ESP-32-WROOM

[CaptainCanuck]

Hello to all from Canada.
This is my first post. If it's not in the right place I trust the mods will move it to the proper place, thank you.

I recently purchased this esp32 board and this cable from Amazon.

I am attempting to flash the board via Arduino IDE 2.3.10 running on Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS on my PC. I installed the esp32 board library version 3.3.1 by Espressive Systems into Arduino IDE and located the BlinkRGB sketch in the Examples installed along with board package. Arduino IDE recognizes the board and compiles the BlinkRGB.ino error free.

Reviews for the board on Amazon and elsewhere suggest it can be flashed with a USB-C data cable no need for the USB to TTL Serial cable simply by pressing the Boot switch before uploading and releasing it when the uploader connects to the board. That method has not been successful for me. Yes the cable is a USB_C data cable not a charging cable, I use it for flashing my other Arduino boards so I know it's a data cable.

I have also attempted to flash the board when it's connected to both the USB_C cable and USB to Serial TTY cable simultaneously. The messages I get from the IDE are similar for USB_C cable alone (Method 1) and USB_C and USB to TTY Serial cables simultaneously (Method 2). Below I present in subsections the messages received from both methods.

Method1

Sketch uses 267328 bytes (20%) of program storage space. Maximum is 1310720 bytes.
Global variables use 22076 bytes (6%) of dynamic memory, leaving 305604 bytes for local variables. Maximum is 327680 bytes.
esptool v5.3.0
Serial port /dev/ttyUSB0:
Connecting....
Connected to ESP32 on /dev/ttyUSB0:
Chip type: ESP32-D0WD-V3 (revision v3.1)
Features: Wi-Fi, BT, Dual Core + LP Core, 240MHz, Vref calibration in eFuse, Coding Scheme None
Crystal frequency: 40MHz
MAC: f4:2d:c9:6c:71:28

Uploading stub flasher...
Running stub flasher...
Stub flasher running.
Changing baud rate to 921600...
Changed.

Configuring flash size...

Writing '/home/brad/.cache/arduino/sketches/0596EC30DCD3246EA84841B5A689D7B9/BlinkRGB.ino.bootloader.bin' at 0x00001000...
No changed sectors found, verifying if data is in flash...
'/home/brad/.cache/arduino/sketches/0596EC30DCD3246EA84841B5A689D7B9/BlinkRGB.ino.bootloader.bin' at 0x00001000 verified.

Writing '/home/brad/.cache/arduino/sketches/0596EC30DCD3246EA84841B5A689D7B9/BlinkRGB.ino.partitions.bin' at 0x00008000...
No changed sectors found, verifying if data is in flash...
'/home/brad/.cache/arduino/sketches/0596EC30DCD3246EA84841B5A689D7B9/BlinkRGB.ino.partitions.bin' at 0x00008000 verified.

Writing '/home/brad/.arduino15/packages/esp32/hardware/esp32/3.3.10/tools/partitions/boot_app0.bin' at 0x0000e000...
Flash will be erased from 0x0000e000 to 0x0000ffff...
Compressed 8192 bytes to 47...

Writing at 0x0000e000 [ ] 0.0% 0/47 bytes...

Writing at 0x00010000 [==============================] 100.0% 47/47 bytes...
Wrote 8192 bytes (47 compressed) at 0x0000e000 in 0.0 seconds (2416.7 kbit/s).
Verifying written data...
Hash of data verified.

Writing '/home/brad/.cache/arduino/sketches/0596EC30DCD3246EA84841B5A689D7B9/BlinkRGB.ino.bin' at 0x00010000...
No changed sectors found, verifying if data is in flash...
'/home/brad/.cache/arduino/sketches/0596EC30DCD3246EA84841B5A689D7B9/BlinkRGB.ino.bin' at 0x00010000 verified.

Hard resetting via RTS pin...

Method2

Sketch uses 267328 bytes (20%) of program storage space. Maximum is 1310720 bytes.
Global variables use 22076 bytes (6%) of dynamic memory, leaving 305604 bytes for local variables. Maximum is 327680 bytes.
esptool v5.3.0
Serial port /dev/ttyUSB0:
Connecting......
Connected to ESP32 on /dev/ttyUSB0:
Chip type: ESP32-D0WD-V3 (revision v3.1)
Features: Wi-Fi, BT, Dual Core + LP Core, 240MHz, Vref calibration in eFuse, Coding Scheme None
Crystal frequency: 40MHz
MAC: f4:2d:c9:6c:71:28

Uploading stub flasher...
Running stub flasher...
Stub flasher running.
Changing baud rate to 921600...
Changed.

Configuring flash size...

Writing '/home/brad/.cache/arduino/sketches/0596EC30DCD3246EA84841B5A689D7B9/BlinkRGB.ino.bootloader.bin' at 0x00001000...
No changed sectors found, verifying if data is in flash...
'/home/brad/.cache/arduino/sketches/0596EC30DCD3246EA84841B5A689D7B9/BlinkRGB.ino.bootloader.bin' at 0x00001000 verified.

Writing '/home/brad/.cache/arduino/sketches/0596EC30DCD3246EA84841B5A689D7B9/BlinkRGB.ino.partitions.bin' at 0x00008000...
No changed sectors found, verifying if data is in flash...
'/home/brad/.cache/arduino/sketches/0596EC30DCD3246EA84841B5A689D7B9/BlinkRGB.ino.partitions.bin' at 0x00008000 verified.

Writing '/home/brad/.arduino15/packages/esp32/hardware/esp32/3.3.10/tools/partitions/boot_app0.bin' at 0x0000e000...
Flash will be erased from 0x0000e000 to 0x0000ffff...
Compressed 8192 bytes to 47...

Writing at 0x0000e000 [ ] 0.0% 0/47 bytes...

Writing at 0x00010000 [==============================] 100.0% 47/47 bytes...
Wrote 8192 bytes (47 compressed) at 0x0000e000 in 0.0 seconds (2386.3 kbit/s).
Verifying written data...
Hash of data verified.

Writing '/home/brad/.cache/arduino/sketches/0596EC30DCD3246EA84841B5A689D7B9/BlinkRGB.ino.bin' at 0x00010000...
No changed sectors found, verifying if data is in flash...
'/home/brad/.cache/arduino/sketches/0596EC30DCD3246EA84841B5A689D7B9/BlinkRGB.ino.bin' at 0x00010000 verified.

Hard resetting via RTS pin...

Note both methods end with "Hard resetting via RTS pin..." and the code does not execute (i.e. the RGB led does not blink

[Sprite]

If you use the internal USB-serial-JTAG converter *and* force the board into download mode via the BOOT button, software isn't guaranteed to get it out of that mode again. It looks like your code got flashed properly, so I expect everything to just work after you manually reset (or unplug/replug without holding BOOT) the board. If not, maybe the board is running your code but you're simply not seeing it: for instance, your board does not have a RGB LED on board (or any other controllable LED, I think) so did you add an external one?

[CaptainCanuck]

I used my magnifying glass to check the components on the board and am pretty sure I see a second led in addition to the power on led. Anyway, I added an external led and it works so I think the onboard RGB led just doesn't work.

Also, after flashing with the JTAG cable I find I have to disconnect it and power the board off by disconnecting the USB-C cable. Disconnecting the JTAG cable and pressing the reset button doesn't work. After that the reset button will restart the board no need to disconnect the USB-C cable. A tad inconvenient but I'll live with it.

Thanks for your suggestions and help