HowTo: pxlBlck – Flash firmware with esp web tools directly from the browser - Nerdiy.de - Nerdy DIY HowTo's about electronics, 3D-printing and more.

Flashing the ESP8266 or ESP32 is not that easy if you have not had much contact with microcontrollers before.

Now, there is something very cool that makes this process super easy. The people behind ESPhome have developed a web flasher that allows you to flash ESP microcontrollers directly from a Google Chrome browser. Without installation and configuration effort. What's even cooler is that they make the tool available for free, so others can use it too.

You can now flash the pxlBlck firmware directly from the Google Chrome browser without much effort.

For those who want to get started right away: click on the following button and try it out!

This works only in Google Chrome! Please make sure that you access this page via HTTPS!

For those who want more details, I have prepared a step-by-step illustrated guide in the Flash firmware section.

A small overview of the currently available ***pxlBlck platforms***.

Requirements

So that you can program your pxlBlck, you should of course have already prepared the hardware accordingly. There are basically several ways to do this. You can find a few examples in the following section. You can find a complete list of all possible platforms under the following keyword

https://nerdiy.de/en/tag/pxlblckplattform/

HowTo: pxlBlck – Build the pxlDigit_clock with the pxlDigit PCB

HowTo: PCB – pxlBlck_multiPCB

HowTo: pxlBlck – Build the pxlBlck_CassetteLamp

HowTo: pxlBlck - Build the pxlBlck_RingClock

HowTo: pxlBlck – Build the pxlBlck_8x8

HowTo: pxlBlck – Build the pxlBlck_Pot

HowTo: pxlBlck – Build the pxlBlck_SlotClock

Flash firmware step by step

In order for flashing to work, you should already have connected your ESP to the computer.

Then click on the button

Flash pxlBlck firmware

A menu should pop up in which you have to select the appropriate serial port.

Then click on the text shown on the left.

Before the flash process starts, you can still choose whether you want to delete all the contents of the ESP before the flash process starts.

Click to continue on

Next

In order to start the flash process, you must now click on

Install

The flash process then starts and…

… the progress is displayed.

Once the flashing process is complete, you should see the view shown.

Then click on

Next

to...

… for example to open the console.

Here you can now configure the ESP directly and see the log output.

If desired, you can also restart the ESP over here.

If you want to exit the flasher, you simply have to click on

Bake

the X in the top right corner.

Many thanks to the ESPHome team for this really handy tool! You can find more information about this under the following link.

https://esphome.github.io/esp-web-tools/

pxlBlck Usecases

Under the "pxlBlckUsecase" tag, articles are listed in which you can find examples of use. It also explains how you can configure your pxlBlck accordingly.

https://nerdiy.de/en/tag/pxlblckusecase/

Animations, icons and commands

You can find more information on the display of animations, icons and the possible commands with which you can configure your pxlBlck in the following articles.

Have fun with the project

I hope everything worked as described for you. If not or you have questions or suggestions please let me know in the comments. I will then add this to the article if necessary.
Ideas for new projects are also always welcome 🙂 .

P.S. Many of these projects - especially the hardware projects - cost a lot of time and money. Of course I do it because I enjoy it, but if you think it's cool that I share the info about it with you, I'd appreciate a small donation to the coffee fund 🙂 .