Fixing a hardware ESP32 Upload problem

[@jfllzz]

This fix worked perfectly for me with a 10uF cap. Thank you very much! THIS VIDEO IS GOLD!!!

[@richardspann6911]

thanks this fix has saved me a lot of time. My finger no longer has a permanent indentation in it. This is a good thing!

[@johnblack6134]

My index finger now has a permanent indentation.

[@goldenhawktechnology3009]

Sir I can't express my gratitude to you Extremely thank you for uploading such a beautiful vedio I was sitting for 1 hour and got nothing

[@drfootleg]

Thank you. This solved my problem after several hours of internet searching and head scratching and trying completely unnecessary button pressing! Now I can actually start working on my project!

[@XTronical]

Brilliant, this has worked for a lot of people.

[@garyallbee862]

I was using the suggested 100nF cap on EN and performance was random from board to board. I had one failing 100% of the time and I put 10uF on it and now it is working 100% of the time. Great tip!! Thank you!!!

[@XTronical]

Brilliant

[@p10rambo]

10uF how many volts?

[@XTronical]

Anything above 5v. 16v is a typical value.

[@OMNI_INFINITY]

So solder a 10uF between EN pin and ground pin on that ESP32?

[@Theo-hn9oj]

so?@@OMNI_INFINITY

[@zetaconvex1987]

Top man! Had the same problem with ESP32-WROOM under Linux. It does upload when holding down Boot, but I found that fiddly. Adding a 1-3uF obviated the need to hold down Boot. A 10uF actually worked better for me.

[@XTronical]

Great stuff.

[@Tom_Neverwinter]

3uf/10uf, and how many volts.

[@dickyfirmansyah996]

@@Tom_Neverwinter 5v or more, mine is 16v

[@johnblack6134]

I find that the black ESP32's are easier to flash than the white ESP32's but not always.

[@justincastilloux8051]

Worked on the first attempt with a 1uF ceramic. Thank you!

[@justinl6849]

This fix worked like a charm for me with a 10uF cap. Thanks!

[@XTronical]

Great stuff

[@wagon7052]

I was about to buy a new one when all of the sudden i saw this vid and put a 10uf 50v cap on the esp32 and now it works fine. Thank you.

[@XTronical]

Brilliant thanks for the feedback

[@MarkC-1970]

Just in case this helps someone else, the board you said didn't have the problem is a Dev Kit C v4 and it sadly does have the same issue (or mine did). The en pin is 1 pin further down but soldering a 10u to the ground on this version fixes it as well. Thanks again.

[@kevintipcorn6787]

Great video that has probably helped a lot of frustrated people. I was almost sure I had this problem too. But, I found there were 2 different sets of drivers out there for the serial over usb my version (which looks like your short chinese version) was using, and only after follwoing two differnt tutorials and looking at another video about a camera did I think to check for driver conflicts in the devices manager. I also almost forgot that a ton of micro USB cables don't even carry data wires anymore. Just mentuioining this stuff here in the comments if anyone else is banging their head against the wall and may have overlooked these things.

[@alonsopayan9753]

Why it took me 3 hours to get to this video??? Thank you so much

[@gsite1234]

Thanks. Helped me a lot. I used a 10uF cap.

[@doubleHLabs]

Thanks, this fixed it for me. a 100uf 10v didn't work, but a 22uf 6.3v did work for me

[@XTronical]

Fantastic

[@edwardandrews9240]

EXCELLENT!!!! I was skeptical but 2,2uf worked like a champ!! Thanks!

[@Mountaineering50]

Just a word of caution while assigning port pins GPIO0 can’t be used if this cap Is used for ‘ease of upload’, u hv to sacrifice this GPIO for a while. If u use it then the controller may go to boot reboot reset because of change in GPIO0 state. & FYI, the 30pin PCB doesn’t hv GPIO0 to access on header pins. But 38pin PCB do hv the GPIO0 on header so b careful

[@randomname3894]

This is a problem with the cp2102 serial chip. It is toggling the boot button (pin 0) nearly the same time it releases enable. This is working sometimes.. but often not. The doit schematic has already a 100nf cap on the enable line if i remember right, but it’s too small. On my esp32 projects i am not using the cp2102 series anymore. The cp2104 is smaller, cheaper and till now it never failed uploading. By the way.. some doit style boards now have a cap between the enable button and a gnd via.. i think it’s done after main manufacturing. The problem is, that these are also not working better, maybe the cap is still too small.

