Developer Raghav Garg has launched an Arduino library for over-the-air (OTA) firmware updates on Espressif ESP32-based gadgets, which comes with a twist: the updates happen over short-range Bluetooth Low Vitality (BLE) hyperlinks.
“Updating firmware on [Espressif] ESP32 gadgets can typically be difficult — particularly when your boards are deployed within the subject or do not have simple USB entry,” Garg writes of the library’s focus. “Historically, most builders depend on Wi-Fi-based OTA updates, however what in case your venture does not all the time have Wi-Fi? This Arduino-compatible library lets you add new firmware wirelessly through Bluetooth, making updates easy, dependable, and versatile.”
This library offers Espressif’s ESP32 chips a brand new choice for over-the-air firmware updates: Bluetooth Low Vitality. (📷: Raghav Garg)
The basic method to flash new firmware onto a microcontroller is, after all, to plug it into one thing — both over USB or through a programming machine linked to a devoted header on the board, or for the oldest-school of circuits by popping the microcontroller or its discrete flash storage chip out and placing it in a devoted author.
Over-the-air updates are completely different, occurring as they do over a wi-fi hyperlink. For gadgets with wide-area connectivity, like smartphones and Web of Issues (IoT) initiatives, that may imply the power to replace firmware from throughout the continent — or world. Garg’s imaginative and prescient is somewhat shorter-range than that, making use of the Bluetooth Low Vitality (BLE) connection on many Espressif ESP32 gadgets.
“Moreover firmware updates,” Garg notes, “you can too use the Command Attribute to ship easy directions out of your shopper to the ESP32. For instance, you would possibly ship instructions like activate or flip off the motor [or] toggle LED.”
The library is on the market on GitHub beneath the permissive MIT license.
