As I promised in my workshop during "Lodzkie Dni Informatyki," this is the first entry that will be all about setup and pre-work.

This short post will walk you through all the required hardware and software to start your journey with ESP32 and cloud IoT.

Photo by XPS / Unsplash

Software

Let's start with the software and review all the necessary elements.

Source code editor

Let's start with source code editor - my personal preference is Visual Studio Code. I am using it from the beginning - 5 years already. You can find it here, Visual Studio Code - Code Editing. Redefined.

The main reasons are:

  • it's a browser-based (you can debug it easily)
  • plugins are great
  • it supports multiple languages and environments (Linux, Win, and Mac)

As recommended plugins, I would start with:

  • Espressif IDF - espressif.esp-idf-extension
  • C/C++ - ms-vscode.cpptools

Basic tools

Since I will be using "Espressif IDF" as prerequisites, we need are:

As an optional, I would recommend:

Toolchains

Installing the Espressif IDF toolchain using the VS Code plugin is the simplest way of doing it.

Small notice for Windows users: If your home path has whitespace, you may experience issues. To avoid it, please use different folders.

The gif below summarizes the installation process. More info https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/en/stable/get-started/#get-started-get-esp-idf

Hardware

Devkit

I would personally suggest buying a few devkit modules f.e  ESP32-DevKitC-32U.

ESP32-DevKitC-32U

USB A / micro USB B cable

USB connectivity seems to be the only "magic" part that I didn't figure out yet; some cables works; some don't. Please test it case by case.

Different charging cables.
Photo by Halacious / Unsplash

Serial connection drives and troubleshooting - https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/en/stable/get-started/establish-serial-connection.html

Please share your progress in the comments, and see you next time.