Arduino ESP32 Core 3.0.0 Released, but PlatformIO Support Still in Question

Espressif Systems has now released a stable version of ESP32 Arduino Core 3.0.0 with support for ESP32-C6 and ESP32-H2 MCUs based on the ESP-IDF 5.1.4 framework. As usual, you can now use this latest version of IDF in your Arduino IDE, but at the time of writing it’s unclear whether PlatformIO will be (officially) supported.

The new 3.0.0 release includes many changes, like giving you more control in ESPDuino by letting you set CPU speed and partition. It also adds support for the WeAct Studio ESP32C3 board, which is exciting for people using that. There are a few fixes for things like ETH connections and SPI ETH so they work better. The team also updated the code a bit, cleaning up some old bits and fixing some bugs that might have caused issues before. They’ve made changes that specifically affect the Nano ESP32, GPIO pin mappings, and logging. They also updated a tool called merge_package.py to use packaging.version instead of the deprecated distutils.version.

The new 3.0.0 release is available on GitHub, and you can install it in the Arduino IDE just like you did for the Alpha2 version. It’s great news for Arduino IDE users because it now supports even more ESP32-C6 and ESP32-H2 boards out of the box. However, if you’re someone who prefers using PlatformIO, there might be a hiccup. There’s a discussion happening on the PlatformIO site about whether they’ll officially support this new Arduino ESP32 Core version, and it’s not looking too promising at the moment.

Although these discussions took place in late 2023, PlatformIO hasn’t officially added support for the Arduino ESP32 3.x release as of June 2024. However, there’s a glimmer of hope for PlatformIO users: one user found a way to get it working with their ESP32-C6 board using a custom JSON file. Whether this workaround works for everyone or provides full functionality remains unclear.

{
  "build": {
    "core": "esp32",
    "f_cpu": "160000000L",
    "f_flash": "80000000L",
    "flash_mode": "qio",
    "mcu": "esp32c6",
    "variant": "esp32c6"
  },
  "connectivity": [
    "wifi"
  ],
  "debug": {
    "openocd_target": "esp32c6.cfg"
  },
  "frameworks": [
    "arduino",
    "espidf"
  ],
  "name": "Espressif ESP32-C6",
  "upload": {
    "flash_size": "4MB",
    "maximum_ram_size": 327680,
    "maximum_size": 4194304,
    "require_upload_port": true,
    "speed": 460800
  },
  "url": "https://docs.espressif.com/projects/espressif-esp-dev-kits/en/latest/esp32c6/esp32-c6-devkitm-1/index.html",
  "vendor": "Espressif"
}

While it’s possible to use the new Arduino ESP32 Core 3.0.0 with PlatformIO, some users have reported that not everything works perfectly yet. We’ll need to wait and see if this improves over time.

For now, using Arduino ESP32 Core 3.0.0 with PlatformIO requires a bit of extra work. If the companies involved don’t reach an agreement soon, it’s unclear what the future holds for ESP32 development on PlatformIO. If you’re using older ESP32 boards or projects, there’s no need to worry. PlatformIO still fully supports Arduino ESP32 Core 2. x.

by cnx-software

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