No core updates available

Official Hardware Nano Family Nano ESP32
1

Hello,

I am using the IDE 2.3.2 for my Arduino Nano ESP32. I have installed the Arduino Core 2.0.13. Currently the Core is 2.0.16. I have not received an update until today. Even if I select "Updateable" in the Board Manager myself, nothing is offered. What is the problem?

2

The problem might be with your internet, IDE settings, compatibility, IDE bugs, or update mechanism. Try fixing these or manually downloading the update from Arduino's website.

3

The current Espressif ESP32 core is 2.0.16 but I assume that the Arduino ESP32 core includes more functionality, indeed I am sure that it does, so it is perhaps not a surprise that the two cores are not in step

Are you having any problems that you think might need fixing with an update ?

4

Hi,

Am I misunderstanding this?
Isn't that the Arduino ESP Core? Or is it not?
arduino-esp32/releases/tag/2.0.16

Even when I install the Espressif Core I only get v2.0.11.

So. you say the Arduino Core 2.0.13 is the current version? And the Espressif Core 2.0.11 is the current version?

The core versions are generally very mixed up. Shouldn't Espressif actually be doing the development together with Arduino.cc? Then why is Espressif lagging behind the Arduino core? If anything, it should be the other way around.

5

In IDE 2.3.2 I have the Espressif 2.0.16 core installed. It was updated earlier today

I could also install the Arduino ESP32 2.0.13 core but as I don't have a Nano ESP32 board there is no point in me doing it

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6

Hi,

The Arduino ESP Core is still up to date with 2.0.13?
I have uninstalled the Espressif Core 2.0.11. I do not get a newer version displayed.

I had understood that both cores are always the same. With the difference that the Arduino core only contains its own Nano ESP32 and everything else is missing.

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Additional question.
Why is the C++ standard for the Arduino ESP with gcc 8.4.0 set to C++11? It could be set to C++17 for everyone without any problems.

7

Hi @Doc_Arduino.

Arduino added the 3rd party "esp32" boards platform to the index that provides the default list of platforms offered by Boards Manager. This is something Arduino has done from time to time as a favor to people they are partnering on in initiatives related to the partner's boards. Unfortunately the system for keeping this updated is manual and the developers who maintain Arduino's Boards Manager backend infrastructure have not remembered to add entries for the new releases. This is the reason why the 2.0.12-2.0.16 releases of the "esp32" boards platform are not offered in your Boards Manager.

I have submitted a formal report about the situation to the developers.

For now, if you need to use ESP32 boards (with the exception of the Nano ESP32, which has a dedicated platform), please use the official installation procedure documented by Espressif (the manufacturer of the ESP32 microcontroller):

https://docs.espressif.com/projects/arduino-esp32/en/latest/installing.html#installing-using-arduino-ide

That is correct.

Arduino's "Arduino ESP32 Boards" platform is a fork of Espressif's "esp32" platform. This means that the "Arduino ESP32 Boards" platform is based on the "esp32" platform, but with some modifications (as you noted). It is likely that the maintainers of the "Arduino ESP32 Boards" platform will follow the versioning of the "esp32" platform in their releases, but that doesn't guarantee that there will be a release of the "Arduino ESP32 Boards" platform in tandem with each release of the "esp32" platform, for the following reasons:

  • Making a release is a manual process and it might take some time for the people responsible for such a task find time to do it.
  • The change set shipped by a given release of the "esp32" platform might be completely irrelevant to the Nano ESP32 board and thus Arduino might decide that there is no point in making a release of "Arduino ESP32 Boards" for that version, since it would only result in the thousands of Nano ESP32 board users to have to perform a platform update that doesn't actually provide any benefit.

So just make sure to install whatever is the latest version of the "Arduino ESP32 Boards" platform offered by Boards Manager and update it whenever Arduino IDE notifies you a new version is available and you'll be set.

They did you one better and jumped straight to C++20:

That change was introduced into the "esp32" boards platform here:

That is not included in the 2.0.16 releases. Despite your "without any problems" assurance this change is indeed potentially disruptive and so the maintainers of the "esp32" boards platform have decided that it will be released as part of a major version bump 3.0.0. Pre-release versions of "esp32" platform version 3.0.0 are already available for beta testing, and those versions of the platform do have support for the Nano ESP32 board so you are welcome to give the pre-release a try (keeping in mind that it is only intended to allow the community to contribute to the development effort through beta testing; no for everyday use, and that there is no guarantee of stability or official support from Arduino for pre-release users).

You can get the pre-release version of the "esp32" boards platform by following the installation instructions I mentioned earlier in this post, but using the "development release link" URL provided in those instructions instead of the "stable release link" URL as we normally use.

2 Likes
8

Looking further, I see they have actually now moved even further to C++23:

1 Like
9

Hi,

Thank you very much. :+1: