Wishlist for ESP8266 ?

[espruino-discuss]

Posted at 2015-10-23 by JumJum

If I had a wish on this my list would be something like this. Others will have other wishes, but for now, I'm the first one to ask ;-)

• add sdcard support. I'm working on a datalogger which collects data from sensors, stores on SD and prepares this data for JSON-calls from web client.
• using flash for files, @tve talked about using flash for files, similiar to what nodemcu is doing.
• have a plugin-interface in Espruino to add modules/functions. @gfwilliams already startet something like this with assembler and compile in original Espruino.
• add flash-information to process.memory(), as original Espruino does.
• for nodemcu there is a webpage to create "your own binary". Functions can be added or removed there. For example, if you don't need SPI or IC2, remove it and add, may be SHA1 support or other special things. This is a big big wish, I know.

[espruino-discuss]

Posted at 2015-10-23 by @gfwilliams

add sdcard support.

Should just be USE_FILESYSTEM in the build - as long as there's enough space for it?

have a plugin-interface in Espruino to add modules/functions

The compiler/assembler won't work in ESP8266 at all. It's a different architecture so would be a nightmare to support I'm afraid.

create your own binary

It's been wanted for the original Espruino as well. However I feel a bit like if we can focus on getting everything into one binary, that would be better for everyone :)

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Posted at 2015-10-23 by JumJum

The compiler/assembler won't work in ESP8266 at all. It's a different
architecture so would be a nightmare to support I'm afraid.

It's a total different structure, as fas as I could follow @nkolban. therefore nothing, compiled for Espruino will run on ESP8266.
May be @drazzy has an idea, how this could be supported. A lot of information is available in process.env, and together with a compiler somewhere.... you never know.
This would take away the idea of one source running on all platforms, but I'm pretty sure, this idea is not carved in stone on a long term.
Anyway, it is a part of my wishlist only. Not all wishes become true, especially those where others have to do the work. Ask my lady about her garden, if you want to compare with daily life ;-)

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Posted at 2015-10-23 by tve

add sdcard support.

To which pins would you hook the sdcard up?

add flash-information to process.memory(), as original Espruino does

can you paste an example? I don't have an original espruino yet, adafruit seems incredibly slow in shipping

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Posted at 2015-10-23 by @gfwilliams

To which pins would you hook the sdcard up?

Espruino can do SD card on any SPI (including software SPI) - so literally any 4 pins would do.

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Posted at 2015-10-23 by DrAzzy

May be @drazzy has an idea, how this could be supported.

Little old me? You got the wrong guy. I swear, they were dead when I got there!

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Posted at 2015-10-24 by JumJum

@tve see process.memory() from Espruino board V1.3
Some explanation is here

• http://www.espruino.com/STM32F1Flash#line=13,24,27
  hope, this helps a bit
  process.memory();
  ={ "free": 2222, "usage": 28, "total": 2250, "history": 14,
  "stackEndAddress": 536910336, "flash_start": 134217728, "flash_binary_end": 228024, "flash_code_start": 134449152, "flash_length": 262144 }

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Posted at 2015-10-24 by JumJum

@drazzy , you are the guy behind bigram and a lot of other good things.
If its not you, who else would have a chance :-)
Or to say with other words:
Gentlemen we found this guy and 3 people dead, all murdered by knife. We all know, how perfect he works with his knife. Ok, we did not find his knife.
Anyway, who cares about details?
Gentlemen, we have a rope and a horse. There is a tree, do we really have to wait for the court ?

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Posted at 2015-10-25 by tve

What does that flash info tell you? If you have specific use-cases I can produce the info, but looking at those numbers I wonder what they're useful for...

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Posted at 2015-10-25 by JumJum

@tve Flash info tells me, I can store something there using peek and poke.
Another option to use is the Flash class: http://www.espruino.com/Reference#Flash
Gordon uses this area to store assembler functions there. I know, assembler in Arm and in ESP8266 is different, so this would take some more work. BTW, some time ago I created an assembler version of Flash class (to have fun and learn )
Using a 4MB flash version, data logger could store some data in this area.
Oh, just see, Flash is not supported for ESP8266 (yet?)

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Posted at 2015-10-25 by tve

Save and restore is supported. I thing I provided the flash bindings, but perhaps not. The esp8266 memory map is pretty complicated, it's documented in the board docs (which Gordon hasn't put onto the web site yet). So it's not just a matter of an "end" & "size". If your module has >1MB of flash then anything above that line is free game.

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Posted at 2015-10-26 by @gfwilliams

Yeah, stuff will go on the site this week hopefully, but I'm off at a conference at the moment