ESP-IDF Environment Setup

ESP-IDF environment setup, including the installation of Visual Studio and Espressif IDF plugins, as well as providing simple program compilation, download, and demo testing tutorials for first-time users to help them smoothly set up the environment and use it

Environment Setup

Download and Install Visual Studio

• Open the download page of VScode official website, choose the corresponding system and system bit to download
  
• After running the installation package, the rest can be installed by default, but here for the subsequent experience, it is recommended to check boxes 1, 2, and 3
  
  • After the first two items are enabled, you can open VSCode directly by right-clicking files or directories, which can improve the subsequent user experience.
  • After the third item is enabled, you can select VSCode directly when you choose how to open it

The environment setup is carried out on the Windows 10 system, Linux and Mac users can access ESP-IDF environment setup for reference

Install Espressif IDF Plugin

• It is generally recommended to use Install Online. If online installation fails due to network factor, use Install OIffline
  • The tutorial environment is 5.1.4, we need to download 5.3.2
• To install ESP IDF 5.3.2 development environment tutorial, see Install Espressif IDF Plugin

Run the First ESP-IDF Demo

If you are just getting started with ESP32 and ESP-IDF, and you don't know how to create, compile, flash, and run ESP-IDF ESP32 programs, then please expand and take a look. Hope it can help you!

New Project

Create Demo

• Using the shortcut F1, enter esp-idf:show examples projects
  

• Select your current IDF version
  

• Take the Hello world demo as an example

①Select the corresponding demo
②Its readme will state what chip the demo applies to (how to use the demo and the file structure are described below, omitted here)
③Click to create the demo

• Select the path to save the demo, and require that the demos cannot use folders with the same name
  

Modify COM Port

• The corresponding COM ports are shown here, click to modify them
  
• Please select the COM ports according to your device (You can view it from the device manager)
  
• In case of a download failure, please press the Reset button for more than 1 second or enter download mode, and wait for the PC to recognize the device again before downloading once more
  

Modify Driver Object

• Select the object we need to drive, which is our main chip ESP32S3
  

• Choose the path to openocd, it doesn't affect us here, so let's just choose one
  

Other Status Bar Functions

①.ESP-IDF Development Environment Version Manager, when our project requires differentiation of development environment versions, it can be managed by installing different versions of ESP-IDF. When the project uses a specific version, it can be switched to by utilizing it
②.Device flashing COM port, select to flash the compiled program into the chip
③.Select set-target chip model, select the corresponding chip model, for example, ESP32-P4-NANO needs to choose esp32p4 as the target chip
④.menuconfig, click it to Modify sdkconfig configuration file Project configuration details
⑤.fullclean button, when the project compilation error or other operations pollute the compiled content, you can clean up all the compiled content by clicking it
⑥.Build project, when a project satisfies the build, click this button to compile
⑦.Current download mode, the default is UART
⑧.flash button, when a project build is completed, select the COM port of the corresponding development board, and click this button to flash the compiled firmware to the chip
⑨.monitor enable flashing port monitoring, when a project passes through Build --> Flash, click this button to view the log of output from flashing port and debugging port, so as to observe whether the application works normally
⑩.Debug
⑪.Build Flash Monitor one-click button, which is used to continuously execute Build --> Flash --> Monitor, often referred to as "little flame"

Compile, Flash and Serial Port Monitor

• Click on the all-in-one button we described before to compile, flash and open the serial port monitor
  

• It may take a long time to compile especially for the first time
  

• During this process, the ESP-IDF may take up a lot of CPU resources, so it may cause the system to lag
  
• If it is the first time to flash the program for a new project, you will need to select the download method, and select UART
  

• This can also be changed later in the Download methods section (click on it to pop up the options)
  

• As it comes with the onboard automatic download circuit, it can be downloaded automatically without manual operation
• After successful download, it will automatically enter the serial monitor, you can see the chip output the corresponding information and be prompted to restart after 10S
  

Use the IDF Demos

The following takes ESP32-S3-LCD-1.47-Demo as an example to introduce the two opening methods of the project and the general steps of use, and the detailed explanation of the ESP-IDF project. If you use other projects, the operation steps can be applied similarly.

Open In the Software

• Open VScode software and select the folder to open the demo
  

• Select the provided ESP-IDF example and click to select the file (located in the /Demo/ESP-IDF path under demo)
  

Open from Outside the Software

• Select the project directory correctly and open the project, otherwise it will affect the compilation and flashing of subsequent programs
  

• After connecting the device, select the COM port and model, click below to compile and flash to achieve program control
  

ESP-IDF Project Details

• Component: The components in ESP-IDF are the basic modules for building applications, each component is usually a relatively independent code base or library, which can implement specific functions or services, and can be reused by applications or other components, similar to the definition of libraries in Python development.
  • Component reference: The import of libraries in the Python development environment only requires to "import library name or path", while ESP-IDF is based on the C language, and the importing of libraries is configured and defined through CMakeLists.txt.
  • The purpose of CmakeLists.txt: When compiling ESP-IDF, the build tool CMake first reads the content of the top-level CMakeLists.txt in the project directory to read the build rules and identify the content to be compiled. When the required components and demos are imported into the CMakeLists.txt, the compilation tool CMake will import each content that needs to be compiled according to the index. The compilation process is as follows: