First ESP32C6 hardware attempt: Starts, but USB connection fails

endian
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu May 22, 2025 9:10 pm

First ESP32C6 hardware attempt: Starts, but USB connection fails

Postby endian » Sun May 25, 2025 9:44 am

Hi,

I ordered my very first simple MCU board (with an ESP32-C6) of my own design from a Chinese manufacturer (PCBWAY) and received the two boards this week. They look nice, and they boot ok, but the USB connection fails.

When plugged into Windows I get a Windows popup saying that the USB device failed, and in Ubuntu dmesg shows a "device descriptor read/64, error -32" error

The board is driven from the USB 5V power, and when I plug it in my 3.3V powered LED lights up, and the board consumes around 30mA from the USB 5V. When I push my button that pulls the EN signal to ground the power drawn is reduced to around 8mA.

To me this indicates that the MCU starts and does something, but since I have not been able to connect any serial communication to it yet I don't know what.

I am a newbie in the MCU-PCB area, so I did not expect everything to work, and would very much appreciate any help on finding out how I can get the connection up and running.

I just realized that I have missed one important thing, as I have not connected neither GPIO8 not GPIO9 yet. I plan to change this as it sets the boot mode, I now understand.

I however worry that there are hardware problems either in the schematic or in the PCB layout, so I attach images of my KiCad project too.

Any help / feedback would be much appreciated!

Thanks in advance, Kenneth
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ahsrabrifat
Posts: 201
Joined: Sat Jan 18, 2025 2:31 pm

Re: First ESP32C6 hardware attempt: Starts, but USB connection fails

Postby ahsrabrifat » Tue May 27, 2025 7:39 am

Did you perform a continuity test of your board?

endian
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu May 22, 2025 9:10 pm

Re: First ESP32C6 hardware attempt: Starts, but USB connection fails

Postby endian » Tue May 27, 2025 8:39 pm

I assume a continuity test means measuring all connections before mounting components. I did not do this, since PCBWAY mounted the components, but I do have three unmounted boards which I could use for measuring.

Sprite
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Re: First ESP32C6 hardware attempt: Starts, but USB connection fails

Postby Sprite » Wed May 28, 2025 11:20 am

Probaby safe to assume the board is made as specced. Can you force the ESP32C6 into bootloader mode? You do that by making GPIO8 high and GPIO9 and and resetting the ESP32C6.

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