ESP8266 Developer Zone

Re: At v23 fails to boot on 512kB, fatal exception - RESOLVED

2015-07-23T02:44:27+08:00

I have problems to setup a good combination of bin files in my ESP8266 ESP-1 with 512 KB Flash.
How can I get the combination for AT v30?
How can I download Bootloader v1.3?
I really appreciate any directions.
'Eiju

Statistics: Posted by eijuito — Thu Jul 23, 2015 2:44 am

Re: At v23 fails to boot on 512kB, fatal exception

2015-07-21T15:57:44+08:00

I see that this topic is still getting lots of views, so as the original poster I thought it would be useful to provide an update on this issue.

There are now at least three solutions:

AT version v25 & v30 (and hopefully future builds) now include a binary for 512KB modules. This has been achieved by omitting the ota update code. Thanks to espressif for listening and doing this !

On ebay there is a new version of the esp01 appearing which has 1MB flash. From what I have seen it can be identified by the black pcb and wider 8 pin SOIC flash chip.

For existing modules, it is possible to remove the existing flash and replace with a higher capacity chip, if you are skilled with a soldering iron. I have successfully updated some of my esp01 modules to 2MB this way using w25q16 chips.

Either way, it is now possible to continue with these modules !

Statistics: Posted by trickedj — Tue Jul 21, 2015 3:57 pm

Re: At v23 fails to boot on 512kB, fatal exception

2015-05-28T14:43:14+08:00

doughboy wrote:
I think espressif should release this version of precompiled firmware so users with esp modules with 512k flash can still use latest firmware.

Thanksssss for the build dougboy
You are a rock!!!

Statistics: Posted by marcoleo — Thu May 28, 2015 2:43 pm

Re: At v23 fails to boot on 512kB, fatal exception

2015-05-26T16:36:00+08:00

Hi,

I notised that still that atleast following AT commands corrupts binary, event customized binary used, that works mutch better that new official verion, because of memory limitations.

AT+CWJAP_DEF="xxxxx","12345678901213"
AT+CWSAP_DEF="yyyyy","",7,0
This is seen after reset...

I also really hope that espressif makes needed actions to support 512KB chips with new firm ware, even with limited functionality...

Statistics: Posted by jyke — Tue May 26, 2015 4:36 pm

Re: At v23 fails to boot on 512kB, fatal exception

2015-05-22T03:10:31+08:00

the build is 2 bins, I used the combine button on flash uploader tool to create a single file to simplify uploading (prevents typing in incorrect offset).

Statistics: Posted by doughboy — Fri May 22, 2015 3:10 am

Re: At v23 fails to boot on 512kB, fatal exception

2015-05-21T17:16:08+08:00

Thanks for this post and the comments. I'm following from several weeks because a I had the same issue with various ESP-03 modules having 512kB of flash memory. After the release of SDK 1.0.1 I tried to compile the AT firmware using the default options with gen_misc.sh (boot none, eagle bins, 40MHz, QIO and 512KB) to generate the binaries (like described also in the above post by taribo). Uploading (with esptool.py) flash and irom0text binaries at the correct address succeed but when connecting the terminal (after disconnecting PROG from GND and power cycle) I can't see any sign at different baudrates (115K, 57K, 9600...). On the other side, after uploading the firmware provided by doughboy I can connect the terminal at 115K as expected.

My questions: How did you built the single file image? Any idea why uploading the two bins I can't get the AT prompt working?

Statistics: Posted by luca.gamma — Thu May 21, 2015 5:16 pm

Re: At v23 fails to boot on 512kB, fatal exception

2015-05-10T08:19:06+08:00

I tried using firmware without bootloader and confirms it works.

This setup that does not use cloud update and loads user code at address 0 with max size of 248k
The firmware code irom0text.bin, is loaded at 256k offset, and max size of 240kb. The current firmware code is 206kb.

I think espressif should release this version of precompiled firmware so users with esp modules with 512k flash can still use latest firmware.
For those who do not want to go through the trouble of setting up toolchain to build the firmware, attached is 1.0.1 firmware that will work with modules with 512kb flash. simply upload to address 0.

firmware1.0.1.bin.zip

Statistics: Posted by doughboy — Sun May 10, 2015 8:19 am

Re: At v23 fails to boot on 512kB, fatal exception

2015-04-30T17:36:05+08:00

Hello,

If I don't want to use upgrade over WiFi, can I use the latest AT (v23, released 24-04-2015) on 512KB flash ?

