H801 lights dimmer bricked after firmware update

All ESP8266 boards running MicroPython.
Official boards are the Adafruit Huzzah and Feather boards.
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iBobik
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2016 1:11 pm

H801 lights dimmer bricked after firmware update

Post by iBobik » Tue Dec 13, 2016 1:49 pm

Hello,
I have H801 lights dimmer build around ESP8266.

It worked with the original firmware and with older MicroPython (I do not know what version, but it was about 2 months ago, stable release, no-512k version).

Now I tried to upload newer version, but it did not worked. Specifically:
esp8266-512k-20161110-v1.8.6.bin and esp8266-512k-20161202-v1.8.6-118-ga081b49.bin
Uploaded with esptool.py v1.2.1 and v1.0.1
by this commands:
esptool.py --port /dev/tty.wchusbserial1410 erase_flash
esptool.py --port /dev/tty.wchusbserial1410 --baud 115200 write_flash -fm dio --flash_size 4m --verify 0 ~/Downloads/esp8266-512k-20161110-v1.8.6.bin

Result is that after power up it permanently blinking with a LED and serial prints random characters:
screen /dev/tty.wchusbserial1410 115200
�o'�l`�og�$'{���gdl p�n�{�ܜ����co�<�c��gn��l`��dgs�ۓn�d;��g�l�l��|��{;'c��l�c�lc서���c�${�{ll��|�d�|�d�b|����s�bdc��'o�$g'���cp�dsdrl8�o��$#g�|�$c��o'�l��d`�'od`gs�ۓo�d$`p�g�sĜ���cn�|$��c��o'�l`�ng�$'{���gdl p�n�{�ܜ����co�<�c��gn��l`��dgs�ۓn�d;��o�l�$��|��soc��$�c�d#䌜���c�lr�sd$��|�l�|�l�c|����;�clc��o'�lno���#x�l{l{$p�'��lco�<�lc��'o�$��$`�gl n;���g�$l`x�o�{�����cg�|l��c��'o�d`�n�lorǛ�'d`8�g�r�������b'�|�#��ng��$`�og�ln{���g�ls��'�d�d��|��;snc��

Tried with two identical H801 devices.

Tried to flash ESP-01 with the same USB-UART converter and it worked.

Any ideas? :-)

User avatar
platforma
Posts: 258
Joined: Thu May 28, 2015 5:08 pm
Location: Japan

Re: H801 lights dimmer bricked after firmware update

Post by platforma » Wed Dec 14, 2016 9:46 am

The esptool.py and the SDK were updated since 2 months ago, so it's always best to update the esp-open-sdk repository, pfalcon posts updates to the SDK in this thread: http://forum.micropython.org/viewtopic. ... 140#p15688

The esptool.py for example, now has flash size detection, try using it, see: http://forum.micropython.org/viewtopic. ... .py#p16367

Update those, and give it another go!

iBobik
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2016 1:11 pm

Re: H801 lights dimmer bricked after firmware update

Post by iBobik » Wed Dec 14, 2016 11:24 pm

[quote="platforma"]The esptool.py and the SDK were updated since 2 months ago, so it's always best to update the esp-open-sdk repository, pfalcon posts updates to the SDK in this thread: http://forum.micropython.org/viewtopic. ... 140#p15688[/quote]

As I wrote, I tried also esptool.py 1.2.1 and newest firmware from the website, so esp-open-sdk version is not relevant.

[quote="platforma"]The esptool.py for example, now has flash size detection, try using it, see: http://forum.micropython.org/viewtopic. ... .py#p16367[/quote]

I used flash size detection with esptool.py 1.2.1, example command has it specified only because I also tried older esptool.py. (As recommended in the tutorial's troubleshooting section.)

Sledge
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2017 5:56 pm

Re: H801 lights dimmer bricked after firmware update

Post by Sledge » Thu Jan 19, 2017 6:06 pm

Any news on this device? I bought some to and tried to flash mp but it doesn´t work for me too :(

I tried different things with esptool.py 1.2.1 and the older v1.0.1 with all available stable mp bin images

Best result comes with v1.0.1 and this command:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>esptool.py --port com5 --baud 115200 write_flash -fm dio --flash_size 4m --verify 0 d:\Dropbox\HomeAutomation\ESP8266\micropython\h801\esp8266-20160909-v1.8.4.bin
esptool.py v1.0.1
Connecting...
Erasing flash...
Took 2.59s to erase flash block
Wrote 563200 bytes at 0x00000000 in 61.5 seconds (73.3 kbit/s)...

