ESP32 Programmer Board

ESP PROG Connections

How ESP32 Programmer Works

Download & Install the Silab CP2102 USB Driver

You can download and install the driver from Silab’s website in case your PC doesn’t have a driver already installed.

After the driver is installed, when you plug the USB to RS485 converter into your PC’s USB port, one COM port will appear in Device Manager(for windows).

Connection with Custom Hardware

Packaging

An 8-Pin 90-degree angled male header is included in the package. Each unit is ~7.6 grams

ESP Prog is ESP32 Programmer board.

It can be used in multiple ways like use it for programming ESP8266, ESP32, or any other microcontroller which needs boot Pin and Reset Pin control along with UART RX, and TX for flashing the MCU with a new program.

Or, one can also use it as a USB to UART adapter.

We see many designs where developers put the USB to UART (with auto reset and boot) on their custom hardware so that with the same interface they will be able to reprogram the board as well in the production & field easily.

But, this is not recommended because this poses a risk.

Someone can hack your hardware to do something else with their own firmware, or break it easily to make you look bad in front of the customer, all these things happen in real life.

So, you should not have an easy way exposed, to reflash your MCU.

What you should do is, have a 6-pin connector(RX, TX, 3.3V, GND, EN, IO0) on the board and buy a programmer board to do the programming in the production. For the field to have a secured OTA or secured physical interface.