Reading through this it sounds like it not a reliable board?
Has anybody got this working reliably?
Unfortunately, no. The root cause(s) have been speculated on, and the capacitor between EN / GND only helps a bit (reboot is more reliable, but slower).
To find the actual root cause(s) could be a significant effort, involving oscilliscopes with triggers, and many hours of conjecture + testing loops. The cost is too high, except perhaps for EE college students. Even then, it’s a bit of a “whack-a-mole” … you might think you’ve found all the causes, but do you really want to save $20/board, only to spend an entire weekend trying to figure out why it’s randomly failing?
People have looked at the easy stuff … the low-hanging fruit. These were inexpensive for a reason … they were single-purpose ethernet-to-serial converters, which are inherently low-CPU, low-power. What if they were inexpensive b/c they got 3rd-quality chips that auto-reset due to thermal issues when running for more than 100ms? It’s just not possible to know.
On the other hand, if you have the means, the knowledge, and the time to determine an inexpensive fix for these devices via deep-dive analysis, that’s AWESOME! Please share your findings!
What ethernet board would you recommend?
There is no one “Best” option out there, because it depends on how you will use the board. (The WT32-ETH01 may be fine for Ethernet-to-serial conversion, for example.)
However, here’s a few for you to look into:
For “real” projects, I would consider spending a bit more:
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TwilightLord sells an ESP32 board (d1 mini32 form factor) with 16MB on-chip flash, heavy-duty LDO, and he also sells an ethernet shield that works with it.
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QuinLED-Dig-Quad provides five(!) output ports, with fusing, and has an ethernet option.
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The wESP32 provides about 1A of usable power at either 12V or 5V (via PoE), which may be enough for some smaller props to have a single ethernet cable for power + data.
That’s just three boards that seem to be highly regarded. Of course, Espressif sells/sold an ESP32-Ethernet-Kit development board, which also supports optional power via PoE (5V, 1.4A) … but I’ve not heard anything (positive or negative) regarding that board.
Notes on JTAG debugging:
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wESP32 leaves all the necessary pins available (12,13,14,15) via the header, just attach to ESP-Prog
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The ESP32-Ethernet-Kit dev board has built-in, on-board debugging.
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d1 mini 32 based boards (QuinLed, TwilightLord, etc.) expose pins 12,13,14,15; Even better, neither the TwilightLord nor QuinLed ethernet shields uses any of those pins for ethernet, leaving them available for debugging. However, if you’re using a Dig-Quad, note that GPIOs 12, 13, and 15 are connected to stuff.
Hope that gives you a starting point. Others might have different boards they recommend?
Thanks for that info. I have come across the QuinLED system.
Interesting the WESP32, I’ve read elsewhere on here that WLED Doesn’t work with that ethernet chip… Think that was a post from @Aircoookie I found a while back. But I could be completely wrong.
I found it a home assistant form people compling about the hang on boot problem with the WT32-ETH01… They found it was a issues with GPIO 12… could this be the same issue for WLED?
“The boot fails if GPIO 12 is pulled high, I’d assume that is the issue, ESP32 Pinout Reference: Which GPIO pins should you use? | Random Nerd Tutorials take a look here because there have been many times where I was saved by it, there are loads of stupid and annoying things about the ESP32 which seem like they shouldn’t be there”
Well I had ordered one of these boards a while back and it turned up today.
Managed to get it flashed very easily. But so far have only once managed to connect to it ethernet. Nothing attached to the board.
What a shame as this could be a handy board.
You can force any ESP32 module to ignore IO12 at boot, and force a specific flash voltage.
I wrote up the details here.
Unfortunately, the WT32-ETH01 continues to have issues after doing this. Does it help? I can’t say … but it doesn’t seem like it’d hurt.
I can no longer provide any updates on these modules … I threw all of mine away, reflecting my final judgment as to their value.
Just an update.
I was playing with this will being connected to the serial programmer and power coming through that.
Since swapping to an 3amp external PSU, and using the latest beta it boots up well.
