Is any type of Ethernet supported on ESP32 platforms now?

[liudr]

It's been a while since I last looked for answer to this question (last being mp version 1.17). I still couldn't quite find an answer. Here is a recent post, related to LAN8720 chip with ESP32. The OP had to compile micropython using IDF V 4.x. That's a very long route. I've done IDF V3.3 and V4.x projects for quite some time but also was a while ago.

Now that 1.20 is out, I see this exciting release node blurb:

"The esp32 port now uses synchronous BLE events which allows support for BLE pairing and bonding. The LAN driver adds support for LAN8710, KSZ8081, configuration of ETH ref_clk pin, and support for SPI-based Ethernet chips. "

https://github.com/micropython/micropython/releases/tag/v1.20.0

And I was able to find corresponding doc under ESP32 1.20 as well:

https://docs.micropython.org/en/v1.20.0/esp32/quickref.html#lan

So I wonder if anyone has test driven this release with ethernet support yet. I'll post my progress in case someone else comes along with the same question.

[jimmo]

Yes, the ESP32 port supports Ethernet. Either via external SPI MAC (e.g. wiznet) (this is new in 1.20), or with the internal MAC using just an external PHY (this has been supported for a while). e.g. on one of the espressif dev-kit boards.

[liudr]

Hi @jimmo

Thanks for confirming. I could only see how to use the LAN8720 with the official document I linked to. Is there any document on using SPI MAC such as wiznet ws5500? Thanks.

[liudr]

OK I seem to have found some answers, under network document:

https://docs.micropython.org/en/v1.20.0/library/network.WIZNET5K.html

The doc says "The particular chipset that is supported by the firmware is selected at compile-time via the MICROPY_PY_NETWORK_WIZNET5K option."

So I assume that this option wasn't turned on with the regular 1.20.bin firmware. I checked network:

help(network)
object <module 'network'> is of type module
name -- network
country --
hostname --
init --
WLAN --
LAN --
PPP --
phy_mode --
STA_IF -- 0
AP_IF -- 1
MODE_11B -- 1
MODE_11G -- 2
MODE_11N -- 4
MODE_LR -- 8
AUTH_OPEN -- 0
AUTH_WEP -- 1
AUTH_WPA_PSK -- 2
AUTH_WPA2_PSK -- 3
AUTH_WPA_WPA2_PSK -- 4
AUTH_WPA2_ENTERPRISE -- 5
AUTH_WPA3_PSK -- 6
AUTH_WPA2_WPA3_PSK -- 7
AUTH_MAX -- 8
PHY_LAN8710 -- 0
PHY_LAN8720 -- 1
PHY_IP101 -- 2
PHY_RTL8201 -- 3
PHY_DP83848 -- 4
ETH_INITIALIZED -- 0
ETH_STARTED -- 1
ETH_STOPPED -- 2
ETH_CONNECTED -- 3
ETH_DISCONNECTED -- 4
ETH_GOT_IP -- 5
STAT_IDLE -- 1000
STAT_CONNECTING -- 1001
STAT_GOT_IP -- 1010
STAT_NO_AP_FOUND -- 201
STAT_WRONG_PASSWORD -- 202
STAT_BEACON_TIMEOUT -- 200
STAT_ASSOC_FAIL -- 203
STAT_HANDSHAKE_TIMEOUT -- 204

So WIZNET5K isn't defined, confirmed with trying to run it and getting undefined.

So is there any compiled firmware that has WIZNET5K enabled that I can download? Thanks.

[jimmo]

So regarding my code being too old, I forked the main micropython repo 15 days ago

I don't know. All I can say is that file you referenced, ports/stm32/modnwwiznet5k.c, was deleted in August 2022.
#9021

Are you on the master branch of some dev branch that is ahead of the master? How do I get on your branch?

