Flashing Custom Firmware on ANAVI Light Controller
ANAVI Light Contoller is an open source hardware development board and as the name suggests it controls 12V RGB LED strip and retrieves data from various I2C sensor modules for temperature, humidity, light and gestures. In this tutorial you will learn how to create and flash your own custom firmware via Arduino IDE.
ANAVI Light Controller is powered by the popular microctoroller ESP8266. GPIO0 of ESP8266 is connected to the button called SW1. Furthermore there is a small red indication LED marked as D1. In order to flash a new firmware on ANAVI Light Controller you need USB to UART serial debug cable and a 12V power supply.
Step 1: Arduino IDE
Install Arduino IDE on your computer and open it. Select Tools > Board: Generic ESP8266 Module. Make sure that the following configurations are applied. You might need to adjust the port if your USB to serial debug cable is connected on a different port of your computer.
Ensure that the board is turned off. Connect ground of the USB to UART debug cable to ground of ANAVI Light Controller. After that connect RX to TX and TX to RX.
Step 4: Upload
In Arduino IDE click Verify/Compile (Ctrl+R). Wait until your sketch compiles.
Now again in Arduino IDE click Upload. Press and hold button SW1 on ANAVI Light Controller. Plug the 12V power supply in the jack of ANAVI Light Controller without releasing the button. This is the most important and tricky part. I repeat hold the button and plug the power supply without releasing it.
In Arduino IDE verify that the upload has been started. If the upload is going on you can now release the button. Don’t release it before that.
Success
That's all! If you have flashed the blinking LED example from the GitHub repository, D1 on ANAVI Light Controller with start blinking as shown in the video.