I mean I compiled the AT source code:
On STEP 1: I choose boot version: 2=none
On STEP 2: I choose bin generate: 0=eagle.flash.bin+eagle.irom0text.bin
On STEP 5: I choose spi size: 1=512KB

I burned the .bin generated to ESP-01 module, to addresses:
eagle.flash.bin-------->0x00000
eagle.irom0text.bin---->0x40000

All seems to work ok.

So this Notice ("Notice: AT added some functions so it's larger than before, if you want to compile it, please compile it as 1024KB or larger flash in compilation STEP 5.") is only valid if we use a bootloader ?

Statistics: Posted by taribo — Thu Apr 30, 2015 5:36 pm

Re: At v23 fails to boot on 512kB, fatal exception

2015-04-29T02:19:26+08:00

I did not know esp-12 comes in 4MB. good to know there are other options.
I don't think esp-12 can have more IO than olimex, as olimex has every single pin breaked out. The additional pins are probably duplicates.
esp-12 is for surface mount, I think the through hole version is esp-07 if you want it breadboard friendly.

In theory, I think the setup I described should work.
I highly suspect the system_restart() (and perhaps ch_pd you described) is causing the firmware to read/write the wrong flash address.

Statistics: Posted by doughboy — Wed Apr 29, 2015 2:19 am

Re: At v23 fails to boot on 512kB, fatal exception

2015-04-29T01:46:39+08:00

I paid around 8 euro for my Olimex module, they are difficult to get in the UK and price can vary to about 12 euro. Shipping direct from Olimex in Bulgaria is expensive. Compare that to ESP-01 which are less then 2 euro including shipping. I like the ESP-12 as is has more IO and mine shipped with a 4Mbyte flash, but I am not sure that is standard and it is less breadboard friendly.

The sad point is that this is unnecessary, as you say there IS enough memory, but it is not allocated correctly. I have spent a lifetime in software development and it is common to have different software builds for different hardware configurations. A few well placed conditional compiles (#ifdef etc) could produce the required cut down library and build. It wouldn't matter if the ciupdate command was still there, it could just return fail all the time and save the space.

The problem is that the ESP-01 are often shipping with very old builds (v17 in my case), are buggy and need updating. On ebay or aliexpress there is no indication that any module comes with more than the basic 512kb, making updates now impossible.

Statistics: Posted by trickedj — Wed Apr 29, 2015 1:46 am

Re: At v23 fails to boot on 512kB, fatal exception

2015-04-28T22:55:58+08:00

how much is olimex board in UK? I know it sells for 5,5EUR + shipping

Statistics: Posted by doughboy — Tue Apr 28, 2015 10:55 pm

Re: At v23 fails to boot on 512kB, fatal exception

2015-04-28T16:10:01+08:00

For me it is the CH_PD pin reset that is causing the problem, and that is a show-stopper
as I need to put the module into low power mode to save the battery.

I have an Olimex 2Mbyte module but it is much more expensive. The ESP-01 modules were
much lower cost and more widely available, now they seem to have been abandoned.

I don't think it would be difficult to fix, but the AT lib is not open source, so only
espressif can do it.

Statistics: Posted by trickedj — Tue Apr 28, 2015 4:10 pm

Re: At v23 fails to boot on 512kB, fatal exception

2015-04-28T12:09:51+08:00

Espressif_Faye wrote:
:(

I tried it too.. yes , it can't work well ...

Since AT v0.23 it has to be 1024KB or larger flash ..

Sorry for the inconvenience..

since it appears something is writing to flash code area, can you please check if there is still firmware code that is hard coded to write into flash sector 0x3c?
Please check system_restart() code.

I really don't see why this can't work if nothing writes to code area (below 496kb) of flash.

Statistics: Posted by doughboy — Tue Apr 28, 2015 12:09 pm

Re: At v23 fails to boot on 512kB, fatal exception

2015-04-28T11:56:09+08:00

I tried it too.. yes , it can't work well ...

Since AT v0.23 it has to be 1024KB or larger flash ..

Sorry for the inconvenience..

Statistics: Posted by ESP_Faye — Tue Apr 28, 2015 11:56 am

Re: At v23 fails to boot on 512kB, fatal exception

2015-04-28T11:09:55+08:00

Ok, it still does not work.

Apparently, only the first reset to get out of firmware update mode works.
Any reset after that will corrupt the firmware.
regardless if it is using AT+RST, bringing reset pin low, or doing a power cycle.