Leaving...
Verifying just-written flash...
Connecting...
Verifying 0x8968c (562828) bytes @ 0x00000000 in flash against d:\Dropbox\HomeAutomation\ESP8266\micropython\h801\esp8266-20160909-v1.8.4.bin...
-- verify OK

But if i reconnect without jumper the board goes into a boot loop and outputs this:

ets Jan 8 2013,rst cause:2, boot mode:(3,7)

load 0x40100000, len 30872, room 16
tail 8
chksum 0x2f
load 0x3ffe8000, len 1072, room 0
tail 0
chksum 0x60
load 0x3ffe8430, len 3000, room 8
tail 0
chksum 0xf6
csum 0xf6
system param error
00 00 00 00 38 13 27 40 3c 2d 27 40 02 00 01 00 b0 13 27 40 3c 2d 27 40 04 00 02 00 20 15 27 40
3c 2d 27 40 04 00 02 00 e8 13 27 40 3c 2d 27 40 00 00 00 00 88 14 27 40 3c 2d 27 40 00 00 02 00
a0 14 27 40 3c 2d 27 40 00 00 01 00 7c 15 27 40 3c 2d 27 40 02 00 01 00 f0 14 27 40 77 69 66 69
5f 73 65 74 5f 69 70 5f 69 6e 66 6f 28 29 20 66 61 69 6c 65 64 00 53 54 41 20 72 65 71 75 69 72
65 64 00 41 50 20 72 65 71 75 69 72 65 64 00 53 54 41 20 6d 75 73 74 20 62 65 20 61 63 74 69 76
65 00 73 63 61 6e 20 66 61 69 6c 65 64 00 43 61 6e 6e 6f 74 20 64 69 73 63 6f 6e 6e 65 63 74 20
66 72 6f 6d 20 41 50 00 43 61 6e 6e 6f 74 20 73 65 74 20 53 54 41 20 63 6f 6e 66 69 67 00 43 61
6e 6e 6f 74 20 63 6f 6e 6e 65 63 74 20 74 6f 20 41 50 00 43 61 6e 6e 6f 74 20 75 70 64 61 74 65
20 69 2f 66 20 73 74 61 74 75 73 00 65 69 74 68 65 72 20 70 6f 73 20 6f 72 20 6b 77 20 61 72 67
73 20 61 72 65 20 61 6c 6c 6f 77 65 64 00 63 61 6e 27 74 20 67 65 74 20 53 54 41 20 63 6f 6e 66
69 67 00 63 61 6e 27 74 20 67 65 74 20 41 50 20 63 6f 6e 66 69 67 00 ¦

Any help and hints would be welcome :)

iBobik
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2016 1:11 pm

Re: H801 lights dimmer bricked after firmware update

Post by iBobik » Thu Jan 19, 2017 11:51 pm

Sledge wrote:Any news on this device? I bought some to and tried to flash mp but it doesn´t work for me too :(
No progress. Tried the newest versions - esptool-1.3 and esp8266-512k-20170119-v1.8.7-28-g0883a7e.bin

User avatar
deshipu
Posts: 1388
Joined: Thu May 28, 2015 5:54 pm

Re: H801 lights dimmer bricked after firmware update

Post by deshipu » Fri Jan 20, 2017 9:13 am

I know this is not scientific, but when I have problems flashing MicroPython, sometimes flashing a different firmware (like the nodemcu or espruino), and then flashing MicroPython on top of that, helps.

Sledge
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2017 5:56 pm

Re: H801 lights dimmer bricked after firmware update

Post by Sledge » Fri Jan 20, 2017 7:28 pm

Thank you for your replies. I didn´t make any progress too but i got managed to upload easyesp to the h801 so the board doesn´t seem to be defective. I tried to flash mp after i successfully flashed easyesp but there´s still the same behavior.

espeasy comes with its own flash tool (esptool.exe) So i also tried to flash mp with this tool and the same settings that worked for espeasy but again no success :(

iBobik
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2016 1:11 pm

Re: H801 lights dimmer bricked after firmware update

Post by iBobik » Mon Jan 23, 2017 1:49 pm

I tried to flash it multiple times by Arduiono IDE and by esptool. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not and I do not see if there is some regularity.

User avatar
kfricke
Posts: 342
Joined: Mon May 05, 2014 9:13 am
Location: Germany

Re: H801 lights dimmer bricked after firmware update

Post by kfricke » Mon Jan 23, 2017 5:19 pm

My ESP8266 devices are also quite picky when initiating the flashing procedure.

Depending on the programmer i do use, the used baudrate, general mood of my cat and position of the moon, they sometimes need several resets until the ESP bootloader understands the situation and is able to receive the flash image.

Sledge
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2017 5:56 pm

Re: H801 lights dimmer bricked after firmware update

Post by Sledge » Thu Mar 23, 2017 9:31 pm

I love this little board and i also love micropython. But i can´t get them married :(

I got a little progress. When i flash latest stable mp with nodemcu´s ESP8266Flasher.exe then my device will expose a wlan station named Micropython-99509e. But i can´t get a repl on com5. It works on all other board like wipy 2.0, nodemcu and wemos mini d1.

I think micopython initialises well. Can it be possible that rx and tx on the h801 are connected to another uart then mp´s defaults?

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