Faulty board?

[sixie6e]

I purchased the ESP32 Development Board WiFi & Bluetooth Dual Cores Wireless Module CH340 Driver Support Integrated PCB Antenna with 0.96" OLED Display for Arduino/Micropython, USB Interface 34GPIOs

which is now listed as: 5PCS D1 Mini ESP32 ESP-WROOM-32 WLAN WiFi + Bluetooth IoT Development Board Kit Dual Cores CPU Module USB Interface Compatible with Arduino IDE NodeMC https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D8Y6B9C5

I cannot get it into download mode. I have tried different cables, different computers, CLI, Thonny, ArduinoIDE, different combinations and timing of BOOT, EN, and powering on. I have tried adding capacitors to EN and GND and 3v3/VIN and GND. Different baud rates result in different invalid head of packet addresses. I'm thinking I have a faulty board. I would like to still be able to use it somehow.

Here's CLI output:

sixie6e@distherapy:~$ python3 -m esptool erase_flash
esptool.py v4.9.0
Found 1 serial ports
Serial port /dev/ttyUSB0
Connecting......................................
/dev/ttyUSB0 failed to connect: Failed to connect to Espressif device: Invalid head of packet (0x53): Possible serial noise or corruption.

sixie6e@distherapy:~$ python3 -m esptool --baud 230400 erase_flash
esptool.py v4.9.0
Found 1 serial ports
Serial port /dev/ttyUSB0
Connecting......................................
/dev/ttyUSB0 failed to connect: Failed to connect to Espressif device: Invalid head of packet (0x1B): Possible serial noise or corruption.

sixie6e@distherapy:~$ python3 -m esptool --baud 9600 erase_flash
esptool.py v4.9.0
Found 1 serial ports
Serial port /dev/ttyUSB0
Connecting......................................
/dev/ttyUSB0 failed to connect: Failed to connect to Espressif device: No serial data received.

sixie6e@distherapy:~$ python3 -m esptool --trace --baud 9600 erase_flash
esptool.py v4.9.0
Found 1 serial ports
Serial port /dev/ttyUSB0
Connecting...TRACE +0.000 command op=0x08 data len=36 wait_response=1 timeout=0.100 data=
0707122055555555 5555555555555555 | ... UUUUUUUUUUUU
5555555555555555 5555555555555555 | UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
55555555 | UUUU
TRACE +0.000 Write 46 bytes:
c000082400000000 0007071220555555 | ...$........ UUU
5555555555555555 5555555555555555 | UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
5555555555555555 5555555555c0 | UUUUUUUUUUUUU.
TRACE +0.029 Read 1 bytes: 38
TRACE +0.000 Read invalid data: 38
TRACE +0.000 Remaining data in serial buffer:
318786e5804c304e a74a21a111087c2a | 1....L0N.J!...|*
0abd22950af3 | .."...


sixie6e@distherapy:~$ miniterm

--- Available ports:
--- 1: /dev/ttyUSB0 'USB Serial'
--- Enter port index or full name: 1
--- Miniterm on /dev/ttyUSB0 9600,8,N,1 ---
--- Quit: Ctrl+] | Menu: Ctrl+T | Help: Ctrl+T followed by Ctrl+H ---
--- unknown menu character ' ' --

--- exit ---
sixie6e@distherapy:~$ miniterm /dev/ttyUSB0 115000
--- Miniterm on /dev/ttyUSB0 115000,8,N,1 ---
--- Quit: Ctrl+] | Menu: Ctrl+T | Help: Ctrl+T followed by Ctrl+H ---
--- unknown menu character ' ' --

--- exit ---

[Sprite]

If you connect to the port in miniterm (115200 baud), then reset the board, do you see a signon message? (e.g. ' ets Jul 29 2019 12:21:46') If not, yeah, your board likely is broken.

[sixie6e]

If you connect to the port in miniterm (115200 baud), then reset the board, do you see a signon message? (e.g. ' ets Jul 29 2019 12:21:46') If not, yeah, your board likely is broken.

Nope. Just blank. Not even garbled serial data.

[Sprite]

Yeah, then it's likely dead.

[sixie6e]

This is what makes me think it isn't:

Screenshot_2025-09-10_10-08-01.png (983.4 KiB) Viewed 2940 times

[sixie6e]

Okay, so what I did was place that 10mf cap, not directly from EN to GND, but to the negative rail of the breadboard. From their site, I chose an earlier version of the .bin for ESP32. Then in Thonny, I chose MicroPython(generic) instead of MicroPython(ESP32).

Untitled.jpeg (83.45 KiB) Viewed 2926 times

Untitled0.jpeg (64.58 KiB) Viewed 2926 times

The board is not lost!

[Sprite]

Okay, so what I did was place that 10mf cap, not directly from EN to GND, but to the negative rail of the breadboard.

That's odd, I'd expect the negative rail of your breadboard to be at exactly the same potential as GND... Good that you got it working, though.

[sixie6e]

It wasn't the breadboard, either, and the capacitor only solved part of the problem:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPzZjmPDvbM/

[sixie6e]

Serial monitor:
rst:0x1 (POWERON_RESET),boot:0x13 (SPI_FAST_FLASH_BOOT)
configsip: 0, SPIWP:0xee
clk_drv:0x00,q_drv:0x00,d_drv:0x00,cs0_drv:0x00,hd_drv:0x00,wp_drv:0x00
mode:DIO, clock div:2
load:0x3fff0018,len:4
load:0x3fff001c,len:5148
load:0x40078000,len:12880
load:0x40080400,len:3484
entry 0x40080630
I (539) cpu_start: Pro cpu up.
I (539) cpu_start: Application information:
I (539) cpu_start: Compile time: Sep 2 2020 03:04:09
I (543) cpu_start: ELF file SHA256: 0000000000000000...
I (549) cpu_start: ESP-IDF: v4.0.1
I (554) cpu_start: Starting app cpu, entry point is 0x40082830
I (0) cpu_start: App cpu up.
I (564) heap_init: Initializing. RAM available for dynamic allocation:
I (571) heap_init: At 3FFAFF10 len 000000F0 (0 KiB): DRAM
I (577) heap_init: At 3FFB6388 len 00001C78 (7 KiB): DRAM
I (583) heap_init: At 3FFB9A20 len 00004108 (16 KiB): DRAM
I (589) heap_init: At 3FFBDB5C len 00000004 (0 KiB): DRAM
I (595) heap_init: At 3FFCAD78 len 00015288 (84 KiB): DRAM
I (601) heap_init: At 3FFE0440 len 00003AE0 (14 KiB): D/IRAM
I (608) heap_init: At 3FFE4350 len 0001BCB0 (111 KiB): D/IRAM
I (614) heap_init: At 4009E9D8 len 00001628 (5 KiB): IRAM
I (620) cpu_start: Pro cpu start user code
I (639) spi_flash: detected chip: generic
I (639) spi_flash: flash io: dio
I (640) cpu_start: Starting scheduler on PRO CPU.
I (0) cpu_start: Starting scheduler on APP CPU.
MicroPython v1.13 on 2020-09-02; ESP32 module with ESP32
Type "help()" for more information.