Yes, I'm on a working branch, which is a few commits ahead of the current HEAD of the master branch, but that should not make a difference, the code was included in v1.20. The number (e.g. 68 or 74) is how many commits ahead of the v1.20 label. As you can see in on commit 7efda8422

Did you edit the correct sdkconfig.board? How did you flash the resulting firmware? How did you do the clean build (and yes, you definitely need to do a clean build when modifying sdkconfig).

"Ethernet" feature in board.json

This file is just metadata for the downloads page, it doesn't affect the firmware.

[liudr]

Sorry about the old code. I don't know why I saw that. It is possible that I went in a copy of the code I cloned a while ago (attempted to compile and failed) and it's not up to date. I went into the correct folder, which I cloned 15 days ago, and is up to date as of 5 days ago, last commit. This stm32 file is no longer there. I have the correct code and am compiling under this code.

I copied the GENERIC_SPIRAM folder and pasted into a new folder I called PINNACLE_GENERIC_SPIRAM so I can change its files without affecting the existing board. Under this new folder I have sdkconfig.board:

CONFIG_COMPILER_OPTIMIZATION_SIZE=y
CONFIG_ETH_SPI_ETHERNET_W5500=y

I can confirm that after the make clean, the build folder is emptied.

Here is a list of commands I executed:

source export.sh
cd ~/Documents/Projects/liudr/micropython/ports/esp32/
make clean BOARD=PINNACLE_GENERIC_SPIRAM
python3 -m esptool --baud 1500000 --chip esp32 --before default_reset --after hard_reset --port /dev/ttyUSB0 erase_flash
make BOARD=PINNACLE_GENERIC_SPIRAM deploy
picocom -b 115200 /dev/ttyUSB0

The reason I was using an "outside" esptool command is that the included erase command didn't work on my board. Anyway, here is what I get after all that trouble:

MicroPython v1.20.0-68-g3229791b6 on 2023-05-15; Pinnacle ESP32 module (spiram) with ESP32
Type "help()" for more information.
>>> import network
>>> network.PHY_W5500
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'PHY_W5500'
>>> help(network)
object <module 'network'> is of type module
  __name__ -- network
  country -- <function>
  hostname -- <function>
  __init__ -- <function>
  WLAN -- <function>
  LAN -- <function>
  PPP -- <function>
  phy_mode -- <function>
  STA_IF -- 0
  AP_IF -- 1
  MODE_11B -- 1
  MODE_11G -- 2
  MODE_11N -- 4
  MODE_LR -- 8
  AUTH_OPEN -- 0
  AUTH_WEP -- 1
  AUTH_WPA_PSK -- 2
  AUTH_WPA2_PSK -- 3
  AUTH_WPA_WPA2_PSK -- 4
  AUTH_WPA2_ENTERPRISE -- 5
  AUTH_WPA3_PSK -- 6
  AUTH_WPA2_WPA3_PSK -- 7
  AUTH_WAPI_PSK -- 8
  AUTH_MAX -- 9
  PHY_LAN8710 -- 0
  PHY_LAN8720 -- 1
  PHY_IP101 -- 2
  PHY_RTL8201 -- 3
  PHY_DP83848 -- 4
  PHY_KSZ8041 -- 5
  PHY_KSZ8081 -- 6
  ETH_INITIALIZED -- 0
  ETH_STARTED -- 1
  ETH_STOPPED -- 2
  ETH_CONNECTED -- 3
  ETH_DISCONNECTED -- 4
  ETH_GOT_IP -- 5
  STAT_IDLE -- 1000
  STAT_CONNECTING -- 1001
  STAT_GOT_IP -- 1010
  STAT_NO_AP_FOUND -- 201
  STAT_WRONG_PASSWORD -- 202
  STAT_BEACON_TIMEOUT -- 200
  STAT_ASSOC_FAIL -- 203
  STAT_HANDSHAKE_TIMEOUT -- 204
>>> 

[liudr]

I wonder, could you share your sdkconfig.board? It probably has more than what's requiredto make W5500 work but it would be good to compare apples with apples. Also, what does help(network) show on your build?

[jimmo]

I copied the GENERIC_SPIRAM folder and pasted into a new folder I called PINNACLE_GENERIC_SPIRAM so I can change its files without affecting the existing board.

Did you also modify mpconfigboard.cmake to point to boards/PINNACLE_GENERIC_SPIRAM/sdkconfig.board ?

[liudr]

That was it! It was a stupid little error I didn't notice. I am now able to compile with the wiznet support. I did it with spiram just to see it show up and then made a separate board folder without spiram so I can use the firmware on my adafruit feather esp32.

>>> spi=machine.SPI(1,sck=machine.Pin(5),mosi=machine.Pin(18),miso=machine.Pin(19))
>>> iface=network.LAN(phy_type=network.PHY_W5500,phy_addr=1,spi=spi,cs=machine.Pin(21),int=machine.Pin(12))
>>> iface.isconnected()
False
>>> iface.active(True)
True
>>> iface.isconnected()
True
>>> iface.ifconfig()
('0.0.0.0', '0.0.0.0', '0.0.0.0', '0.0.0.0')

So I was able to confirm the support is there. However I was unable to get a valid IP address yet. I thought if I moved the connection to a different Ethernet hub it would work so I moved my board from laptop to a desktop near an Ethernet hub. Then this happened:

rst:0x10 (RTCWDT_RTC_RESET),boot:0x33 (SPI_FAST_FLASH_BOOT)
flash read err, 1000
ets_main.c 371
ets Jun  8 2016 00:22:57

Not sure what could have caused it. I flashed it with deploy and it worked.

[liudr]

The boot error was due to me using GPIO12. I used GPIO12 on W5500 INT pin, which must have some pullup. It wasn't an issue with WROVER because newer WROVER modules don't have this pin strapped for internal LDO but WROOM does! I had to disconnect GPIO12 from W5500 INT to boot. Anyway, now looking for a complete example on how to get it to acquire an IP address.

@damz provided this as an example but it's just some class code.

A working example is in this WIP MR for the Ribbit Network Sensor.

I'm using the same adafruit feather but a w5500 module, not w5500 ethernet wing. I'll double check everything again. If I get this far, I don't think wiring has issues, right?

So my last hurdle: I'm not getting an IP and I think it is due to w5500 not having a mac address. Based on the code @damz pointed to, I wanted to use iface.config(mac=...) to assign mac address but mp complains that "mac" is not defined.

[liudr]

OK, finally, after reading the network library official doc, I noticed that mac needs to be in quotes to query value:

>>> iface.config('mac')
b'\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00'

Now I know which way the duck quacks (I really think duck type has this "you can't guess it right" shortfall vs c/c++ static type):
But then when assigning values, mac is not quoted:

>>> iface.config(mac=b'\x00\xb0\xd0\x63\xc2\x26')
>>> iface.ifconfig()
('192.168.0.220', '255.255.255.0', '192.168.0.1', '192.168.0.1')

Voila! I used a fake mac but will look into extracting primary mac from esp32 instead. I used to know how to do this in ESP-IDF with c calls. Now just need to figure this out with mp.

[WagnerMadeira]

@liudr Did it work for you? When I try to build with CONFIG_ETH_SPI_ETHERNET_W5500=y, I got a compilation error:

ports/esp32/network_lan.c:257:81: error: macro "ETH_W5500_DEFAULT_CONFIG"
 requires 2 arguments, but only 1 given
  257 |             eth_w5500_config_t chip_config = ETH_W5500_DEFAULT_CONFIG(spi_handle);
      |                                                                                 ^
In file included from /home/wagner/esp/esp-idf/components/esp_eth/include/esp_eth_driver.h:9,
                 from /home/wagner/esp/esp-idf/components/esp_eth/include/esp_eth.h:15,
                 from /home/wagner/esp/micropython/ports/esp32/network_lan.c:37:
/home/wagner/esp/esp-idf/components/esp_eth/include/esp_eth_mac.h:523: note: macro "ETH_W5500_DEFAULT_
CONFIG" defined here
  523 | #define ETH_W5500_DEFAULT_CONFIG(spi_host, spi_devcfg_p) \

It seems that micropython passes just one argument, but ESP-IDF expects two.

