Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Unveiling secrets of the ESP32: creating an open-source MAC layer

zeus.ugent.be

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 157 posts

Re: Unveiling secrets of the ESP32: creating an open-source MAC layer

#51

Post by 2Gkashmiri »

finnjohnsen2 wrote: post #13

I wasnt aware of this wifi blob. This feeds a tiny paranoia I have at the back of my head when dealing with esp32/espressif. I have dozens of esp32s around and I love them, but Espressif is 100% Chinese. Im uncomfortable with what I read that every company of significant size in China automatically requires CCP party members to be involved in the company at a high level. So Im very happy to hear people such as these…

Lol. The Chinese fud is pretty hard.

Do you know about this

https://www.swisscommunity.org/en/news-media/swiss-review/ar... https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/governments...

So... you are basing your fears on just that, hunches and yet presumably your own government is spying on others and maybe you but that doesnt bother you because USA /five eyes are the "good guys"

Re: Unveiling secrets of the ESP32: creating an open-source MAC layer

#53

Post by anigbrowl »

droptablemain wrote: post #25

I picked up an ESP32 devboard recently. I've always been intrigued by embedded but don't have a background in it at all. I have no idea what my first project should be. Any ideas?

Depending on the board and language support, a good first time project is syncing a real-time clock to NTP. At least that was my first one, followed by a wifi signal scanner. I was using MicroPython which is fast and easy, C is a little more work obviously.

Re: Unveiling secrets of the ESP32: creating an open-source MAC layer

#54

Post by SamBam »

asylteltine wrote: post #31
finnjohnsen2 wrote: post #13

I wasnt aware of this wifi blob. This feeds a tiny paranoia I have at the back of my head when dealing with esp32/espressif. I have dozens of esp32s around and I love them, but Espressif is 100% Chinese. Im uncomfortable with what I read that every company of significant size in China automatically requires CCP party members to be involved in the company at a high level. So Im very happy to hear people such as these…

I restrict my esps to local network only absolutely no internet access for them. No trust for Chinese products from Chinese companies

The vast majority of people who use ESP-32 smart devices, however, probably just give it the password to their WiFi.

Re: Unveiling secrets of the ESP32: creating an open-source MAC layer

#55

Post by halJordan »

2Gkashmiri wrote: post #51
finnjohnsen2 wrote: post #13

I wasnt aware of this wifi blob. This feeds a tiny paranoia I have at the back of my head when dealing with esp32/espressif. I have dozens of esp32s around and I love them, but Espressif is 100% Chinese. Im uncomfortable with what I read that every company of significant size in China automatically requires CCP party members to be involved in the company at a high level. So Im very happy to hear people such as these…

Lol. The Chinese fud is pretty hard. Do you know about this https://www.swisscommunity.org/en/news-media/swiss-review/ar... https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/governments... So... you are basing your fears on just that, hunches and yet presumably your own government is spying on others and maybe you but that doesnt bother you because USA /five eyes are the "good guys"

Thats a false dichotomy, a false equivalence- it's just a lot of false stuff

Re: Unveiling secrets of the ESP32: creating an open-source MAC layer

#56

Post by seba_dos1 »

gh02t wrote: post #50
vbezhenar wrote: post #38

What kind of programmer does one need to work with ESP32? I bought jlink for stm32 thinking that's the ultimate programmer for all my needs, however it does not claim compatibility with esp32.

They have a built in serial bootloader. Most dev boards don't need anything, they come with a USB-to-serial adapter. Some of the new ones even have the USB part integrated on chip. If you use a bare module then you need a basic 3.3V serial adapter and maybe a jumper wire to ground pin 0 to enter programming mode. You can also do stuff with JTAG, which will let you use a debugger, but that's not mandatory. Espressif s…

> Some of the new ones even have the USB part integrated on chip.

Worth noting that this includes JTAG over USB.

Re: Unveiling secrets of the ESP32: creating an open-source MAC layer

#57

Post by jacquesm »

SamBam wrote: post #54
asylteltine wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I restrict my esps to local network only absolutely no internet access for them. No trust for Chinese products from Chinese companies

The vast majority of people who use ESP-32 smart devices, however, probably just give it the password to their WiFi.

Some stick them on unrouted lans. But that may not preclude mesh like activity between restricted and unrestricted ESP-32's that are close enough to see each other.

Re: Unveiling secrets of the ESP32: creating an open-source MAC layer

#58

Post by jacquesm »

2Gkashmiri wrote: post #51
finnjohnsen2 wrote: post #13

I wasnt aware of this wifi blob. This feeds a tiny paranoia I have at the back of my head when dealing with esp32/espressif. I have dozens of esp32s around and I love them, but Espressif is 100% Chinese. Im uncomfortable with what I read that every company of significant size in China automatically requires CCP party members to be involved in the company at a high level. So Im very happy to hear people such as these…

Lol. The Chinese fud is pretty hard. Do you know about this https://www.swisscommunity.org/en/news-media/swiss-review/ar... https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/governments... So... you are basing your fears on just that, hunches and yet presumably your own government is spying on others and maybe you but that doesnt bother you because USA /five eyes are the "good guys"

No, the general assumption should be that any nation state will take advantage of this kind of opportunity, regardless of whether they are Western or Eastern.

Re: Unveiling secrets of the ESP32: creating an open-source MAC layer

#59

Post by jareklupinski »

adolph wrote: post #37
jareklupinski wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that second core is worth its weight in gold cant wait until they can make a dual-core risc-v but p.happy on the -s3

Dual core RISC-V? Presenting ESP32-C6: It consists of a high-performance (HP) 32-bit RISC-V processor, which can be clocked up to 160 MHz, and a low-power (LP) 32-bit RISC-V processor, which can be clocked up to 20 MHz. It has a 320KB ROM, a 512KB SRAM, and works with external flash. It comes with 30 (QFN40) or 22 (QFN32) programmable GPIOs, with support for SPI, UART, I2C, I2S, RMT, TWAI, PWM, SDIO, Motor Control PW…

oh sweet i didnt realize there was a module out https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Espressif-Systems/ESP32...

i prefer using dual-core designs over one uC for WiFi + one uC for realtime UI + TFT screens, so much cleaner and less hardware to worry about

literally porting the design i'm working on rn to that one :) ty!

Re: Unveiling secrets of the ESP32: creating an open-source MAC layer

#60

Post by calamari4065 »

throw0101b wrote: post #9
calamari4065 wrote: post #8

Wouldn't this invalidate the FCC certification on the prebuilt modules? You'd have to get certified with this firmware to ensure you aren't violating transmission power requirements. Admittedly, this is a non-issue for hobby scale projects, but is potentially a blocker for commercial applications. I wouldn't say it's necessarily a bad thing, but worth discussion.

> Wouldn't this invalidate the FCC certification on the prebuilt modules? MAC is at OSI Layer 2. FCC concerns about radio power occur at the PHY layer, OSI Layer 1: > On the ESP32, the PHY layer is implemented in hardware; most of the MAC layer is implemented in the proprietary blob. One notable exception to this separation is sending acknowlegement frame: if a device receives a frame, it should send a packet back to…

Huh, neat!
Post reply on HN