[@XTronical]

Thanks for the extra detail, that's very interesting, I really like the form factor of these boards but shame about this problem.

[@randomname3894]

Yes, it´s a nice form factor, and i think we would have more shields in this style, if this upload problem wasnt there. BUT there´s another problem.. the voltage regulator and it´s diode are not really suited for the esp32, when we want to use it with external hardware and wifi accespoint. The ldo is really limited by itself plus the voltage drop of the diode. I managed to get brownouts every time the esp is sending its wifi beacon (every 10 seconds).. it needs about 700mA for this, so if we have external stuff also powered from the ldo, it could happend that the ldo is not getting 3.3v anymore out of the more or less 4.2V, after the diode drop. And if you´re trying to use the esp´s ADC´s, you would get a really bad reading, because the Vref is not stable 3.3V anymore.. So after a lot of research i´m now using a 2A regulator with another diode, with super low voltage drop.. but of course, this is a custom pcb then. I hope we´ll see some better designed boards in the same form factor in the future.

[@XTronical]

Wow, great information, I'll bare that in mind with future projects. Cheers.

[@tamhenry]

Thank you very much for this video. It saves me a lot of time in trouble shooting this cheap ESP32 board.

[@byxlettera1452]

Dear KZbinrs if you don't want to solder a cap, you can keep pressed the boot push button for a few seconds during the initial flashing of the firmware. For me it works. Hope this also works for you. I am using a DOIT ESP32 DEVKIT V1 the one in the video. Anyway a cap can be a good idea.

[@julioalmeida4980]

Didn´t work for me. Trying the capacitor today.

[@byxlettera1452]

You have to try more than once. It is just a work around. Anyway in my case it always works. But if you have to put the Esp32 inside a box the capacitor if 10uf is always the best solution.

[@Tigs62]

Thanks. I used a 10uF electrolytic and it works every time now.

[@quaternion-pi]

Thanks! Intermittent problem with some of my esp32's. Solved!

[@XTronical]

Brilliant, glad It was helpful

[@teemustenroos2136]

This works for me, Keep Boot pushed down, reset, keep pushing it down, run the script, when its all done, let go. Works for me

[@johnblack6134]

I have this problem too. I noticed a sneeky capacitor on your ILI9351 ESP32 video. Now I know what it was about. Thnk you for yet another excellent video. I am busy connecting my ESP32 to an ILI9488 and the SD card. It works sometimes, I am trying pull down resistors about 6k. Without a super expensive digital scope I just have to guess what is going on. Oh by the way pictures need to be exported in gimp without the advanced jpeg compression.

[@XTronical]

Thanks for the tip on the jpeg settings, if you're having sd card issues with this screen try this video : kzbin.info/www/bejne/kJ6whaVugaqUZ6M

[@redliquid1]

Works on my custom board. Thanks a lot.

[@Mountaineering50]

Mine is a reverse case, the 38pin board requires to press boot button while upload, & 30pin doesn’t require. To find a SMD cap from EN to GND, so it means I depends on a vendor, from where u hv sourced the PCBs

[@rodmanunderhilliii8198]

Very strange, thing with my ESP32 Wemos Lolin32. I was getting the problem described here, after re-soldering the headers on. I noticed some of my soldering welds where not acceptable, one pin was free to slide around, because it wasn't welded, but looked like it to my naked eye, and yes I had on my glasses. Anyhow, I re-soldered a 3rd time, just the loose pin, and a few others that looked like they needed it, and now my ESP32, uploads fine, no capacitor needed.

[@SNWLeader]

I died due to hysterical laughter, this actually works.

[@nattakiet1]

Thank you, it's work, I use a small 4.7 uF capacitor.

[@mrjdainsworth]

I think this is just a case of slightly too low power to the board while uploading. Unplugging and replugging in my USB cable fixed the problem.

[@whitefields5595]

Thx for this 2.2 mF electrolytic worked for me! I was struggling to upload after experimenting with OTA uploading. When I went back to serial cable I could not get connected. However this then worked fine. I'm so glad folks like you exist on YT. Do you happen to know the reason .... and should the capacitor be left in situ from now on?

[@XTronical]

Glad it worked, I think the enable pin has to be kept low just for a short time and then go high. I think it's hard to get the timing right manually. You can sometimes do it manually but very hit and miss. At least that's my understanding anyway!

[@tookitogo]

Basically, the EN is reset, and BOOT (IO0) needs to be pulled low to program it. Specifically, IO0 needs to be low when the ESP32 starts up, so the sequence to begin programming is IO0 low, then EN low and back high to reset it. Then IO0 can be released. The cap is keeping EN low longer, which apparently makes a difference. (The USB-serial converter in the ESP32 board uses RS-232 flow control lines to do this sequencing, but without the cap it’s not 100% reliable.) IO2 and IO12 can also inhibit programming if they’re held high (IIRC), which is why I avoid using those pins if possible. (And since IO12-15 are the JTAG pins, and JTAG debugging is incredibly useful, in my newer designs I’m reserving those pins for JTAG.)

[@tookitogo]

@@XTronical The key is to hold BOOT, then press and release EN, then release BOOT.

[@playdoms-v5v]

Could someone clarify if the 3v3 and GND are linked to a battery? If so, what kind of battery should I buy?

[@ahmedreyes4117]

Bro... You save my life 😎

[@JayUnderCover]

What breadboard are you using in your videos? i'm interested in the large board.

[@XTronical]

Which one? The blue one or just the long ones. The blue one can be a bit harder to find, but might find on amazon, ebay. I've had it years. The connections are a bit on the tight side to be honest. The longer ones are a mixture of quality Bus Board make or quite cheap Chinese knock offs. There OK for keeping costs down and as long as your not doing high performance high frequency stuff otherwise stick to quality make like bus board. I think 3M did some quality boards.

[@mandaravordi]

Is this work on esp32-cam? Which pin should i connect the cap?

[@OMNI_INFINITY]

So if solder that cap between the ground pin and EN pin on that board? Basically some weird way of forcing the EN pin to low?

[@XTronical]

Yes, that would work fine.

[@OMNI_INFINITY]

Thanks for confirming! @@XTronical

[@ANANTHASANKAR_UA]

Lot of thanks! it works!!

[@dumindujayasinghe]

Is there anything to fix md5 error. Esp8266 wemos d1 mini board

[@romanaskamanas]

thank you, saved me a lot of time!

[@XTronical]

Cool, I can't believe this problem exists! But the video has helped a lot of people. Glad it worked for you too.

[@romanaskamanas]

@@XTronical yeah it used to flash correctly 1 out of maybe 6 times, now it flashes every time.

[@bhuuan]

Can I connect the capacitor from EN pin to the GND pin of ESP32 board?

[@XTronical]

Yes, absolutely. That ground rail on the breadboard is actually connected to the gnd of the esp32.

[@bhuuan]

@@XTronical thankyou!

[@abubow]

Neither the boot button method nor this method is working for me, it keeps saying "timed out waiting for packet header". Is my board broken?

[@abubow]

The board led is still on tho

[@XTronical]

What value of capacitor, try doubling it.

[@hamidrajabi8775]

I have the same problem. did you fix?

[@PepeSi7via]

Got a link to a vendor that doesnt have this problem? I cant get any solutions to work with this board I have now

[@XTronical]

I've found the slightly larger 38pin esp32 work OK, search Ali express for esp32 38p, and make sure you order the 38 pin version. Also the lolin boards I think are fine (but I've no direct experience of them). I looked on amazon but could only readily see the DOIT style boards which have given me problems.

