How to use the PlatformIO debugger on the ESP32 using an ESP-prog

In this video we learn how to use the PlatformIO debugger on our ESP32 projects using an ESP-prog. We will go through the setting up of the ESP-Prog, setup of PlatfromIO and how to use it and then go through the basics of using the debugger.

For full instruction check out the following:

Timestamps:
0:10 Hardware Required
0:52 Driver Installation
1:36 PlatformIO Setup
2:54 Debugging Setup

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Hardware:
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ESP-Prog:

ESP32 Boards:

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[ivankravets]

Dear Brian, thank you so much for the amazing and useful video tutorial! We added it to our video collection and our documentation. We hope to see more videos about PlatformIO. They are very important for our Community!

[bertieblob]

Finally got an ESP-PROG. Searched YouTube. Found your Video. Now I’m all set to go. 🙂 PlatformIO should be grateful. You provide a clear and concise guide that they probably don’t have the time to produce, or that Espressif can even be bothered to provide. Better even than that guy with the the Swiss accent - who I also subscribe to. 👍🏼 Many thanks.

[sivnsic]

epic tutorial... really sped up the process

[UnexpectedMaker]

That's awesome! I really need to give PlatformIO a go.

[jon_raymond]

Very helpful! Thanks for the detailed walk through.

[kissingfrogs]

one of my most favorite uploads yet, some great info. 332

[TheTinkerDad]

Not sure how, but I've missed this video and just watching it now. PlatformIO is something that I've been eyeing with for a long time, but I haven't yet tried, so this vid is pretty cool to see.

[chriscollins]

Nice and clear and to the point. Very helpful. Thank you.

[insanismantelli]

Nice tutorial. Well done. I had some trouble with missing libraries and could not start debug. I checked them at the debug console after hitting f5. After I installed them in the terminal, everything went fine.

[MikesTropicalTech]

Would be great to show the exact wiring setup during upload and debug. It's not clear from your video but I figured it out from reading comments below. Thanks!

[spencerbentley]

Great instructional vid, I've linked to it in my ebay store 👍

[cthoadmin]

Immediate subscribe! Just getting into esp-idf now, and am working with Eclipse. Believe there an Eclipse plugin for ESP-Prog.

[BoazFeldbaum]

Very helpful tutorial, thank you! I confused VCC with 5V and mistakenly connected VCC from esp-prog to 5V on the ESP32 dev board. It took me a while to realize that VCC is 3.3V. Luckily none of the boards burn. Actually the VCC line should not ne connected at all. I connected both esp-prog and esp32 dev board to the micro USB connectors, so they both get power from USB and then only connected the ground of both boards. Not sure that connecting the grounds is necessary because it is connected through the USB, but I connected them anyhow. Then eventually I was able to debug. I find the debugger very useful but I got various problems that I don't know yet how to overcome. The most annoying problem is that at some point the debugger stops going in "step over" mode and always doing "step into" even if I hit "step over". I still have a long way to go to master this tool, but it seems worth making the effort. Thanks again!

[ianhewitt]

Brian, nice clear video and I will have debugging working in a fraction of the time it would have taken me to get this inofrmation on my own. You mention that when the board is connected that sometimes it dosn't load. I have this promblem on one of my boards without anything attached. If I place a 2.2 / 3.3 microfarad capacitor from GND to EN port the problem goes away. It may be that the capacitence of the enable pin is changing when it mounted, or it could be something completley different. It may be worth a try though and if it sorts out the issue, all good. Thanks for the effort you put in.

[MatSmithLondon]

Tanks for this guide. Do you think JTAG debugging will be useful for figuring out problems with a sketch half crashing after 6-24 hours of running? (By half crashing I mean, serial monitor and MQTT messages stop sending, but web interface continues to work.)

[rakithadealwis]

thank you for the video Brian. I can confirm that upload via JTAG works. However I found putting "build_type = debug" and "debug_init_break = tbreak setup" ini file caused me issues. So I recommend not putting them in at the start. Then work your way from there.

[yancymuu]

Brian, thank you for the great tutorial. I am having problems getting the debugger running. When I connect TDI to GPIO 12, the code won't upload. Do you know how I could fix this. I already did the update that you recommended in video.

[xmine]

Man is that complicated on Windows. Mind boggling how people are actually productive on this platform as developrs.

[jackmanjls]

BEWARE...If you refer to Zadig::USB ID..The hexadecimal numbers 0403 and 6010 are the USB vendor and product ID of the FT2232HL chip and OpenOCD looks for them. Unfortunately, the FT232H chip has the vendor/product ID 0403/6014.

[bennguyen]

The ESP32-C3 (Single Risc-V Core) shows it has JTAG/USB support, but can it also be debugged using PlatformIO and even VSCode?

Or would the C3 need to be flashed with something that enables SWD debugging?

BTW, in terms of debugging, any thoughts between VSCode and Visual Studio + VisualGDB ?