node-esp

An ESP8266 command line interface.

Flash NodeMcu firmware on a ESP8266 board, administer the file system and more.

Currently only Mac OS is fully supported.

Prerequisites

This module depends on SiLabs USB to UART bridge drivers. If you don't have them already installed, here you can find and download the driver.

Note that after installing the drivers you will have to restart your computer.

Currently it assumes that you have Python and pip installed.

Install

$ npm i -g node-esp

After installing or any time after upgrading the module, you have to set the name of the serial port we will use to communicate with the hardware.

This should list all available ports:

$ esp port list
┌────────────────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Port Name                              │ Manufacturer                           │
├────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ /dev/cu.Bluetooth-Incoming-Port        │                                        │
├────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ /dev/cu.Bluetooth-Modem                │                                        │
├────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ /dev/cu.gPhone                         │                                        │
├────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ /dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART                 │ Silicon Labs                           │
└────────────────────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────────────────┘

The last one is the SiLabs driver we installed, so, to set it:

$ esp port set /dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART
Port: /dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART

Installation Errors

Here are some common errors during the installation process and their quick fix.

npm i -g node-esp fails:

It could be a permissions issue. Regardless, if you run the following command on your terminal you wont break anything. Then install node-esp again.

sudo chown -R $(whoami) $(npm config get prefix)/{lib/node_modules,bin,share}`

If you see a similar error output to this, you might have to install pip.

Checking dependencies for esptool.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named pip
child_process.js:518
    throw err;
    ^

Error: Command failed: python -c 'import pip; packages = pip.get_installed_distributions(); package_list = ["%s" % (i.key) for i in packages]; print(package_list)'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named pipo

    at checkExecSyncError (child_process.js:475:13)
    at execSync (child_process.js:515:13)
    at Module.module.exports (/Users/peperone/node-esp/scripts/postinstall:15:31)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/Users/peperone/node-esp/scripts/postinstall:25:8)
    at Module._compile (module.js:541:32)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:550:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:458:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (module.js:417:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:409:3)
    at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:575:10)

Just run the following command from terminal:

sudo easy_install pip

If you see a similar error, but the package is pyserial:

ImportError: No module named pyserial

Just run the following command from terminal:

sudo easy_install pyserial

Usage

To show a list of available commands and their description:

$ esp --help

The basic command format is as follows:

$ esp <command> [subcommand] [options]

Commands

port

port set

Sets the name of the serial port to use in future commands.

$ esp port set /dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART

port get

Displays the current port that is used.

$ esp port get
Port: /dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART

port list

Shows a list of all available ports:

$ esp port get
┌────────────────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Port Name                              │ Manufacturer                           │
├────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ /dev/cu.Bluetooth-Incoming-Port        │                                        │
├────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ /dev/cu.Bluetooth-Modem                │                                        │
├────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ /dev/cu.gPhone                         │                                        │
├────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ /dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART                 │ Silicon Labs                           │
└────────────────────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────────────────┘

file

file list

Lists the sizes and names of all files on the module.

$ esp file list
┌────────────────────────────────────────┬────────────────────┐
│ File                                   │ Size (bytes)       │
├────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────┤
│ hello_world.lua                        │ 24                 │
└────────────────────────────────────────┴────────────────────┘

file write <local_filename> [<remote_filename>]

Writes a file from the local file system to the module.

If a second filename is given, the local file will be renamed to this value on the device, else it will keep its local name.

$ esp file write ./app_init.lua init.lua

file push <local_filename> [<remote_filename>]

Alternative to esp file write that compress the file if they are of any of the following types:

• Lua
• HTML
• JavaScript
• CSS.

$ esp file push ./webserver.lua init.lua

file read <remote_filename>

Displays the content of a file from the module.

$ esp file read hello_world.lua
print("Hello World!")

file execute <remote_filename>

Executes the content of a Lua file on the module, returns the output.

$ esp file execute hello_world.lua
Hello World!

file remove <remote_filename>

Removes a file from the module.

$ esp file remove test.lua

restart

restart

Restarts the module.

$ esp restart

run

run <lua>

Runs Lua code on the module, returns the output.

$ esp run "print 'And all the insects ceased in honor of the moon.'"
And all the insects ceased in honor of the moon.

monitor

monitor

Displays the data received from the serial port.

$ esp monitor
Displaying output from port /dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART
Press ^C to stop.

fs

File system commands.

fs info

Shows information about the file system.

$ esp fs info

Total : 3381221 bytes
Used  : 502 bytes
Remain: 3380719 bytes

fs format

Formats the file system removing all user files.

$ esp fs format

info

info heap

$ esp fs format

info flash

Available flash memory.

$ esp info flash

info build

Build information.

• majorVer (number)
• minorVer (number)
• devVer (number)
• chipid (number)
• flashid (number)
• flashsize (number)
• flashmode (number)
• flashspeed (number)

$ esp info build

info chip

Returns chip id number.

$ esp info chip

wifi

wifi restore

$ esp wifi restore

wifi getip

$ esp wifi getip

esptool

Provides a helper command to flash a board using esptool

esptool flash <firmware>

The <firmware> parameter should be a valid path to a NodeMCU binary file.

$ esp esptool flash <firmware>

Roadmap

Use: https://github.com/inikulin/elegant-status

Add features:

• repl (figure out if monitor is the same?)
• compile lua files to lc (is luac -o app.lc app.lua the same as if we do on ESPLorer?)
• Handle errors
• Lua:
  • lint
  • precompile
• Restore WiFi settings: node.restore()
• Handle Esptool python error: busy port
• For HTML/CSS/JS files we might want to keep dir structure.
• Move scripts/esptool.py to it's own directory scripts/esptool/esptool.py.

License

MIT