This is a placeholder topic for “FireBeetle 2 ESP32-C5 IoT Development Board (2.4 / 5GHz Wi-Fi 6, Solar Charging, Home Assistant)” comments.
FireBeetle 2 ESP32-C5 IoT microcontroller, powered by a 240 MHz RISC-V processor (Espressif ESP32-C5 chip), features dual-band (2.4 & 5 GHz) Wi-Fi 6,…
Read moreHey, I purchased the Firebeetle 2-C5 and have had no luck flashing it to ESPhome, I’ve googled, I’ve YouTubed, but still no luck. Anything obvious that I’m doing wrong?
Hey there, @Rick177910, and welcome to the forum.
Couple of quick questions:
Hi Jane
I admitI am not up to speed properly with all this ESP32 etc business.
BUT. How do you “Flash” one ESP32 device with another ESP32.
I have beed under the impression (could be erroneously) that you “Flash” things like an operating system, boot loader or firmware which is a sort of semi permanent situation. NOT one processor with another, what are you “Flashing”??
Could be 100% wrong here so feel free to correct.
Cheers Bob
Hey Robert,
ESP-Home is service that manages ESP32 instances around the home.
I interpreted Rick’s comment, perhaps erroneously, as meaning that while he could flash firmware to the board, he was unable to get the board to connect to ESP-Home. However, I wanted to ask a few questions to ensure that I was correct in that conclusion.
Hi Jane
I probably interpreted the post as it is written
That looks to me like Rick wanted to “Flash” one WSP32 to another ESP32. I just wondered about “Flashing” an ESP32, like the whole thing.
I think you are right though and maybe Rick worded his query a bit ambiguously.
Cheers Bob
Hi Jane,
Thanks for getting back to me
I’m using a USB cable, i bought a new one just to check the cable isn’t faulty
I’m using ESPHome in Home Assistant to set it up
The process stops after i connect in ESPHome, Press Install for first use, It tries to connect then comes up “Fails to Initialise”
I’m just trying to eliminate if i have a faulty board, or I’m doing something dumb
Hi Bob,
I’m trying to set up a new ESP32 for ESPHome on Home Assistant. I’m not trying to copy one
Hi Rick
Take little notice of my ravings. Just getting old that’s all.
I have zero experience with ESPHome or ESP32 for that matter but When I read your query it just looked a bit strange, hence my question re “Flashing”
Now that is pretty well cleared up I will humbly leave you in the expert’s (Jane) capable hands to guide you forward.
Cheers Bob
Haha, Cheers
Hi Rick. I use Home Assistant with ESPHome and ESP32-S3’s. I like the idea of Firebeetles for remote IoT applications with LiPo and Solar built-in. Also the ESP32-C5 has 5GHz Wi-Fi, so I expect it to become very popular … but after using the S3 (N16R8) the amount of RAM & flash on the C5 seems tiny.
I note that the C5 is now listed by ESPHome as supported, though being such a new chip, that might have been added with today’s ESPHome update.
While Core is convenient local source for so many items, unfortunately they are much more Arduino oriented than ESP32, so I suspect Jane may be a little out of her depth with ESPHome. I would suggest the Home Assistant Community / ESPHome forum for queries such as yours.
A quick search for ESP32-C5 revealed this thread in the Hardware section, which may be relevant.
Hey champ,
Firstly if you are using a modern Apple Mac and you connect the cable with the board, it will ask you if you want to connect the device.. possible mentioning something like usb serial … you will need to say yes to that.
Secondly if you are using the wrong browser you wont get any love out of esphome
You can try connecting the board to the system running home assistant (eg, if you have a PI plug it directly into the pi, you will see a new serial port appear in the hardware list in HA)
I often tell folks to grab the Arduino IDE and try connecting to the board and flashing a BLINK using your cable… this will confirm your cable is fine. You will also see the serial is working there.
sometimes you need to hold down the BOOT button while going through that FLASH stage… (if thats the case you need to hold down the BOOT button while plugging in power, and keep it held down till you are actually connected and flashing)
now lets talk basic ESPHOME…
select the “+new device” then press “new device setup” then enter a single word like ‘donkey’ or something… click next.. select your device from the ist of devices… now this is where things are interesting because… in esphome dev (updated about a week ago) I see no esp32-c5 which means you will be using esp32 or esp32-c6 (but you will only get 2.4 and no 5ghz)…
NOW CLICK SKIP!
This means… DO NOT INSTALL and dont worry about that encryption key.. you are learning… we want an easier job not a harder one at the moment, once you have a solid system and install, you can add encryption keys… click skip
now you will have a ‘device’ that is offline in your esphome list…
click edit on that device…
we will delete the encryption key…
scroll down to the OTA section….
IMPORTANT - DELETE the password for OTA…
next up you want to add the line
web_server:
at the very bottom under captive portal
you can TRY this install…
it might work for an esp32-c5 … but probably not… this is because they havent added support for the c5 yet… you can however switch back to adrino and build in there, there are a LOT of really good examples inbuilt…
in adrino ide you will need to add the espressif repo and select your board first, then the examples will populate for you
to do this you add the line
https://espressif.github.io/arduino-esp32/package_esp32_dev_index.json
to your boards manager (Arduino IDE → settings → additional bards manager URLs:
put in their esp32 packages… and now you can select the board (tools menu) as ESP32C5 DEV MODULE and it will populate with examples in the file menu
have fun…
hey @Rick177910 ,
Looks like you are on the right track! I second the suggestion to try to upload a basic example to your ESP32-C5 using the Arduino IDE, just to make sure there are no issues with the connection between your computer and the board.
It looks like the manufacturer has a guide for connecting this board to Home Assistant using MQTT, which should work for you:
Let us know how you go!
Hey Asher,
Thanks for the chat, i have successfully written a blink script to the esp using arduino IDE, I now have a red led on pin28 flashing at me 
and I’m confident now that the bard isn’t faulty, my USB is ok, the driver is ok and the LED is ok at least half the time 
Now back to ESPhome…
I’m using a PC, I’m using Chrome as my browser, I haven’t had any issues with any other part of home assistant.
I plugged the ESP into the raspberry PI and it communicates with it. Interestingly… the “charge” light is on when its plugged into the PI which wasn’t on when it was in the computer, I wonder if the port on my computer doesn’t deliver enough power, or the right voltage.
I think I now just have to get the -C5 board into ESPhome and i might be on the right track
Thanks for your tips
R
Hey Folks!
Looks like we are on the right track with this one. If it’s flashed and connected initially for OTA updates, it should be a pretty easy step from there.
Just to add: the Home Assistant / ESPHome forum is definitely an excellent place to ask these kinds of questions, and you’ll often get very fast, detailed answers there.
That said, the team here are makers as well, and while we don’t yet have Home Assistant guides, we do have hands-on experience using HA/ESPHome in our own projects (everything from environmental sensors like the BME680 to whole-home Voice Assistant setups). So we are always happy to help or weigh in with suggestions for HA projects.
Cheers,
Blayden
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