[@PepeSi7via]

@@XTronical ill probably try the Hiletgo board and the one that says Genuine espressif on amazon. Just to see what happens. May just goto the Sparkfun Thing just for the charge capabilities. They usually have a great plug-in play nature

[@XTronical]

Sounds good

[@PepeSi7via]

I heard the HiLetgo board has a blue LED on its pin 2 so you dont have to wire externally aswell.

[@XTronical]

Oh that would be very handy for quick tests, thanks

[@eventhatsme]

This didn't work for me with a 10 uF cap for a 15 pin board marked "ESP32 DEVKITV1". I have greater success pressing the EN button just before uploading the firmware.

[@XTronical]

Shame, but least you've got a solution, these boards can be tricky beasts it seams

[@RSP13]

Fixed with a 2.2uF electrolytic cap. Thanks!

[@reneoviedo3789]

Perfect, it works, thank you!

[@XTronical]

Great, thanks for the feedback

[@AhmadFirdausIdris_AFNAN]

did not work for me. but the esp32 module is doing its thing, just unable to load new firmware

[@rkiensign]

Hi, Im just about to try this out. Im just curious, would it work if I just short EN directly to ground instead of adding capacitor before I press the boot button?

[@XTronical]

No, don't think it would work as the capacitor will allow en to be low and then go high. Just grounding wouldn't do this.

[@rkiensign]

@@XTronical Got it, thank you~

[@jailsonsanthos724]

Thank you very much! it worked for me.

[@holiqhuda9703]

3:47 : I have got a problem " Leaving Hard reseting via RTS pin .... What should I do ?

[@XTronical]

I'm not sure what you mean?

[@pradyotpathak1052]

Which capacitor should I use for the esp32 DOIT 30 PIN ? ( For the same purpose as this video) 1) 10uF 25V Electrolytic 2) 4.7uF 16V Electrolytic 3) 2.2uF 25V Electrolytic

[@XTronical]

The 10 uF one, in fact some people have used 20 uF with success. The voltage isn't that critical as long as above 5v

[@pradyotpathak1052]

@@XTronical Thanks a lot 😊

[@XTronical]

Your welcome.

[@hhjj6752]

I have several different ESP32s The ones with 15 pins down each side I have to hold down the boot button till it starts loading. Maybe I'll try the capacitor if it is annoying me too much/too many wires in the way. The 19 pins per side ones I had loaded ok with nothing. However, I have just got some different 19 pin ones that don't load on their own or witth holding the boot button down or with capacitor. I had to follow these instructions for them:- docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-adf/en/latest/get-started/index.html#upload Upload To upload the binaries, the board should be put into upload mode. To do so, hold down Boot button, momentarily press Reset button and release the Boot button. The upload mode may be initiated anytime during the application build, but no later than “Connecting” message is being displayed:

[@XTronical]

That's very good information to know, thanks for the advice.

[@RealGabeMcGuire]

THANK YOU!!!

[@Venoox]

I couldn't flash it and I've tried using your technique to hold down the boot button and it works. THANK YOU!

[@villiambowazmaister7250]

Thx worked immediately.

[@djokinac]

greeting i have an esp32 mini kit and that model doesn't have pienEN. is there any solution for that model. thanks in advance

[@XTronical]

Sorry, I don't know of one. Could try pressing the en button if it has one whilst uploading

[@djokinac]

@@XTronical OK thanks a lot anyway from now on i only buy this you model Goodbye and thanks

[@wilfriedvanhees]

is it mandatory to take an electrolytic capacitor?

[@XTronical]

No, but the value has to be around 10 to 20uF if I remember correctly which makes them a good choice for this due to size price considerations

[@abgrano]

Thanks. It's work. Help me a lot...

[@saydiy1528]

GREAT! works for me.

[@souravpatra0175]

What is the capacitors value, and voltage of capacitors?

[@XTronical]

Value around 2.2uF, voltage is anything around 5v upwards.

[@souravpatra0175]

Actually I have same problem same error occurred I try many things like I shorted enabled and ground pin in the uploading time but nothing works I give external supply to it but it's not work. I installed python version for it also but same problem.

