ESP-EYE User Guide For Windows 10

Hardware Preparation

• ESP-EYE Development Board V2.1 x 1
• Micro USB Cable x 1
• PC(Windows10) ×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.,

• IDE Tools Installer:
  https://dl.espressif.com/dl/esp32_win32_msys2_environment_and_toolchain-20190611.zip

• ESP-IDF Tools Installer:
  https://dl.espressif.com/dl/esp-idf-tools-setup-2.0.exe

The installer includes the cross-compilers, OpenOCD, cmake and Ninja build tool, and a configuration tool called mconf-idf. The installer can also download and run installers for Python 3.7 and Git For Windows if they are not already installed on the computer.

The installer also offers to download one of the ESP-IDF release versions.

Setting up Develpoment Environment

Step 1. Install Prerequisites

• IDE Tools Installer
  https://dl.espressif.com/dl/esp32_win32_msys2_environment_and_toolchain-20190611.zip

• ESP-IDF Tools Installer

  The easiest way to install ESP-IDF's prerequisites is to download the ESP-IDF Tools installer from this URL:
  https://dl.espressif.com/dl/esp-idf-tools-setup-2.0.exe

The installer includes the cross-compilers, OpenOCD, cmake and Ninja build tool, and a configuration tool called mconf-idf. The installer can also download and run installers for Python 3.7 and Git For Windows if they are not already installed on the computer.

The installer also offers to download one of the ESP-IDF release versions.

• Using the Command Prompt

For the remaining Getting Started steps, we're going to use the Windows Command Prompt.

ESP-IDF Tools Installer creates a shortcut in the Start menu to launch the ESP-IDF Command Prompt. This shortcut launches the Command Prompt(cmd.exe) and runs export.bat script to set up the environment variables (PATH, IDF_PATH and others). Inside this command prompt, all the installed tools are available.

Note that this shortcut is specific to the ESP-IDF directory selected in the ESP-IDF Tools Installer. If you have multiple ESP-IDF directories on the computer (for example, to work with different versions of ESP-IDF), you have two options to use them:

1. Create a copy of the shortcut created by the ESP-IDF Tools Installer, and change the working directory of the new shortcut to the ESP-IDF directory you wish to use.
2. Alternatively, run cmd.exe, then change to the ESP-IDF directory you wish to use, and run export.bat. Note that unlike the previous option, this way requires Python and Git to be present in PATH. If you get errors related to Python or Git not being found, use the first option.

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:

mkdir%userprofile%\esp 
cd %userprofile%\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 %userprofile%\esp\esp-idf
install.bat

• 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:

%userprofile%\esp\esp-idf\export.bat

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 %userprofile%\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 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:

Windows：names like COM1

Step 7. Configure

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

cd %userprofile%\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.