So I think for now we can say 99.9% of all esp modules out there are obsolete.

Statistics: Posted by doughboy — Tue Apr 28, 2015 11:09 am

Re: At v23 fails to boot on 512kB, fatal exception

2015-04-28T10:47:01+08:00

ok, I figured out what is causing the flash corruption.

if you are using 512k flash, DO NOT USE COMMAND AT+RST!!

This will trash the code area and will corrupt the firmware and result in continuous reboot.

I am able to run my test program now after I remove the call to AT+RST.

Statistics: Posted by doughboy — Tue Apr 28, 2015 10:47 am

Re: At v23 fails to boot on 512kB, fatal exception

2015-04-28T09:39:07+08:00

ok, my first test program, I got garbage for server ip.
So apparently, this does not work anymore.

this is what I get on cipsta, which I know is incorrect.
+CIPSTA:ip:"108.48.114.52"
+CIPSTA:gateway:"108.48.114.1"
+CIPSTA:netmask:"255.255.255.0"

and I also now get the continuous reboot.

I'll see if there is any other way.

your option for now is, get olimex board, or you can get a 16mbit flash for cheap and replace the one on esp-01, but I think this may be too much trouble and requires some surface mount component soldering/desoldering skill.

Statistics: Posted by doughboy — Tue Apr 28, 2015 9:39 am

Re: At v23 fails to boot on 512kB, fatal exception

2015-04-28T09:34:41+08:00

I just tried it and it worked for me. I'm going to run my test programs to confirm .

AT+CIPSTA?

+CIPSTA:ip:"0.0.0.0"
+CIPSTA:gateway:"0.0.0.0"
+CIPSTA:netmask:"0.0.0.0"

OK
AT+CWMODE=1

OK
AT+CIPMUX=1

OK
AT+CWJAP="x","x"

WIFI CONNECTED
WIFI GOT IP

OK
AT+CIPSTA?

+CIPSTA:ip:"192.168.1.26"
+CIPSTA:gateway:"192.168.1.1"
+CIPSTA:netmask:"255.255.255.0"

OK
AT+GMR

AT version:0.23.0.0(Apr 24 2015 21:11:01)
SDK version:1.0.1
compile time:Apr 24 2015 21:19:31

OK

Statistics: Posted by doughboy — Tue Apr 28, 2015 9:34 am

Re: At v23 fails to boot on 512kB, fatal exception

2015-04-28T08:54:21+08:00

I've never used 1.2 boot, can you try 1.3?

If you are able to get AT to respond, enter command AT+CIPSTA?
if you blanked user area, it will be all 0. if it is garbage, that means the firmware is reading the data where code is.
After you connect to your router, AT+CIPSTA? should show your ip address, gateway, etc.
If it shows garbage, then the firmware is storing the data to the same location as code.

Also, I forgot to mention, when you compile, make sure to compile to 1MB flash as well.
In theory, If firmware thinks it is running on 1MB, it should not write to code area under 512kb,

I can't say for sure if using the newer flash downloader will make any difference.

As to your question on making this work for 512kb flash. I'm sure it can be done. The only reason for needing twice the space is because of the online update, which I don't think is really useful. More like a novelty. The actual firmware code can definitely fit in 512kb space. I do not know anything about how the compiler works to modify the options to make it work in 512kb flash. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can do this.

Statistics: Posted by doughboy — Tue Apr 28, 2015 8:54 am

Re: At v23 fails to boot on 512kB, fatal exception

2015-04-28T02:54:00+08:00

I noticed there was a more upto date version of the ESP FLASH DOWNLOAD tool V 9.6.0

That now allows me to successfully boot the ESP-01 modules and i can connect to an AP the first time. HOWEVER after I reboot the module it goes into another continuous exception loop. I suspect it is because my application uses the nnn_DEF commands which write to the user data area which I believe was at around 0x3c000 which is now in the extended firmware space. Hence the code is overwritten and crashes next time it is run.

I repeated the above using the 8Mbit setting to perhaps move the user area but the outcome was similar : first boot ok, subsequent boots produced
2nd boot version : 1.2
SPI Speed : 40MHz
SPI Mode : QIO
SPI Flash Size : 8Mbit
jump to run usererror user bin flag, flag = 6
user code done

So back to my original question, given the number of 512kb modules in the market, is it possible, please, to continue to produce a 512kb bin, perhaps with limited functionality ( i would be happy to lose the CIUPDATE command ) to allow continued use of this hardware ?

