Getting started with Vision Master E213

#1

Hello,

I’m trying to get started with the Vision Master E213.

  1. I installed Arduino IDE (2.3.6).
  2. I installed the Heltec ESP32 Dev-Boards library

After that, I’ve had some trouble getting examples to work. I did get something to compile and transferred to the device. However, “start debug” doesn’t work:

Open On-Chip Debugger v0.12.0-esp32-20241016 (2024-10-16-14:17)
Licensed under GNU GPL v2
For bug reports, read
        http://openocd.org/doc/doxygen/bugs.html
DEPRECATED! use 'gdb port', not 'gdb_port'
DEPRECATED! use 'tcl port' not 'tcl_port'
CDRTOSConfigure
Info : only one transport option; autoselecting 'jtag'
Info : esp_usb_jtag: VID set to 0x303a and PID to 0x1001
Info : esp_usb_jtag: capabilities descriptor set to 0x2000
Info : Listening on port 50001 for tcl connections
Info : Listening on port 50002 for telnet connections
Error: libusb_open() failed with LIBUSB_ERROR_NOT_FOUND
Error: esp_usb_jtag: could not find or open device!
C:/Users/User/AppData/Local/Arduino15/packages/esp32/tools/openocd-esp32/v0.12.0-esp32-20241016/bin/../share/openocd/scripts/target/esp_common.cfg:9: Error: 
at file "C:/Users/User/AppData/Local/Arduino15/packages/esp32/tools/openocd-esp32/v0.12.0-esp32-20241016/bin/../share/openocd/scripts/target/esp_common.cfg", line 9
[2025-05-26T05:03:30.231Z] SERVER CONSOLE DEBUG: onBackendConnect: gdb-server session closed
GDB server session ended. This terminal will be reused, waiting for next session to start...

I have no idea what to do here. Can someone help?

A. How can I get debugging work?
B. How can I simply start running whatever is on the device? I’m trying the minimal e-ink program but nothing has displayed.

Also, I noticed when I first plugged in the device, Windows recognized it as “Vision Master E213”. Now it just says “USB JTAG/serial debug unit”.

#2

A. Debugging on ESP32 is not something that we typically do here. I consider myself an advanced (not pro) user of the Espressif chips but honestly never tried actual full-blown debugging. You’re pretty much always able to resolve problems by using a bunch of evaluation statements, return codes and the ever-sweet Serial.printf(). What is the reason that you immediately try debugging when getting started with a certain device?
B. Any program is always automatically run whenever you press the RST button. And pretty much always immediately after uploading a program, since the esptool automatically resets the board once the upload is completed.

Since you uploaded a debug program, this will likely be the cause for your device turning up as USB JTAG. There’s also a bunch of options in the Tools dropdown menu in the Arduino IDE that manages the USB connection, one that includes the option for USB JTAG or something else.

If you are somewhat comfortable with the ESP32 in general, I would strongly recommend using your VME213 through the plain Arduino-ESP32 framework, not through Heltec’s own framework. If this is (one of) your first encounter with the ESP32, probably stick to Heltec framework to get started. But don’t start with using gdb-server and debugging.