Serial ports have the following patterns in their names:

Linux: starting with /dev/tty

Step 7. Configure

Navigate to your recognition_solution directory from Step 5 Start a Project and run the project confuguration uility menuconfig.

cd ~\esp\ recognition_solution
idf.py menuconfig

If the previous steps have been done correctly, the following menu appears:

Step 8. Build the Project

Build the project by running:

idf.py build

This command will compile the application and all ESP-IDF components, then it will generate the bootloader, partution table, and application binaries.

If there are no errors, the build will finish by generating the firmware binary.bin file.

Step 9. Flash onto the Device

Flash the binaries that you just built onto your ESP32 board by running:

idf.py -p PORT [-b BAUD] flash

Replace PORT with your ESP32 board's serial port name from Step 6 Connect Your Device.

You can also change the flasher baud rate by replacing BAUD with the baud rate you need. The default baud rate is 460800.

If there are no issues by the end of the flash process, the module will be reset and the "recognition_solution" application will be running.