Thanks

D Tricker

Statistics: Posted by trickedj — Tue Apr 28, 2015 2:54 am

Re: At v23 fails to boot on 512kB, fatal exception

2015-04-28T00:47:59+08:00

Hi,

I just tried the 8mbit setting and unfortunately it makes no difference

Statistics: Posted by trickedj — Tue Apr 28, 2015 12:47 am

Re: At v23 fails to boot on 512kB, fatal exception

2015-04-28T00:09:42+08:00

try 0x00000 boot_v1.2 (or 1.3)
0x01000 user1.1024.new.bin
0x7e000 blank.bin

make sure to select 8mbit even if your module is 4mbit.

I found out if you select 4mbit, that setting is stored in firmware and firmware code will write to address 0x3E000, which contains firmware code.

I have not actually tried this but I'm almost certain it will work. I have since moved on to olimex module that has 16mbit flash.

Statistics: Posted by doughboy — Tue Apr 28, 2015 12:09 am

Re: At v23 fails to boot on 512kB, fatal exception

2015-04-27T22:33:32+08:00

Hi,

All I tried to program was:
0x00000 boot_v1.2.bin
0x7c000 esp_init_data_default.bin
0x7e000 blank.bin
0x01000 user1.1024.new.bin

If this is not correct please let me know. I originally used the esptool.py and the modules gave the exception in my previous message, I have just tried with the 'esp flash tool' and get a slightly different result "get flash_addr error" see log and screenshot below.

I have tried two ESP-01 512kB modules with the same failure on ATv23, both work with ATv23b2 ok.
I can successfully use ATv23 on a 2mB Olimex module with the same procedure without problems.

Any help appreciated, thanks
D Tricker

ets Jan 8 2013,rst cause:1, boot mode:(3,7)

load 0x40100000, len 816, room 16
tail 0
chksum 0x8d
load 0x3ffe8000, len 788, room 8
tail 12
chksum 0xcf
ho 0 tail 12 room 4
load 0x3ffe8314, len 288, room 12
tail 4
chksum 0xcf
csum 0xcf

2nd boot version : 1.2
SPI Speed : 40MHz
SPI Mode : QIO
SPI Flash Size : 4Mbit
jump to run user1

get flash_addr error!
user code done

Statistics: Posted by trickedj — Mon Apr 27, 2015 10:33 pm

Re: At v23 fails to boot on 512mB, fatal exception

2015-04-27T15:41:52+08:00

Hi,

in your case, please do not burn master-device-key.bin or any other bin files in 0x3E000.

if your problem still exists, please offer the capture picture of your flash download tool.

Statistics: Posted by ESP_Faye — Mon Apr 27, 2015 3:41 pm

At v23 fails to boot on 512kB, fatal exception - RESOLVED

2015-07-21T16:01:41+08:00

Update 21st July - This issue has now been resolved, see my post at end of thread for details
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have successfully continued to use v22, v23b1 & v23b2 on 512kbyte modules with no problem using the method outlined by doughboy here viewtopic.php?f=16&t=326.

However today I have tried to load AT v23 (released yesterday) and I get an exception at boot which just loops forever. Is there a work around or is this the end of 512kbyte modules ? Anybody else have the same problem ?

espressif, please don't rule out these modules, there must be millions in use now !

Bootlog follows (I tried bootloader 1.2 & 1.3b3)

ets Jan 8 2013,rst cause:1, boot mode:(3,5)

load 0x40100000, len 816, room 16
tail 0
chksum 0x8d
load 0x3ffe8000, len 788, room 8
tail 12
chksum 0xcf
ho 0 tail 12 room 4
load 0x3ffe8314, len 288, room 12
tail 4
chksum 0xcf
csum 0xcf

2nd boot version : 1.2
SPI Speed : 40MHz
SPI Mode : QIO
SPI Flash Size : 4Mbit
jump to run user1

Fatal exception (0):
epc1=0x4010032b, epc2=0x00000000, epc3=0x00000000, excvaddr=0x00000000, depc=0x00000000
Fatal exception (0):
epc1=0x4010032b, epc2=0x00000000, epc3=0x00000000, excvaddr=0x00000000, depc=0x00000000
Fatal exception (0):
epc1=0x4010032b, epc2=0x00000000, epc3=0x00000000, excvaddr=0x00000000, depc=0x00000000
Fatal exception (0):

Statistics: Posted by trickedj — Sat Apr 25, 2015 7:06 pm