Can I install this on a 512KB ESP-01?

All that relates to the H/W
Post Reply
AnexCat
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2023 8:10 pm
Has thanked: 1 time

Can I install this on a 512KB ESP-01?

Post by AnexCat »

Hi,
I hope I'm not asking anything stupid, I searched through the FOrum for 0.5MB, 512KB; found no result.

I got all excited when I found your project; I think it's very cool!

So I looked for some ESP boards but all I could found that would be easy to connect is an old ESP-01 with a 25Q40BT memory chip which means it's 0.5MB and the Toolkit seems to not support below 1MB.
I found that I can't have OTA with less than 1MB but I'd be willing to "play" without OTA until I wrangle others.
Also, I modified one of these cheap USB programmers with diodes but the Toolkit still can't talk to it.
I sort of remember that the reset button has to be LOW at power-up which seems impossible to achieve with the USB chip's GPIO, as it's ... not powered-up when I plug it in. Is that supposed to work only after I somehow install Annex using other method?
AnexCat
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2023 8:10 pm
Has thanked: 1 time

Re: Can I install this on a 512KB ESP-01?

Post by AnexCat »

Somehow I found the old forum that shows the cheap programmer mod with the diodes, and I see that even though it states the schematic was changed, the wrong one (which I followed) is linked from the main page.
Tomorrow I'll fix it and try again; but I still feel it may not work with the "stock" (as purchased) firmware unless some original bootloader is compatible with the Annex ... "method"?
Anyway, I'll try it tomorrow even though I don't know if it should run in a 512KB device.

BTW, unrelated, the old forum had something (I found it looking for 512K) about a Text To Voice (SAM speaker TTS) FW... is that on the new forum?

Thank you
User avatar
cicciocb
Site Admin
Posts: 1900
Joined: Mon Feb 03, 2020 1:15 pm
Location: Toulouse
Has thanked: 407 times
Been thanked: 1271 times
Contact:

Re: Can I install this on a 512KB ESP-01?

Post by cicciocb »

No, the minimum required is 1Mbytes.
The SAM project (text to speech) has been abandoned but you can always download the bin using the reference on the old forum
AndyGadget
Posts: 222
Joined: Mon Feb 15, 2021 1:44 pm
Has thanked: 120 times
Been thanked: 132 times

Re: Can I install this on a 512KB ESP-01?

Post by AndyGadget »

AnexCat, unless you're specifically looking only for a bare-bones device rather than a module, I don't think you're looking hard enough. There are many ESP8266 and ESP32 boards around with integrated UART which can be programmed with a standard USB lead. Some come with attached peripherals such as TFT screen (with touch if you want it), LoRa radio, camera (ESS32-CAM) etc. Here's a selection of modules : https://www.banggood.com/search/esp32-m ... l?from=nav
(Note - Annex does not inherently support all those attached peripherals, but a good few.)

Although the standalone SamSpeaker is now discontinued I think I'm right in saying that the voice is still included in the standard ESP32 software builds, but there's the much more natural SpeechRSS speech synthesiser in there as well. Have a browse through the ESP32 help file to see the full capabilities.
User avatar
Electroguard
Posts: 836
Joined: Mon Feb 08, 2021 6:22 pm
Has thanked: 268 times
Been thanked: 317 times

Re: Can I install this on a 512KB ESP-01?