@jimmo / @robert-hh shall I use a different version of ESP-IDF?
I've followed instructions in https://github.com/micropython/micropython/tree/master/ports/esp32#readme and thus used v5.0.2.

Before trying with the new parameter, I've tested my environment building from unchanged files, everything run smooth, flashed it and got this prompt from ESPWROOM32:

MicroPython v1.22.0-preview.12.g516385c4c on 2023-10-16; Generic ESP32 module with ESP32
Type "help()" for more information.

Thanks a lot!

[liudr]

Thanks @jimmo Proper documentation is always highly appreciated as I hate to guess out things with source code. I'm a c/c++ developer with plenty of python experience but I've never written c/c++ code to make python stiff, i.e. the MP ESP32-IDF project.

For MP ESP32-IDF developers, is the VSCODE plugin working now? When I was working with IDF 3.3, there wasn't such plugins. Then when I transitioned to IDF 4.x (not yet 4.4), VSCODE plugin was there but broken so I used eclipse IDE with plugin, which is extremely slow. If getting set up with the development toolchain isn't too hard, I can dive in and dome some work. At least add some comments. The code as it stands, is very bare (minimal comments):

https://github.com/micropython/micropython/blob/master/ports/esp32/network_lan.c

[damz]

A working example is in this WIP MR for the Ribbit Network Sensor.

It is using the a POE Featherwing based on a W5500, attached to a Adafruit ESP32-S3 feather:

spi = machine.SPI(
    1,
    sck=machine.Pin(36),
    mosi=machine.Pin(35),
    miso=machine.Pin(37),
)

iface = network.LAN(
    phy_type=network.PHY_W5500,
    phy_addr=1,
    spi=spi,
    cs=machine.Pin(10),
    int=machine.Pin(12),
)

[jouellnyc]

Nice. Question. Is it really "int"? Isn't that a reserved keyword?

I do see an 'INT' on the wiznet module. And it seems like there is no need for RST (reset)?
On the wiznet docs for pico, they refer to RST - is esp32 different in that regard?

https://github.com/Wiznet/RP2040-HAT-MicroPython/blob/main/Ethernet%20Example%20Getting%20Started%20%5BMicropython%5D.md#ethernet-example-structure

#W5x00 chip init
def w5x00_init():
    spi=SPI(0,2_000_000, mosi=Pin(19),miso=Pin(16),sck=Pin(18))
    nic = network.WIZNET5K(spi,Pin(17),Pin(20)) #spi,cs,reset pin
    nic.active(True)
    nic.ifconfig(('192.168.1.20','255.255.255.0','192.168.1.1','8.8.8.8'))
    while not nic.isconnected():
        time.sleep(1)
        print(nic.regs())
    print(nic.ifconfig())

Asking because I have a T-display-S3 and it seems really close to working but not quite:

>>> spi = machine.SPI(2, sck=machine.Pin(12), mosi=machine.Pin(11), miso=machine.Pin(13))
>>> nic = network.LAN(phy_type=network.PHY_W5500, spi=spi, phy_addr=1, cs=machine.Pin(10), int=machine.Pin(3))
>>> nic.active(1)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
OSError: ethernet enable failed

And that parameter after 'cs' seems to be very flexible:

>>> nic = network.LAN(phy_type=network.PHY_W5500, spi=spi, phy_addr=1, cs=machine.Pin(10), whateveryoulike=machine.Pin(3))

[damz]

Other boards and SPI chip combinations (KSZ8851SNL, DM9051) should work in a similar way. You need to configure the SPI interface correctly, know the SPI address and the Chip Select pin, and typically you need an Interrupt pin from the chip, which some boards might or might not have wired up by default.

I only had access to this particular Adafruit Feather + POE Featherwing combination while implementing this, the rest of the support comes from the example implementation in ESP-IDF.

