Editing Tutorial Basics

= Getting Started with MicroPyton and ESP32/ESP8266 =
In this part of the tutorial, we explain how to get started with MicroPyton and ESP32/ESP8266. This includes how to write the firmware image on the microcontroller and how to use the python shell to interactively program the ESP32/ESP8266.

== Success criteria ==
* you have installed the uPyCraft IDE on your computer
* you have a serial line terminal working on your computer (e.g. Putty)
* you have written the firmware onto the ESP32 and the ESP8266 module
* you could connect via serial line to the ESP32 and the ESP8266 module and let the onboard LEDs blink from the python prompt

= Instructional Videos =

== Setting Up Software on Your Computer ==
For developing we use in our class the following software:
* [https://github.com/DFRobot/uPyCraft uPyCraft IDE] which requires  [https://www.python.org/downloads/ Python] to be installed
* [https://www.putty.org/ Putty] terminal program on Windows or any other terminal program
There is a short video on Youtube (4:20) that shows the software: https://youtu.be/DnBBB8AcvBg

<youtube>DnBBB8AcvBg</youtube>

Alternatively you can use:
* Jetbrains [https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/download Pycharm] IDE or [https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/download IntelliJ] IDE with the [https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/631-python Python plugin]
* [https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/9777-micropython Micropython plugin] to flash a file or a directory to the device and run the python terminal (REPL) on the device

== Writing the MicroPython Firmware Image to the ESP32/ESP8266 ==
* We use the [[uPyCraft IDE]] to write the images to the microcontroller, alternatively [[esptool.py]] can be used
* the firmware for the ESP32 is available at: http://micropython.org/download/esp32/
* the firmware for the ESP8266 is available at: http://micropython.org/download/esp8266/
In the video on Youtube (17:01) we show, how to write the firmware with the [[uPyCraft IDE]]: https://youtu.be/_TrKPDOReJc

<youtube>_TrKPDOReJc</youtube>


Here is a version that shows how to burn the firmware onto the ESP8266 D1 Mini board

<youtube>BkAhWlHeXqA</youtube>


And how to control the on-board LED on the ESP8266 D1 Mini board

<youtube>LYsFbSTZMBY</youtube>

== What could possibly go wrong when setting it up? ==
In the video on Youtube (10:32) we discuss different things that can go wrong when setting up MicroPython for ESP32/ESP8266: 
https://youtu.be/jhfURkMZVE

<youtube>jhfURkMZVEs</youtube>

== Unboxing the [[LMUBox]] ==
In this video (10:19), we have a look at the components that we are going to work in this course. We look a the selection of microcontrollers, input, and output components included the [[LMUBox]]: https://youtu.be/e3No4wGGQas 

We also have a [[Hardware List]] where the components are described and where there are links to the individual pages. 

<youtube>e3No4wGGQas</youtube>