Manage the Espressif platform

The Espressif platform includes the ESP8266 and ESP32 boards.

Install Python 3

The ESP32 and ESP8266 require Python 3.

To check whether Python 3 is installed on your main computer,

• Open a Terminal window.

• Launch one of the following commands.

which python3
python3 --version

If the answers are python3 not found or command not found: python3, Python 3 needs to be installed.

sudo apt install python3

The ESP8266 utilities call Python 3 from a specific non-standard folder, and may raise an error.

To fix this issue,

• Open a Terminal window.

• Launch the following commands.

which python3
/usr/local/bin/

The answer may differ from the example above. Note the path, here /usr/local/bin/, for the next step.

sudo mkdir /usr/local/bin/
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/python3 /usr/local/bin/python3

It creates a symbolic link for python3 with the path expected by the ESP8266 utilities.

For more information on the installation process,

• Please refer to the Read Me page on the ESP8266 repository.

Install pyserial

If compilation fails and complains about missing Serial package, pyserial needs to be installed.

pip install pyserial --break-system-packages

--break-system-packages allows to install the package system-wide.

Install the USB drivers

Depending on the board, a 3.3 V FTDI programmer may be required. The ESP8266-based board requires up to 400 mA.

For more information,

• Please refer to Installing and Building an Arduino Sketch for the $5 ESP8266 Micro-Controller by Alasdair Allan.

The default uploader provided with the IDE, esptool, supports all the ESP8266-based boards, including the NodeMCU boards, since release 0.4.5.

However, the NodeMCU boards requires the installation of specific serial drivers.

• Please follow the instructions at the section Install the NodeMCU board.

Check the tests

The test protocol includes building and linking, uploading and running a sketch on the boards using those versions of the IDEs and plug-ins. Boards packages are versioned but not dated.

	Platform	Package	Comment
	ESP32	3.0.7	Valid for other ESP32-based boards except Arduino Nano ESP32
	ESP8266	3.0.1	Valid for other ESP8266-based boards
	emCode	14.5.6

Visit the official websites

	ESP32
IDE	Arduino-CLI or Arduino IDE
Website	https://espressif.com
Download	https://github.com/espressif/arduino-esp32
Wiki	https://esp32.net
Forum	https://www.esp32.com
Forum	https://bbs.espressif.com

	ESP8266
IDE	Arduino-CLI or Arduino IDE
Website	https://espressif.com
Download	https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino
Wiki	https://www.esp8266.com/wiki/doku.php
Documentation	https://arduino-esp8266.readthedocs.io/en
Forum	https://www.esp8266.com
Forum	https://bbs.espressif.com