ePulse -> force flash mode & esphome

Question

I've just obtained a epulse feather. I could connect it via USB to my computer to flash it once. Unfortunately it seems that I did something wrong and I now need to flash it again. The problem: The board seems to not be entering flash mode anymore... (It does not show up on any of my computers anymore... [no /dev/ttyUSB....). Is there a way how i can trigger it to enter flash mode?

Also: Hast someone got a configuration for the device for esphome?

Any hints are very apprechiated,

Answer 1

Hi Ulrich

A couple of questions to narrow down the problem:

1. Does the power LED (red) light up when connecting the ePulse Feather board? Does the yellow charge state LED pulse?
2. Have you tried with a different USB-C cable? I bought a couple of (too) cheap ones and there sometimes the position of the plug makes a lot of difference. With good cables I didn't have this problem.
3. Do you see any optical irregularities on the board? Especially around the USB-C plug, but also around the ESP32-WROVR modules, e.g. bad solder joints, etc.

Comments

Hi,

Thanks for all the questions!
- I had forgotten to add: The LED is pulsing yellow
- I've tried various USB cables (proven to work with other ESPs) and 2 different PCs
- Everything else looks OK.

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Which operating system are you using? From your expectation to /dev/ttyUSB I would guess Linux or Mac OS X? Did you install the latest driver for the CH9102F UART chip on your computer? http://www.wch-ic.com/downloads/category/30.html The system driver did not work for me on Mac OS Ventura 13.2. I had to install the driver from WCH. Then two devices showed up: /dev/tty.wchusbserialXXXXXXXXX and /dev/tty.usbserial-XXXXXXXXX

Abut my previous questions: beside the yellow pulsing LED is the red LED on?

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Thanks a lot again!
- I had tried ubuntu 22.20 and MS windows 10 - both without success and without the red light. Now I tried from a live ubuntu 22.04 environment and the red light showed up - and it allowed flashing! and now it also works from mu normal ubuntu 22.10 install. I can't really say what changed... Maybe you were right from the start and I had issues with a bad connection...  

Anyway: Thank you so much - getting ideas for trying kept me from giving up!