[liudr]

I used this before so it should work. The IQR pin is broken out on the 3-pin holes opposite of the RJ45 magjack. You can only see the silk screen printing on the top side. I may have soldered a wire to it. It's been a while but I did use one of these wings to expedite the wiring.

[beyonlo]

Hello @liudr

1. Is that red circle (IRQ) the interrupt pin so?
2. Is the interrupt pin mandatory/necessary for the SPI ethernet driver works? If not, I can to save one pin :)

Thank you very much!

[liudr]

I forgot how I did that prototype so I checked Adafruit's PCB design. Yes, that is the interrupt pin.
I don't know if this pin is required or not. The only way to check is the read the driver's code and find out whether the pin is used. Give the source code a look. Maybe you can find a clue.

[beyonlo]

@liudr As I see your experience was using the interrupt pin to works - it's ok, I will reasearch in the source code for more informations. But about the RST pin: in your tests was needed to use it to works or RST is really optional?

[liudr]

No I didn't use the RST pin. If you are designing for something that needs to be very reliable, you may have to use RST so your board can reset W5500 in case your board reboots.

[liudr]

Thank you @damz I have a standalone W5500 module I can test. Would you be willing to share a compiled .bin for ESP32 WROOM processors? Or is it possible to install or update the network component on a bin that has w5k not enabled? I have a regular ESP32 feather. I'll do my best to set up my toolchain to compile mp but that's really a long route to get this feature.

[jimmo]

Not sure I follow... All the networking support is enabled in the standard builds. You can use the official firmware from micropython.org/download
(Edit: See above, SPI MAC support is not enabled by default, but can be enabled with e.g. CONFIG_ETH_SPI_ETHERNET_W5500 in sdkconfig.board).

[liudr]

I forgot to ask. What is the preferred tool chain for mp development? Is it VSCODE or is it something else? I'm reading on contributor's guide etc. to hopefully figure that out. Is it the make method? I know it's popular but not so much with ESP-IDF since V3.3. Last time I checked, it was ninja. I also have a question on LANN8720 chips. With this chip, I must dedicate all 10 RMII pins to it, so only having about 14-16 pins left (depending on wrover or wroom), correct?

[karfas]

What is the preferred tool chain for mp development?

Is something unclear or misleading in https://github.com/micropython/micropython/tree/master/ports/esp32#readme ?

[liudr]

Yes, if you meant incomplete and making too many assumptions of the "contributor" background knowledge in linux and git. If you are contributing to that page, consider making a video, and have others critic on how complete these steps are.

[licsber]

Hope add CONFIG_ETH_SPI_ETHERNET_W5500 flag in GENERIC.

[liudr]

Did you have your prototype wired up, reboot, and start the lan8720, and also successfully flashed the dev board, with lan8720 connected to GPIO0? My concern is that using GPIO0 interferes with flashing, especially now with win 11 the timing of the CP2102N pin toggle has been changed, causing some older boards without a 1uF cap to not enter flash download mode. Plus, 9 pins is a lot if you need other interfaces for your project as well as more memory.

[WagnerMadeira]

I hope too. Was it included in version 1.21?

[hemakumarm72]

No, try to custom build

[liudr]

I wasn't aware of the 1.21 release until now. Too bad this is still not included. It's not a big ask to add a few lines especially the W5500 Ethernet hardware modules are widely available for devs to test their code and users to use in projects. There's even a raspberry pi pico with ethernet dev board that the manufacturer of W5500 is selling for a very easy test although not on ESP32. The lan8720 way costs too many pins!

[WagnerMadeira]

Yes, indeed. Anyway I'll try to follow your steps and custom build it. A long way to go for whom was exactly trying to avoid pains related to development in C while building a prototype.

[jouellnyc]

FWIW, https://github.com/przemobe/micropy-ENC28J60 works with the ENC28J60 adapter. I used "MicroPython v1.22.1" on a Raspberry Pi Pico, in case google brings anyone here. It was my first step with Ethernet and MicroPython and a solid one at that. ( I know it's not esp32 )