Rust ESP32 Community Meeting 2021-11-23

[georgik]

Please add topics and links to this discussion.

The meeting is scheduled 23rd November 2021 - 4pm CET/GMT+1 via Google Meet. The meeting invite is automatically sent to attendees of previous meetings. If you'd like to join, please notify us at https://matrix.to/#/#esp-rs-community-meetins:matrix.org

You can find information from previous meeting at https://github.com/esp-rs/rust/discussions

[georgik]

Updates:

• lessons learned from RustZX-ESP32 - https://github.com/georgik/rustzx-esp32
  • problem with second thread in Rust on ESP - SPI does not work, unable to move, workaround single-thread, disable watchdogs
  • improved code and refactoring - thanks to @ivmarkov
  • test of native build on GitHub using Actions, published in releases: https://github.com/georgik/rustzx-esp32/blob/main/.github/workflows/build-rustzx-esp32-on-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-dispatch.yaml
  • improving performance of S2/S3 - increase CPU speed, SPI optimisations in sdkconfig
  • missing support for flashing partition table in espflash, workaround esptool.py - https://github.com/georgik/rustzx-esp32/blob/main/Flash-RustZX.ps1#L42
  • question: any recommended crates for handling input? BT keyboard, buttons, USB
  • note: USB support for USB OTG S3 is in development in ESP-IDF
• Windows 11 updates
  • recommendation: Use embedded Python instead of System Python from Microsoft Store
  • Python from Microsoft Store might "disappear" and requires reinstall of the Python
• embuild - ESP-IDF limitation
  • not possible to move the directory when ESP-IDF is inside (known limitation of ESP-IDF, requires clean build)
  • request to support the use of activated ESP-IDF for native build - Support for starting build in activated ESP-IDF environment esp-idf-sys#36
• using Rust with native build on gitpod.io
  • make sure to unset or change variable PIP_USER to no
  • ESP-IDF fails to initialise Python virtualenv when the value is set to yes - Installation of ESP-IDF fails when environment contains variable PIP_USER=yes - error: Can not perform a '--user' install (IDFGH-6237) espressif/esp-idf#7910
• Ubuntu 18
  • not possible to build std-demo - Ubuntu shipped with Python 3.6.9 - minimal requirement 3.7
• idf-env
  • Windows - updated deployment of Rust 1.56.0.1 toolchain
  • minimal bootstrap requirements: Windows 10 SDK, MSVC C++ tools (part of Visual Studio Community installation)
  • installer 2.12 released: https://github.com/espressif/idf-installer/releases/tag/online-2.12

[pedrominatel]

Hi all! I'll not be able to join tomorrow's meeting due to another appointment. Sorry!

Rust ESP32-C3 board

Updates:

• Created the basic KiCad 5 project configuration for the ESP-RS board (name to be defined).
• Need to define the HW license (CERN OHL ?)
• BMI160 is no longer available on the market, I suggest moving to BHI160 (no crate available yet).
• Need to define the pin layout (Adafruit Feather is an option).

For more details about the board, follow the brainstorming here: esp-rs/esp-rust-board#2

[jessebraham]

I've worked on accelerometer drivers in Rust before so I'm more than happy to implement one for whichever device we ultimately select, should it be necessary.

[jessebraham]

espflash

• serial port auto-detection feature has been merged
• compilation target argument is actually passed to the compiler now
• connection retry logic (with alternating delay length) has been merged
• fixed upstream issue in slip_codec, fixing the progress bar output

SVD

• new releases for ESP32-C3 and ESP32-S2
  • Mostly just minor changes/fixes

Miscellaneous

• started writing a driver for the RM68210 display driver
  • this is present on the ESP32-S2 HMI Kit
  • doesn't do much of anything yet :)
  • https://github.com/jessebraham/rm68120

[MabezDev]

probe-rs

• PR for esp32c3 jtag has landed in master.
• Improvements to riscv debugging, actually getting stack traces now. Tracking: Tracking Issue: Unwinding support for RISCV probe-rs/probe-rs#877

tls

• I've poked rust-tls-native upstream to see whether we can add support for mbedtls for espidf os.
• Fall back to openssl wrapper if denied.

xtensa-lx-rt

• I would appreciate some feedback on the approach, and questions outlined in Unify & feature gate Xtensa asm xtensa-lx-rt#27
  • Maybe it would be better to just use the xtensa overlay headers & a C compiler to create the asm, then link to it in Rust?

[ivmarkov]

@MabezDev - old effort here: sfackler/rust-native-tls#142

[ivmarkov]

Also this one: fortanix/rust-mbedtls#3

[JurajSadel]

espflash and Windows

• Not working in windows espflash#74

• missing reset sequence for USB serial JTAG(?), from esptool https://github.com/espressif/esptool/blob/master/esptool.py#L564

[ivmarkov]

• SNTP wrapper here (UPDATE: It is actually a contribution from a Rust community member - thanks @ForsakenHarmony !)

• (WIP) Captive Portal here. Implemented using the domain Rust crate and STD (i.e. no ESP-IDF-specific APIs) (idea is also coming from @ForsakenHarmony)

• (WIP) Redesign of the HTTPD server finally taking shape here and here. Really, really difficult and time-consuming as it is based on GATs + HRTBs and the latest nightly still crashes and/or gets stuck eating all available RAM on some constructs.

  • Why? (In theory) less allocation pressure (though ESP-IDF HTTP code does allocate a bit). Trait based.

• GitHub-based OTA - no progress.

All of the above ^^^ efforts (+ another effort - a web-based UI in Rust for embedded devices - edge-frame) should help us build a much more comprehensive demo that (a) does something for real (b) can auto-update its firmware (c) has a Web-based UI and (d) can do some simple provisioning using a Captive Portal.