Any module with off the shelf OTA support?

[silverj]

It seems the WROOM are not it. It seems I need to have USB or serial to flash the first firmware for my projects.

Is there a reason the default firmware does not have 2xOTA partitions + 1 data when coming out the factory? I need to add a lot of support infrastructure just for this, and if someone adds those, repartitioning and doing whatever would be trivial - the reverse is absolutely not so.

Why have chipsets with perfect wireless support, and then require a lot of assist to get your actual code running on them?

W: ESP32-WROOM-32-S3 to support OTA firmware update when just powering it up correctly.

[ESP_Minatel]

Hi,


This is a matter about how your manufacturing process is. Usually, when you are manufacturing your project, one of the steps is the programming phase, when a test/programming JIG, for example, burns the firmware for the first time on an empty flash memory.
The ESP32 firmware must be burned at the factory during a mass production phase. Shipping the module with a pre-burned firmware it's not the best approach.

Your factory firmware could have the OTA functionality, but you need to flash it during the manufacturing process, which is very common to any manufacturer.

[ESP_Sprite]

OTA programming out of the factory comes with lots of issues... what AP to connect to? what partition and bootloader configuration to configure? Do we preconfigure any secureboot stuff, and if so, how to get the key material to the user? How to verify the OTA FW flashed into the chip actually does what it says; who knows, perhaps someone flashed something on the module that backdoors your firmware? Given the fact that most modules get flashed in the factory, as indicated by my colleague above, these problems also are not very high-priority to solve.

Note that if your order quantity is high enough (from memory 650pc MOQ, but don't quote me on that) you can also have your ESP32s flashed in the factory with any firmware you desire. I do know some companies use that to have a basic factory firmware in there that then (securily, as they can embed keys to their servers into the firmware) connect to their infrastructure to grab the actual firmware.