Post by Electroguard »

Hello AnexCat, I only vaguely remember being an Annex virgin myself, but I'll be happy to point you towards a path of discoveries.
The first link is to a SAM Speaker project I did way back, which specifically says "Uses any ESP device (even an old 512k ESP-01)".
The second project simply uses another Annex device with UDP to control a SAM device.
The original SAM Speaker firmware appears to no longer be available because CiccioCB superceded it with an updated network version.
But the replacement network version linked below should hopefully still fit your little device.
Project - SAM TTS [Local Link Removed for Guests]
Project - SAM SPKR UDP [Local Link Removed for Guests]
SAM SPEAKER NETWORK [Local Link Removed for Guests]
SAM firmware https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Smtx1u ... IuGsP/view

As far as programming the ESP is concerned, you can liken the device to a computer motherboard, cos irrespective of available memory and cpu the m/b will have a boot rom containing a BIOS (basic input output system) which will auto-load whatever OS is waiting on the boot media (which in our case might be Annex or SAM Spkr).
ESP devices (especially esp01) only have limited pins available, so the device bios (bootloader) makes use of some of them at boot time as indicators to tell it whether it must load up new firmware, or just hand device control over to the currently loaded firmware.
If gpio00 is LOW at device bootup the bootloader will load new firmware.
if gpio00 is HIGH at bootup, the device hands control to the loaded firmware (eg: Annex), which will then control gpio00 according to its programming.

If there is any doubt about your diode mods, just remove them.
Gpio00 only needs to be held low long enough for the device to start up in flashing mode, it does not have to be kept low while flashing the firmware
Remember not to keep gpio00 low after flashing is completed, else when rebooted it will cause the device to boot back into flashing mode again.

Celebrate any success by treating yourself to something new, preferably with onboard usb serial uart, and perhaps with wemos footprint compatibility.
AnexCat
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2023 8:10 pm
Has thanked: 1 time

Re: Can I install this on a 512KB ESP-01?

Post by AnexCat »

Thank you all very much.
I do have some other ESP boards; this was just the easiest to get to AND it would have been nice if it was enough (even without OTA) as I may have quite a few AND I have the USB programmer and most things I may want to do are many simple sensors so it matters if it's $2-3 or $15 each.
I found I have an "ESP32-CAM", some TTGO watches (unsure if those specific displays are covered by Annex) and a few others; TTGO with display, a "Geekworm" "CASY Kit ESP32-01with a WROOM32, etc.
Having the "cheap USB programmer" makes me want to use it as it feels... efficient to not waste programming HW once a device is in use.
I also used ESP Home as I have Home Assistant (also beginner); I'm not sure what will be the best way forward and even what will be the most interesting things to try; for now just getting things going would be a good start.

About the "cheap USB programmer", I feel it's an ommission to not have a button to keep GPIO00 low at plug-in time so I'll add one, but I wonder how can people use it without it so am I missing something?

Thanks again to all of you.

Cat
AnexCat
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2023 8:10 pm
Has thanked: 1 time

Re: Can I install this on a 512KB ESP-01?

Post by AnexCat »

I just found out that ESP8266 can be put in bootloader mode after power-up using the two signals (GPIO0 and RESET) so it seems that at least when using the Annex Toolkit I may not need a button, but I'll need to fix the crossed wires (hope cicciocb can fix the doc).
I'm not sure other loaders (ESPHome, etc) know to use DTR, RTS that way; it's very ingenious.
AnexCat
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2023 8:10 pm
Has thanked: 1 time

Re: Can I install this on a 512KB ESP-01?

Post by AnexCat »

I just fixed the cheap USB programmer wires and was able to "talk" to my ESP-01; I got what I expected: chip ESP8266EX, Flash 512KB made by Gigadevice, interface QIO, 40MHz.
As expected, I can't use it with Annex; it will go to ESPHome devices.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
AnexCat
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2023 8:10 pm
Has thanked: 1 time

Re: Can I install this on a 512KB ESP-01?

Post by AnexCat »

And I can confirm that the cheap USB programmer with the diodes mod as found on the Annex site works (after fixing) with the ESPHome web loader.
Thank you cicciocb. :D
AnexCat
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2023 8:10 pm
Has thanked: 1 time

Re: Can I install this on a 512KB ESP-01?

Post by AnexCat »

In case it's not clear where I found the wrong mod for the cheap ESP01 programmer, here it is:
[Local Link Removed for Guests]
Post Reply