DemiRGB firmware

Prerequisites

To upgrade the firmware, you will need a computer and a USB A to Micro-B cable to access the D1 Mini’s serial interface. Linux distributions should already have the necessary USB serial drivers, but on Windows and MacOS, you will need to download and install the drivers from here.

You will also need esptool, which – as of this writing – will work on either Python 2.7 or Python 3.4+, and can be installed via pip install esptool. Most Linux distribution should come preinstalled with Python 2.7 or Python 3.4+ (or both). MacOS comes with Python 2.7. On Windows, download and install Python 3 for Windows.

Firmware upgrades

First, erase the device:

esptool.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 erase_flash

Then write the new firmware to it:

esptool.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 write_flash --flash_size=detect 0 demirgb-firmware-v0.4.1.bin

esptool.py will automatically reset the device after writing the firmware. The device will perform some first boot functions, then start flashing the blue diagnostic LED when it is done. When it’s done, reset the device and enter setup mode to reconfigure network settings as described here.

Serial console

To access the MicroPython REPL (serial console), you will need a terminal program. On Windows, PuTTY is recommended; configure for the COM port of the USB serial driver (check Device Manager for that), 115200 baud, 8-N-1. On Linux and MacOS, picocom is recommended and should be available in your distribution’s package manager (and in MacOS’s case, Homebrew). To run:

$ picocom -b 115200 /dev/ttyUSB0  # Replace with device name of USB serial adapter

The DemiRGB will be in its main loop normally. To break out of it and reach the REPL, press Ctrl-C.

Download

• demirgb-firmware-v0.4.1.bin - 563KiB, released 2018-09-23
• demirgb-firmware-v0.4.bin - 562KiB, released 2018-09-23
• demirgb-firmware-v0.3.bin - 562KiB, released 2018-02-04
• demirgb-firmware-v0.2.bin - 578KiB, released 2018-01-29

Firmware version notes

Version 0.4.1

• Identified in API output as “v1.9.4-2-gdf4bfeb on 2018-09-23”

Changes

• Recompiled again MicroPython 1.9.4; no functionality differences versus firmware 0.4.

Version 0.4

• Identified in API output as “v1.9.3-2-gcc27dcb on 2018-09-23”

Changes

• HTTP API state will be recalculated if JTLVI has been used.
• Removed fixed brightness_scale option.
• HSV level may now be a float.
• Fixed race condition causing crash if syslog_host is enabled and wifi connects slow.

Version 0.3

• Identified in API output as “v1.9.3-2-g3941fab on 2018-02-04”

Changes

• Setup mode fixes and usability tweaks.
• Added UDP JTLVI server for instant arbitrary sets.
• Added a “savestate” command.
• Added a “gamma” state option for gamma correction (default 1.0).

Version 0.2

• Identified in API output as “v1.9.3-3-gb451748 on 2018-01-29”

Known issues

• When fading between colors or intensities, sometimes it will momentarily get stuck on a certain color mid-fade. It will eventually switch to the desired final color and intensity, however.
• [Fixed in v0.3] When entering setup mode for the first time, click the checkbox to enable the Wifi client, click Submit, wait for it to reboot, then reboot back into setup mode and enter the ESSID and password. Trying to enable and set the details at the same time will silently fail.
• [Fixed in v0.3] If you set a device password, you must re-enter it every time a change is made in setup mode, or the password will be lost.