ESP32 connected to Arduino (a la Yun)?

[phatpaul]

This concept/model is difficult to search for because it is easily confused with the "Arduino functionality" already available for the ESP32. But I'm talking about a separate Arduino connected to the ESP32. The programming model should be similar to the Arduino Yun
https://store.arduino.cc/usa/arduino-yun-rev-2

or Linkit Smart 7688 Duo
http://labs.mediatek.com/en/platform/linkit-smart-7688

The ESP32 is connected to a microcontroller such as ATmega328P via UART and SPI (for ISP).

The ESP32 would
- host a web management interface for network settings (similar to LUCI on openWRT)
- webserver has CGI capability (via micropython or c) to add features which may interact with the microcontroller.
- ESP32 is able to flash the micrcontroller via the ISP interface and/or via a UART bootloader. Can flash the micro several ways:
- The ESP32 facilitates the connection from the Arduino IDE on developers PC to the microcontroller via IP.
- Web interface allows uploading of hex file.
- the connectivity between ESP32 and microcontroller can be defined by the developer, or use firmata or other library.

Benefits of this model
- A nice separation of WiFi/Eth networking stuff vs microcontroller functions.
- Able to OTA update. ( I know OTA is possible with ESP32 alone, but then the OTA logic and application are bundled together. This requires the new image also has working OTA functionality programmed in. -else you won't be able to update again in the future.).
- Program running on Arduino could have been written without any networking in mind.

Has anyone set this up on ESP32? I don't see any technical limitation.
Thoughts?

[ESP_Sprite]

Sure. I know that the ESP8266 has ESP-Link (https://github.com/jeelabs/esp-link) which seems to come close to what you want. Not sure if there's an equivalent for the ESP32.

[phatpaul]

Thanks! That's what I was looking for.
But I'm already committed to the ESP32 in my design (not ESP8266).

Seems odd that the developers of ESP-Link haven't considered porting to the ESP32 yet.
https://github.com/jeelabs/esp-link/iss ... 93&q=ESP32

Hopefully I can port some of the parts to my project.