Using flash download tool v1.2 programtically from command line

[gailu]

Hi Experts,

We have developed a product based on esp8266. We soon will be entering in to production phase where we need to flash images in to hundreds and thousands of devices and image for each device differs because of separate serial number for each device that is part of image. We generate image from command line by providing serial number as an argument, then we flash it using flash download tool v1.2 GUI and this is very time consuming process. We are looking to automate it where we can generate image by providing serial number as argument (as we currently do) and after that flash it automatically to the connected device without opening flash download tool GUI. Can you please suggest how to do it?
Is there any document on how to use Flash download tool from command line?

Best Regards

[kolban]

You might want to look into this tool which appears to be an alternate and command line based tool for flashing.

https://github.com/themadinventor/esptool

[dkinzer]

In addition to the tool mentioned (written in Python), there is my esp_tool written in C++ for Windows and Linux command line and igrr's esptool that is written in C. All three have similar capabilities but the invocation syntax is different. You'll need a Python interpreter installed to use esptool.py but the other two are standalone command line utilities.

One aspect of mine is that it can build and download sparse combined image files. By sparse, I mean that the combined file contains multiple images but omits the "filler" bytes between the images. This can make downloads much faster.

[gailu]

Dear Kolban and Dkinzer,

Thanks for your reply.

We actually intend to use official esp8266 flash download tool because we have faced issues earlier with other flash tool. As an example you may refer to my post http://bbs.espressif.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=585&p=2190#p2190 and the problem was solved only using official flash download tool as suggested by Espressif_Faye.

When we open official flash download tool GUI there is also a command prompt opened and when we click start button on GUI there are commands that are fired in the command prompt. So we believe that GUI is just issuing some commands on command prompt. If we get to know the syntax of commands with proper documentation, I believe that flashing could be possible from command line with official tool as well.

My request to espressif team is to provide command line option to users so that it can help in automation during production phase when lots of devices need to be flashed.

Thanks.