I’ll start with my priority question, then summarize a few things I’ve learned that might be of interest. Q: How do I convince git to update the esp-idf branch? I grabbed the v2.1 release branch and built it without any obvious errors, but I don’t know how to pull or otherwise check that I have the latest. Here’s a snapshot of my current state: $ git status HEAD detached at origin/release/v2.1 nothing to commit, working directory clean $ git branch * (detached from origin/release/v2.1) master $ git pull remote: Counting objects: 189, done. remote: Compressing objects: 100% (50/50), done. remote: Total 189 (delta 141), reused 185 (delta 137), pack-reused 0 Receiving objects: 100% (189/189), 27.68 KiB | 0 bytes/s, done. Resolving deltas: 100% (141/141), completed with 55 local objects. From https://github.com/espressif/esp-idf e6afe28..de750e9 master -> origin/master You are not currently on a branch. Please specify which branch you want to merge with. See git-pull(1) for details. git pull <remote> <branch> $ git pull You are not currently on a branch. Please specify which branch you want to merge with. See git-pull(1) for details. git pull <remote> <branch> $ A: After reading the warnings about the Silicon Labs driver crashes, I decided to host my efforts on OS X Yosemite, 10.10.5, instead of any newer macOS. Therefore, I installed the legacy driver. So far, I’ve not had any problems. I’m able to connect to the OVMS v3 and communicate. I am using a cheap, $4.99 Full Speed USB hub (unpowered, because I’m too lazy to hunt for the wall wart adaptor). I realize that a powered hub is recommended, but I’ve not had any issues yet. B: Those of you who may not be familiar with the ‘screen’ application might be interested to read that I am able to connect to the USB serial converter using that program without running ‘make monitor’ - the only drawback is that I have to type Control-j instead of return/enter (but that might be resolved by another command line option that I’m not familiar with yet). The command is ‘screen /dev/tty.SLAB_USBtoUART 115200’ I’m avoiding /dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART because I assume it might activate the RTS / DTR / etc lines and cause unexpected results. C: I’m often quite paranoid about checking that new hardware is functional before I try building my own firmware, erasing any existing firmware, and therefore basically avoid trying too many steps in the first volley. Although I’ve build the esp-idf environment, I haven’t run ‘make monitor’ yet, so I was happy to see that the OVMS v3 shipped with a working firmware already installed (*). Using the ‘screen’ command detailed above, I am able to connect to the device, turn on the wifi, and execute commands. OVMS > ota status Firmware: 3.0.0/factory/main build (idf v2.1-2-g7138fb02) Sep 21 2017 20:33:27 Running partition: factory Boot partition: factory OVMS > wifi mode ap TR25 Starting WIFI as access point... I (575846) system_api: Base MAC address is not set, read default base MAC address from BLK0 of EFUSE I (575846) system_api: Base MAC address is not set, read default base MAC address from BLK0 of EFUSE W (576526) phy_init: failed to load RF calibration data (0x1102), falling back to full calibration I (576706) phy: phy_version: 355.1, 59464c5, Jun 14 2017, 20:25:06, 0, 2 I (575846) wifi: wifi firmware version: 407bb27 I (575846) wifi: config NVS flash: enabled I (575846) wifi: config nano formating: disabled I (575866) wifi: Init dynamic tx buffer num: 32 I (575866) wifi: Init dynamic rx buffer num: 32 I (575866) wifi: wifi driver task: 3ffe9ad8, prio:23, stack:4096 I (575866) wifi: Init static rx buffer num: 10 I (575866) wifi: Init dynamic rx buffer num: 32 I (575866) wifi: Init rx ampdu len mblock:7 I (575866) wifi: Init lldesc rx ampdu entry mblock:4 I (575866) wifi: wifi power manager task: 0x3ffef880 prio: 21 stack: 2560 I (576526) wifi: wifi timer task: 3fff0af0, prio:22, stack:3584 I (576706) wifi: mode : softAP (30:ae:a4:37:25:85) I (576716) ovms-mdns: Launching MDNS service [Join...] I (643136) wifi: n:1 0, o:1 0, ap:1 1, sta:255 255, prof:1 I (643146) wifi: station: f4:5c:89:a3:64:cd join, AID=1, g, 20 [Leave...] I (789976) wifi: station: f4:5c:89:a3:64:cd leave, AID = 1 I (789976) wifi: n:1 0, o:1 0, ap:1 1, sta:255 255, prof:1 D: My next step is obviously to build the latest OVMS v3 firmware from git. I’m not having any trouble pulling the latest source updates because we’re not working on a branch, and it’s much easier to use git commands when working from the head / master (at least for me - I’m way more familiar with Subversion). Brian Willoughby * I don’t know whether Mark had to manually install the OVMS v3 firmware on each of these preliminary units, or if the assembly / manufacturing process is already set up to install an initial firmware on new boards. Either way, it’s nice that it didn’t arrive with a blank Flash!