JC3248W535 - board not recognized after flashing firmware

[de-dh]

Describe the bug

I tried to build the firmware for the JC3248W535 today following @straga instructions. I used WSL for building.
The building and flashing was successfull. However, the board is not recognized correctly after flashing the firmware and I can't access it (see first image).

Images
Board not recognized correctly (the board can not be accessed by clicking on an entry, it produces an error):

Board is correctly recognized after flashing an older firmware build (02.06.2025).

Build Command

python3 make.py esp32 BOARD=ESP32_GENERIC_S3 BOARD_VARIANT=SPIRAM_OCT --flash-size=16

Flash

python -m esptool --chip esp32s3 --port COM7 -b 460800 --before default_reset --after hard_reset write_flash --flash_mode dio --flash_size 16MB --flash_freq 80m --erase-all 0x0 lvgl_micropython/build/lvgl_micropy_ESP32_GENERIC_S3-SPIRAM_OCT-16.bin

Any ideas?

[kdschlosser]

Does your board have 2 USB ports?

If it does have you tried plugging into the other USB port?

If it doesn't and only have one USB port is that USB port is connected to a UART to USB bridge IC then you need to add a couple of extra parameters to your build command.

python3 make.py esp32 BOARD=ESP32_GENERIC_S3 BOARD_VARIANT=SPIRAM_OCT --enable-cdc-repl=n --enable-uart-rep=y --enable-jtag-repl=n --flash-size=16

[de-dh]

No, it has just one USB port.

I tried your build command and unfortunately I still get the same error.

[kdschlosser]

what I am seeing from your images is that the port is set up as a USB JTAG port which means that the connection from the ESP32 to the USB is using the native USB built into the S3. We need to use USB CDC and not UART.

Try this build command instead...

python3 make.py esp32 BOARD=ESP32_GENERIC_S3 BOARD_VARIANT=SPIRAM_OCT --enable-cdc-repl=y --enable-uart-rep=n --enable-jtag-repl=n --flash-size=16

Do me a favor and verify that the port is showing up in the device manager as well. You said you are using WSL so that means that you are running windows. How are you flashing the ESP32 from Windows or from WSL? I recommend you use USB/IP and forward the USB port from Windows over to your WSL installation and flash it from inside of WSL. Once you flash it then you can disable the port forwarding to WSL and see if it shows up in Windows properly. I recommend using a program like Putty to connect. Thonny doesn't play nice 100% of the time so doing a double check with another terminal program is always a good thing to do.

[de-dh]

Thank you, I will try this. What I don't understand is why the board is recognized properly when it's flashed with earlier builds of the firmware. I've also tested another JC3248W535 board. It's also not recognized properly when flashed with the current firmware build.

The board is shown in the device manager and I flash it using windows cmd + esptool. I never had problems with this setup until now. Same goes for Thonny. I know that most people don't like it, but I'm not that skilled with software development and I like it's simple usage.
I'll try to flash from WSL and use putty.

[kdschlosser]

earlier versions might also be using an earlier version of micropython. Not too long ago there were a lot of changes that were made to how micropython handles the usb connection.

[de-dh]

I think thats the problem. I'm trying to use older versions of the binding. Thanks anyway.

[ctan10]

I have the same board and had the same problem. You need to connect your usb cable to the usb port, hold GPIO0 LOW, do a RESET and then release GPIO0 ( these 2 push buttons are available at the back of the board. Then you should see the usb serial port appear on Device Manager without any errors. Then open up the flash download tool provided and burn the orginal bin file provided to get back to your original state.

[de-dh]

Thank you, I already did that. I was able to compile a working firmware image from commit af5263c on Jun 4th. I was able to integrate @straga 's new spi driver #451 and it works with 90° rotation.
The breaking changes must have been introduced shortly after Jun 4th.

[ctan10]

You are welcome. Glad it work.

[straga]

Update branch build and flash today: