Network connection support for ESP / webrepl?

[metachris]

How would I connect Pymakr to a generic ESP32 micropython device on the network? Does it work with webrepl?

[Josverl]

It works with a full telnet server, which is available in the firmwares from Pycom an Lobo ESP32. I have not found a decent working telnet server for std Micropython, but there may be one around. It wound need to allow for authentication though

[rdagger]

@Josverl Did you ever find a telnet server for std Micropython? Or is there any way to make it work with FTP? The serial connection is slow.

I found this telnet server: https://github.com/cpopp/MicroTelnetServer It works with Putty but I can't connect with pymakr. Do you have modify the global settings other than the IP?

[Josverl]

@rdagger , not one that works well with pymakr. the usual lack is that they do not implement authentication , and pymakr just keeps waiting for the auth prompt. it should not be too hard to add a dummy user / password prompt though , but i've never completed that. the one I briefly looked at is indeed cpopp/MicroTelnetServer

I if you can add 2 prompts for Login as: and Password: and just ignore whatever is put in there you may be good to go .

another (and perhaps the best) option is to create a PR for pymakr so that it does not need to put in the user/pwd ( if you specify them as empty ) or by detecting the utelnetserver prompt :

Connected to esp_f4b4b3.
Escape character is '^]'.

FTP: i never liked that even with the LoBo firmwares. there were to many moving parts that got tangled most of the time.

[rdagger]

@Josverl Thanks for your reply. I’ve found that FTP works great for transferring files. It’s an order of magnitude faster for transfers compared to serial. I use the following light-weight FTP server: https://github.com/robert-hh/FTP-Server-for-ESP8266-ESP32-and-PYBD

I was using a plugin in Atom to automatically upload my code to the ESP32 via FTP. It works well except when it comes to running the code which requires a separate shell and manual input.

Pymakr does a great job of streamlining the process. Unfortunately, the serial transfers are tedious for larger libraries.

[rdagger]

@Josverl

it should not be too hard to add a dummy user / password prompt though , but i've never completed that. the one I briefly looked at is indeed cpopp/MicroTelnetServer

I implemented the dummy credentials prompt and it worked. Pymakr can now connect via telnet. Unfortunately, the file upload doesn't work. I get an error before the ESP32 reboots:

raw REPL; CTRL-B to exit

OK'/' OKW1siZm9udHMiLCJkIiw ...

OKTraceback (most recent call last): File "", line 4 SyntaxError: invalid syntax OKTraceback (most recent call last): File "", line 4 SyntaxError: invalid syntax OKTraceback (most recent call last): File "", line 4 SyntaxError: invalid syntax OKI (523) cpu_start: Pro cpu up. I (523) cpu_start: Application information:

I suspect MicroTelenetServer doesn't implement a required command.

[Josverl]

@rdagger , the upload / download essentially uses the interactive prompt to create files on the fly, so if comms work , that should work as well.

do you have a pointer to your dummy creds prompt ? ill be happy to trace what throws a cog into the wheels.

also there is an option to avoid rebooting after upload ( which i turn off except when creating async projects)

[rdagger]

@Josverl All I did was add the following lines to the _def accept_telnetconnect() method.

    last_client_socket.setblocking(True)
    last_client_socket.write("Login as:")
    last_client_socket.readline()
    last_client_socket.write("Password:")
    last_client_socket.readline()
    last_client_socket.setblocking(False)
    last_client_socket.write('Login succeeded!\r\nType "help()" for more information.\r\n')

[metachris]

How do you connect to the telnet server, as in which pymakr address setting are you using? In particular, can you specify a custom port?

[rdagger]

@metachris I set address to the IP address in the global pymakr.json settings file. I don't know if you can specify a custom port.