ESP32-S2 Beta Preview Support¶
The current master branch of ESP-IDF (pre-V4.1) contains preview support for ESP32-S2 Beta.
The ESP32-S2 Beta chip is not the same as the final ESP32-S2, the Beta chip is a limited engineering sample and as a result not all features are available.
Software support is still being developed ahead of the final ESP32-S2 release (see Limitations and Roadmap sections below).
Documentation¶
Except where it specifically mentions ESP32-S2, this version of the ESP-IDF Programming Guide is written for ESP32 only. Most software APIs and components are the same or very similar for ESP32-S2, but differences may not be documented yet.
Setting up for ESP32-S2 Beta¶
To start with, follow the Get Started guide to configure the CMake-based build system for ESP32.
When running install.sh or install.bat as part of the Get Started guide, the ESP32-S2 toolchain will be automatically downloaded and added to the IDF Tools directory. If you had already run install.sh or install.bat before updating to a version with ESP32-S2 support, you may need to re-run it.
The toolchain tuple is xtensa-esp32s2-elf-, for example the GCC compiler for this target is named xtensa-esp32s2-elf-gcc.
Manual toolchain URLs¶
If not using install.sh or install.bat, you can download the manual toolchain manually from here:
If installing the toolchain manually, unpack it somewhere and add the bin subdirectory to your PATH.
Building a project for ESP32-S2 Beta¶
Important
Not all ESP-IDF examples support ESP32-S2 Beta.
For some examples this is because required hardware is not included in ESP32-S2 so it cannot be supported. For some examples this is because the example has not yet been updated for ESP32-S2.
If building an example, please check the example CMakeLists.txt file for the clause SUPPORTED_TARGETS esp32. If this is present, the example won’t work on ESP32-S2.
Before building an ESP-IDF project, run the following command to switch the target to ESP32-S2 Beta:
idf.py set-target esp32s2beta
Important
Running set-target will clear the project configuration and create a new empty sdkconfig file for the project. The old configuration will be saved in sdkconfig.old.
Then configure the project:
idf.py menuconfig
Important
There are 3 versions of ESP32-S2 Beta engineering sample available with different Wi-Fi PHYs. They can be identified by the marking on the chip itself. The project must be configured to match the chip via the project setting “ESP32-S2 Beta chip version” (CONFIG_ESP32S2_BETA_CHIP_VERSION). This can be found under Component Config -> ESP32S2-specific. If the project setting doesn’t match the chip then Wi-Fi performance may be very poor, or the chip may crash when initializing Wi-Fi.
Build and flash the project as usual, for example:
idf.py -p PORT flash monitor
Consult the Get Started guide for more details on building and flashing an ESP-IDF project.
Note
It is possible to set the project target back to ESP32 by running idf.py set-target esp32. This also clears the project configuration.
Limitations¶
ESP32-S2 Beta support is currently a preview and does not support all features. Espressif firmware developers are working hard on the remaining support, so please update the master branch regularly to receive the latest code.
The integrated USB OTG peripheral is not supported
Documentation not updated for ESP32-S2 in most places
Peripheral drivers are a work in progress
No power saving modes
No hardware security features or cryptographic accelerator support
Time-of-Flight (TOF) measurements with normal Wi-Fi packets is not supported
Roadmap¶
ESP-IDF V4.1 will support ESP32-S2 Beta chip as a preview with some limitations.
ESP-IDF V4.2 will support ESP32-S2.
Support for ESP32-S2 Beta will be removed from ESP-IDF once ESP32-S2 is available.
Issues¶
If you find issues which are not mentioned in Limitations, please open an issue on GitHub.
Please make sure to mention that you are using the ESP32-S2 Beta preview support and give your exact version of ESP-IDF.