Environment/ESPTools

It makes sense to install a basic environment for tools like ESPTool, micropython and others. If you only plan to work with Arduino IDE this step can be skipped

# Virtualenv for Python

To not mess up your system Python environment it’s recommened to install virtualenv. Also istall a recent Version of python, 3.7/3.8 1

Python download from python.org

virtualenv download from pypa.io

Footnote 2 2

$ virtualenv -p python3.8 env38
Running virtualenv with interpreter /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.8/bin/python3.8
Also creating executable in /private/tmp/env38/bin/python
Installing setuptools, pip, wheel...
done.

$ source env38/bin/activate
(env38) $ python -V
Python 3.8.2

Install ESPTools directly

(env38) $ pip install esptools
[...]
(env38) $ esptool.py version‚

Note

ESPTools are needed to flash Firmware (unless you use Arduino) to FortiThing. For Example if you need to flash Micropython Firmware.

Install ESPTools in Docker


$ docker pull espressif/idf:latest Status: Downloaded newer image for espressif/idf:latest docker.io/espressif/idf:latest

This pulls “latest” IDF. You also can specify a specific Version, see https://hub.docker.com/r/espressif/idf/tags for available images.

1

Footnote test.

2

Footnote2 test.