Use Raspberry and Arduino IDE to programm ESP8266

Question

I currently use Arduino IDE to generate binaries for ESP8266. Afterwards I copy the binaries with SFTP to my Raspberry Pi and flash the binaries using esptool.py.

These are lots of steps I need to do manually. Is it possible to automate this and use the Raspberry Pi as a programmer known to the Arduino IDE?

The goal is, that the "Upload" button in Arduino IDE does the full job.

• Andre Courchesne: Are you running the Arduino IDE on Windows, Linux or macOS ?
• wewa: IDE is running on Windows.
• Gerben: You could try using serial over IP ( playground.arduino.cc/Interfacing/SerialNet ). Alternatively add the OTA updating to the ESP so you can do away with the Pi entirely.
• uint128_t: You could switch over to an entirely command-line workflow, and then a Makefile would suffice. You will bash/cygwin/some other *nix environment on Windows.
• wewa: Thanks for your suggestions. The OTA option looks interesting.

Answer 1

Have you tried installing Python for Windows?

http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/starting/install/win/

In theory it should work and you should be able to run esptool.py on a Windows command line like you do on your Pi (provided that your usb to serial in recongnized by Windows).

If esptool.py fails to run under Python for Windows I would first suggest to open a ticket with the esptool maintainer and then try under a cygwin environement (https://www.cygwin.com).

• wewa: I think, I forgot to mention, that I don't have a USB UART Interface on my PC. So there is no way to program over UART and without the Raspberry Pi.
• Andre Courchesne: Get a FTDI adapter. Here is a blog post I wrote a while ago about it : net-forces.blogspot.ca/2016/07/…

Answer 2

I was able to find a solution based on this post: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-networking-3/serial-over-lan-from-linux-to-windows-825334/#post4062960

Following steps are necessary.

• Install com0com and com2tcp on the Windows machine and socat on the Raspberry.
• Then add a virtual COM-pair (COM0 <-> COM25) on the Windows machine with the help of com0com.
• Execute following command on the Raspberry. socat file:/dev/ttyAMA0,raw,echo=0,b115200 tcp-l:3016,fork& (adjust the device /dev/ttyAMA0, baudrate b115200 and port 3016 according your needs)
• Start com2tcp on the Windows PC with following command. com2tcp --baud 115200 --ignore-dsr \\.\COM25 192.168.0.1 3016
• Now you can use COM0 in Arduino IDE to flash the ESP8266 attached to /dev/ttyAMA0 on the Raspberry