No "Serial" Module

[samjulien]

Hi there. Windows 8.1 here. Followed the instructions on getting set up and receiving the following when trying to upload a blinking light sketch:

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino\hardware\espressif\esp32/tools/esptool.py", line 25, in <module>

    import serial

ImportError: No module named serial

exit status 1
Error compiling for board ESP32 Dev Module.

Any ideas?

P.S. Thanks for working on this port!

[MrAPierce]

Hi I had the same issue, you're missing pyserial. You can install pyserial via pip. Open CMD as Administrator and type: pip install pyserial

I believe that pip is installed by default when installing python, Pip should go and get pyserial and install it in the correct location. Restart Arduino IDE and Build, worked for me.

[samjulien]

Ah, excellent, thanks. Now it compiles and gives me:

esptool.py v2.0-dev
Connecting...

A fatal error occurred: Failed to connect to ESP32: Invalid head of packet ('f')

So that's something.

[MrAPierce]

That error seems related to uploading, double check that you are holding down boot button then pressing the reset button and then releasing both, then click upload (arrow button).

Does it compile by clicking the tick (verify) button?

[samjulien]

Yes, it compiles with the verify button, and yes, I'm doing the boot-and-reset press and upload. No dice. If I open the serial monitor at 115200 I do see some boot text and info about the wifi starting, so the device is alive. I've got flash frequency at 40MHz and flash speed at 115200, are those right? And does the programmer setting matter? I've got AVRISP mkII selected.

[MrAPierce]

These are the setting that work for me:

[samjulien]

Sorry for the delayed response - thanks for the screenshot. Still getting the same error for some reason. I'll keep tinkering.

[MrAPierce]

Hi @samjulien, did you have any luck getting this to work?

[sorscode]

Hi @samjulien, Did you by chance install the Silabs driver? I was able to get my Dev board working, once I go the driver install on Mac. I just finished testing PubSubClient on the ESP32, and it works good.

[samjulien]

@MrAPierce - not yet, still not sure what the problem is. I'm just uploading super simple LED blink code with an LED in pin 12 and a resistor to ground.

@sorscode - are these same drivers by Silabs used for the ESP8266? Googling "silabs esp32" took me to the same page of "CP210x USB to UART Bridge VCP Drivers," which I do have installed from working with the 8266.

Once I get this working I'm happy to submit a PR to the readme with anything pertinent. Definitely not just trying to be a pain, hoping to help out the larger community by being a guinea pig. :)

[sorscode]

@samjulien That would be the one. Which port do you have selected when uploading? I'm going to build a quick Windows 8.1 VM and test.

[samjulien]

Okay, cool, thanks. A buddy of mine pointed out that it's been several months since I installed those drivers for the ESP8266 and perhaps an update to them is in order, so I'll also give that a go and report back.

[samjulien]

Hmm, updated the drivers, took away the LED, did the boot mode dance, changed sketch to just empty setup and void loops - still no dice. Same invalid head of packet error. Settings are as you have it above. Weird.

[AnalogLamb]

Hi You need to install python2.7 and pyserial,

Please see here: https://learn.adafruit.com/arduino-lesson-17-email-sending-movement-detector/installing-python-and-pyserial

[tamberg]

+1 for AnalogLamb, see https://github.com/pyserial/pyserial, or just type pip install pyserial
then restart the Arduino IDE. Fixed it for me.

[samjulien]

Yeah, above I had already installed pyserial and was able to compile but got a different error. That was on Windows 8.1. I just got a new laptop with Windows 10 on it and will give this another shot soon.