VisualGDB for esp32 dev

[trevwhite]

I have started a trial of VisualGDB for an esp32 project. So far it seems to be pretty decent. Anyone else using it for esp32 development? Interested to hear others thoughts on it. I cant fault it so far.

[PlainName]

How do you connect to the ESP32? Presumably via jtag, but with what kit?

[trevwhite]

They have great support for toolchains and also tutorials for working with the dev boards. They are using the idf toolchain with python to download code. It's just all taken care of in, what appears to be a functional Visual Studio plugin.


I checked out Eclipse with the IDF under Linux and did some tinkering. I changed the name of a project and it broke everything! It also compiled really slowly and I ended up having a terminal open to compile, flash and monitor and then eclipse became a not very fancy text editor. It started off nice but got clunky real quick. I do not want to be going down rabbit holes with the setup. I want to just crack on with actual projects and so far VisualGDB seems to have done all the leg work to enable this.


Useful links that probably explain everything better than me. I have the dev board working with blink and step through debugging.



https://visualgdb.com/tutorials/esp32/wrover/
https://visualgdb.com/documentation/espidf/#troubleshooting

[PlainName]

Looks good.

Apart from the requirement for Visual Studio

The Wroom dev board has a jtag interface onboard, but that just puts off the moment until you have to connect to your product (assuming you're not shipping the Wroom board). Looks like it's just a standard FTDI doobry on there, though, and maybe the ESP-Prog dongle would do the business in that case.

[trevwhite]

I think you can turn the dev board into a peogrammer as you jumper the pins

[trevwhite]

I just checked the esp-prog. Looks perfect. Be surprised if it doesnt work straight out the box with VisualGDB

[PlainName]

I got two from different sources and had problems with both. Wound up getting a generic USB-FTDI dongle, which does the same with no mods and has no problems. Don't know if it's something about the ESP-Prog design or the particular ones I got (there doesn't seem to be an official one, just the design from which all the clones are made).

[trevwhite]

This looks to be one made by Espressif


https://www.mouser.co.uk/ProductDetail/Espressif-Systems/ESP-PROG?qs=0lSvoLzn4L9lCAjJ8r9cdg%3D%3D

[PlainName]

Good find. Wasn't there when I looked around a while back (at least, not without a stunning lead time). I'll grab one and see if it works

Edit: or maybe I won't. £9 magically turns into £20 when placed in the basket.

[trevwhite]

Min order total for Mouser before you get free shipping.