1 Like
Success here. Flashed with cheap USB-TTL converter. Latest WLED onboard. These definitely need more power – can’t promise the programmer will supply enough.
Running a few hundred pixels with Xlights – working fine. Scaling up in the near future.
Latest WLED defaults relay pin to a nonexistent -1 pin. I’m hoping this was the main root cause of the boot loop issue; I haven’t seen it yet.
WLED DDP works fine with xlights. Can’t seem to get it to auto discover from xlights, but that’s a minor problem.
I also highly recommend a true level shifter; I’m using a 74HCT125. It’s overkill but no issues at all. The series resistor (~200 ohms) on the output line is also recommended. If you use the 125, toss a small bypass cap near it’s power pins – they can be noisy.
Hello together,
thank you for the great tutorial in post 1.
Flash went through at first try with a cheap USB to TTL converter. But unfortunately it is not booting reliable after a power cycle.
I tested it with SK6812rgbnw connected to IO2. Powered with 5V via 5V and GND pin.
I flashed the latest “WLED beta release 0.13.0-b6” like explained within the tutorial.
The board is a WT32-ETH01 V1.2
Any ideas?
Thank you!
How much current can your power supply deliver? I’ve got 2 of these running reliably on bulk 5V 3A power supplies. Trying to power it from a USB port (like with the converter…) is a hit or miss situation.
Also, be sure GPIO 12 isn’t being held high for any reason – like an inadvertantly set relay output pin in WLED…
I have two of these booting without fail now. Here’s a link to the PCB I’m using if anyone is looking for a 12V, 4 output pixel driver. The buck converter on that board will supply at least 3A – I’ve had no boot problems yet with my admittedly limited sample. R5 was included as a GPIO12 pulldown – but I haven’t needed it yet.
Anyone not getting the upload from Xlights changing the WLED settings page should use Firmware v0.13b5 as v0.13 & v0.13.1 not working with Controller Upload.
I’ve only tested xlights for a short time, but I think Controller Upload is for devices like the Kulp and such where you are uploading a sequence. Not for real-time control.
I saw that. Latest xlights actually warns you.
Haven’t found 0.13.2 yet – I assume you have to compile yourself?
I was unable to get this to work using Espressif’s download tool and a CP2102-based serial adapter. Tried multiple times with 3 different ETH01 boards and also tried the non-ethernet version and v0.12 as suggested above. Everything seemed to work and the flashing tool reported success but the access point never appeared.
Tried the online installer at https://install.wled.me and it worked perfectly the first time (and it was much easier)!!
6 Port, already assembled, with or without the ETH-01 Wasatch Pixels Six Port Ethernet Controller w/WLED from Wasatch Pixels on Tindie
Just want to thank all on this thread, I was able to get my WT32-ETH01 up and running with WLED!
Notes:
I was able to use an ESP8266 in place of the USB TTL adapter, thanks to @etanremlap 's helpful pin suggestions. Only difference for me was using RST > GND on the ESP8266 (since my model is the ESP8266MOD aka D1 Mini). Maybe RST == EN but It took me a sec to figure that out!
I also used the web installer and it went through after a few tries/double checking wiring. One thing that was confusing for me was after the “Installed Successfully” message is displayed and I hit next, it takes me back to the Device Dashboard where I can Install WLED or check Logs and Console. In previous installs, I was able to visit wled in the next step.
Another break I had was reading that I needed to disconnect all the wires used for flashing and hook it up to a 5v power supply after installation. All I did instead was unplug the TX/RX cables, and the IO0>GND cable. Then the AP showed up and I’ve been buzzing ever since!
Also, default data pin in LED settings seems to be 2 (i checked the “My Board Has Ethernet”) maybe that has something to do with it.
Thank you all, will report back if I have boot issues like those above!
I managed to flash the device. I tried ESP32 and ESP32 with ethernet.
I dont get the WLED-AP. I even flashed through the web installer.
Any suggestions?? Could really use some help here. Im new to the microcontrollers
Not many people use those, so sit tight.