[@XTronical]

Have you used the capacitor yet? Make sure connect right way round.

[@souravpatra0175]

@@XTronical no I not use capacitors yet because I know about it now. Let's try this what happened?

[@cheapskatetanks8200]

So have you tried using capacitor?

[@minhminh5008]

How about esp 32- cam. It is not EN for connect capacitar?

[@XTronical]

I've used an ESP32 cam, for the one I had you had to use a FTDI board to program it, see this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r6LYYWp8pKmhppI

[@WacKEDmaN]

ive been havin issues with a couple of my boards lately..used to just have to hold the boot button when it was doing the serial search...it would get half way through and fail....turns out i had to hold the boot button for the complete upload... its back to normal booting now...seems to be some weird "state" they get into... you wouldnt have a fix for very weak wifi on an esp32-cam board would you?! weak as in i need to have the esp32 right next to my tablets antenna for it to see the ssid and connect..and even then its still weak...ive tryed using the code to use max wifi power but its still the same :(

[@XTronical]

Sorry, I've not dabbled with the WiFi camera boards. A quick search has not shown much. Obviously something very wrong. Andreas Spiess did some work on antennas on his channel including a antenna tester, maybe that might help.

[@theMasion]

I just do the following: I press and hold "boot" then press "reset" once then let go of "boot"...

[@fahadjabbar1760]

My boot button worked before but the not uploading issue occured so i tried your procedure but still not succeeded

[@tookitogo]

Hold BOOT, then press and release EN, then release BOOT.

[@poepflater]

Prett much any small electrolytic will work, don't get hung up on the value...

[@bartdereu9267]

life saver, thanx !

[@bartdereu9267]

It worked a few times , and now not anymore. What a mess.

[@XTronical]

Weird. Have used it on several boards extensively

[@bartdereu9267]

@@XTronical I think my board is just not OK, i can't upload to it more then 1 times in 20 tries.

[@hamidrajabi8775]

I tried 1uf,4.7uf, 100n and 10uf non worked!

[@marcelcevani5688]

Thanks :D that worked for me. No need to press the Button never ever again :D

[@XTronical]

Brilliant, glad it helped

[@yas2640]

You are awesome, thanks

[@XTronical]

Thanks very much, appreciated

[@sandeepsingh-rt2eu]

i try using 10uf capacitor 50v its not working

[@XTronical]

Try 20 and ensure correct connection

[@ravichudgar]

can you please say me the value of capacitor?

[@XTronical]

Can't remember off top of my head but it's mentioned in the video

[@lukasw.7614]

If you hold the boot button while uploading it wil work as well

[@XTronical]

Unfortunately, not always or almost never on some boards. I think the video mentions this.

[@tre556]

Thanks!

[@ratibory4239]

Thanks so much!!!

[@XTronical]

Your welcome, it's an incredibly annoying problem but easily fixed and thank goodness.

[@sanketmane7109]

Genius!!

[@okflyer777]

Magic!!!

[@Nightmare-dd4bp]

god bless you

[@natanaeloliveira5046]

I love you brow 🤣, tanks, you safe me 🇧🇷

[@Mountaineering50]

10uF is correct1

[@3dmixer552]

Just push the boot button when you start uploading. It works for me all the time

[@XTronical]

,tried that, would only work now and again. Was frustrating.

[@3dmixer552]

@@XTronical You have to hold it pressed until starts uploading. I've been doing for a long time and it works every time

[@XTronical]

Yep, did that too, would hold it until it gave up. Many seconds, then tried long then short presses, sometimes worked, sometimes not. Another poster said there were a couple of different versions of the board, perhaps one behaves better than the other.

[@3dmixer552]

@@XTronical I've bought esp32 from China as well as from Ebay, but I have never had problem with them honestly. This always worked for me. I don't know if it has anything to do with it, but I use the Arduino IDE on mac. Anyway, good video and I'm sure it will help others.

[@XTronical]

Ahh, in my looking into this I read something about it being a windows issue. Mmmm....