OTA Support for ESP32-S3 – No GENERIC_S3_OTA Build Available?

[aravikyr]

Hi MicroPython team,

I'm working on a project using the ESP32-S3 and I want to enable OTA (Over-the-Air) updates while running MicroPython. I noticed that the MicroPython downloads page provides nightly builds for the GENERIC_S3, but there doesn't appear to be a GENERIC_S3_OTA build available—only a GENERIC_OTA version which seems intended for other ESP32 variants.

My questions are:

1. Is the GENERIC_OTA firmware compatible with ESP32-S3 boards?

2. If not, is there a recommended way to build MicroPython from source with OTA support specifically for the ESP32-S3?

3. Are there any plans to provide pre-built GENERIC_S3_OTA binaries in the future?

Thanks for your help and for all the great work on MicroPython!

[ned-pcs]

If not, is there a recommended way to build MicroPython from source with OTA support specifically for the ESP32-S3?

Yes, define your own board. See the README.md in https://github.com/micropython/micropython/tree/master/ports/esp32 .

You can copy the relevant files from another board.

In my build tree, I have the following structure for my boards subdirectory:

├── ESP32_S3_N16R8
│   ├── board.json
│   ├── board.md
│   ├── mpconfigboard.cmake
│   ├── mpconfigboard.h
│   ├── mpconfigvariant_SPIRAM_OCT.cmake
│   ├── partitions-16MiB-ota.csv
│   └── sdkconfig.board
├── ESP32_S3_N8R8
│   ├── board.json
│   ├── board.md
│   ├── mpconfigboard.cmake
│   ├── mpconfigboard.h
│   ├── mpconfigvariant_SPIRAM_OCT.cmake
│   ├── partitions-8MiB-ota.csv
│   └── sdkconfig.board

My ESP32_S3_N8R8/sdkconfig.board looks like this:

CONFIG_ESPTOOLPY_FLASHMODE_QIO=y
CONFIG_ESPTOOLPY_FLASHFREQ_80M=y
CONFIG_ESPTOOLPY_AFTER_NORESET=y

CONFIG_ESPTOOLPY_FLASHSIZE_4MB=
CONFIG_ESPTOOLPY_FLASHSIZE_8MB=y
CONFIG_ESPTOOLPY_FLASHSIZE_16MB=
CONFIG_PARTITION_TABLE_CUSTOM=y
CONFIG_PARTITION_TABLE_CUSTOM_FILENAME="partitions-8MiB-ota.csv"

CONFIG_ESP_TASK_WDT_PANIC=y
CONFIG_ESP_SYSTEM_PANIC=ESP_SYSTEM_PANIC_PRINT_REBOOT

Because both of the boards I'm using have the octal SPIRAM, in the mpconfigboard.cmake files I have

set(MICROPY_BOARD_VARIANT SPIRAM_OCT)

This then uses the mpconfigvariant_SPIRAM_OCT.cmake files.

And my partitions-8MiB-ota.csv file has this:

# Partition table for MicroPython with OTA support using 8MB flash
# Notes: the offset of the partition table itself is set in
# $IDF_PATH/components/partition_table/Kconfig.projbuild.
# Name,   Type, SubType, Offset,   Size,     Flags
nvs,      data, nvs,     0x9000,   0x4000,
otadata,  data, ota,     0xd000,   0x2000,
phy_init, data, phy,     0xf000,   0x1000,
ota_0,    app,  ota_0,   0x10000,  0x280000,
ota_1,    app,  ota_1,   0x290000, 0x280000,
vfs,      data, fat,     0x510000, 0x2F0000

But because that particular CSV file isn't in the PORT directory, I have this in my build script:

# Copy the board-specific partitions file if necessary
cp boards/ESP32_S3_N8R8/partitions-8MiB-ota.csv submodules/micropython/ports/esp32; fi

and then I run make like this:

make -C submodules/micropython/ports/esp32 BOARD_DIR=boards/ESP32_S3_N8R8 BOARD=BOARD_ESP32_S3_N8R8

I also have my own manifest.py file but if you want a standard build you don't have to mess with this.