ESP32-WROOM-32E external flash W25Q256JVEIQ_TR issues

[dcarlson]

Hi All,
I have connected an external flash IC specifically the W25Q256JVEIQ_TR (see attached schematic for connections). The plan is to use this instead of the internal flash for on the ESP32-WROOM-32E module. I have used the espefuse.py to move the spi chip select pin to gpio 33 and also set the internal flash reg to 3.3v. As 1.8v isn't given to an external module pin and I don't have room for a separate 1.8V reg so I've used a 3.3v external flash.
These are the following commands used:

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espefuse.py --port COM8 burn_efuse SPI_PAD_CONFIG_CLK 6 SPI_PAD_CONFIG_Q 7 SPI_PAD_CONFIG_D 8 SPI_PAD_CONFIG_HD 9 SPI_PAD_CONFIG_CS0 33

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espefuse.py --port COM8 burn_efuse XPD_SDIO_REG 1 XPD_SDIO_TIEH 1 XPD_SDIO_FORCE 1

please see attached for snapshots of the connections on the schematic.




I now am left with not being able to program the device at all with the following error message.

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WARNING: Failed to communicate with the flash chip, read/write operations will fail. Try checking the chip connections or removing any other hardware connected to IOs.
Configuring flash size...
Flash will be erased from 0x00001000 to 0x00007fff...
Flash will be erased from 0x00010000 to 0x0003ffff...
Flash will be erased from 0x00008000 to 0x00008fff...
Compressed 26640 bytes to 16689...

A fatal error occurred: Packet content transfer stopped (received 8 bytes)
CMake Error at run_serial_tool.cmake:66 (message):

  C:/Espressif/python_env/idf5.1_py3.11_env/Scripts/python.exe;;C:/Espressif/frameworks/esp-idf-v5.1.2/components/esptool_py/esptool/esptool.py;--chip;esp32
  failed.

My current line of thinking is the internal flash is not 3.3v tolerant and hence switching the flash vreg to 3.3v and trying to program the external flash is causing issues with the signals and the internal flash being over voltage.

Any ideas?

Best regards Dan

[ESP_Sprite]

Yeah, if the internal flash is 1.8V it's not gonna like being run at 3.3V. Aside from that, the CS of the internal flash might be floating (I can't see your schematic) so you need to connect that to VCC. But even if you fix that, I wouldn't trust a system that runs a component out of spec by that much.