Mac OSX requirements

On Mac OSX you may need to install the device driver for the usb to serial converter chip to interface with your board.

For NodeMCU boards, you will need to install the SiLabs [serial driver for the chip](https://www.silabs.com/products/mcu/Pages/USBtoUARTBridgeVCPDrivers.aspx) ([direct link](https://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/Software/Mac_OSX_VCP_Driver.zip))

For Wemos D1 boards, you will need to intall the [CH340 USB to UART driver](https://www.wemos.cc/downloads) ([direct link](https://www.wemos.cc/downloads/CH34x_Install_mac.zip))

To just flash the image to the board, if the are no other serial devices installed

This is the simplest option, the utility will attempt to guess the serial port the device is on and flash it.

1. Plug the board into the usb port

2. Run the flash_esp_image utility without arguments.

$ flash_esp_image
esptool.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 --baud 115200 erase_flash
esptool.py v1.2.1
Connecting...
Running Cesanta flasher stub...
Erasing flash (this may take a while)...
Erase took 9.1 seconds
esptool.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 --baud 115200 write_flash --verify --flash_size=32m --flash_mode=qio 0 /tmp/cloudmanager-micropython-esp8266/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/cloudmanager_micropython_esp8266/firmware/firmware-combined.bin
esptool.py v1.2.1
Connecting...
Running Cesanta flasher stub...
Flash params set to 0x0040
Writing 557056 @ 0x0... 19456 (3 %)
557056 (100 %)
Wrote 557056 bytes at 0x0 in 48.3 seconds (92.3 kbit/s)...
Leaving...
Verifying just-written flash...
Verifying 0x8734c (553804) bytes @ 0x00000000 in flash against /tmp/cloudmanager-micropython-esp8266/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/cloudmanager_micropython_esp8266/firmware/firmware-combined.bin...
-- verify OK (digest matched)
$

The board should now be flashed with micropython and the micropython repl prompt will be available on the serial port.

Flash the board and configure it to automatically start as a cloudmanager client

1. Plug the board into the usb port

2. Run the flash_esp_image utility with the arguments to configure the network and cloudmanager.

The following example starts a cloudmanager server on the default port and tells the board to connect to wifi network “mywifi” using wpa password of “wifipassword” and register with a cloudmanager server at our address “192.168.1.127” running on the default port of “18266” as a device named “nodemcu1”

$ mbm server-start
$ mbm board-list
$ flash_esp_image --wifi_ssid mywifi --wifi_password mywifipassword --cloudmanager_server 192.168.1.127 --cloudmanager_port 18266 --name nodemcu1
esptool.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 --baud 115200 erase_flash
esptool.py v1.2.1
Connecting...
Running Cesanta flasher stub...
Erasing flash (this may take a while)...
Erase took 9.0 seconds
esptool.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 --baud 115200 write_flash --verify --flash_size=32m --flash_mode=qio 0 /tmp/cloudmanager-micropython-esp8266/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/cloudmanager_micropython_esp8266/firmware/firmware-combined.bin
esptool.py v1.2.1
Connecting...
Running Cesanta flasher stub...
Flash params set to 0x0040
Writing 557056 @ 0x0... 557056 (100 %)
Wrote 557056 bytes at 0x0 in 48.3 seconds (92.3 kbit/s)...
Leaving...
Verifying just-written flash...
Verifying 0x8734c (553804) bytes @ 0x00000000 in flash against /tmp/cloudmanager-micropython-esp8266/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/cloudmanager_micropython_esp8266/firmware/firmware-combined.bin...
-- verify OK (digest matched)
>>>
>>> import os
>>> os.mkdir('etc')
>>> from bootconfig.config import get, set
>>> set('wifi_ssid', 'mywifi')
>>> set('wifi_password', 'mywifipassword')
>>> set('redis_server', '192.168.1.127')
>>> set('redis_port', '18266')
>>> set('name', 'nodemcu1')
>>> import bootconfig.service
>>> bootconfig.service.autostart()
>>> import redis_cloudclient.service
>>> redis_cloudclient.service.autostart()
>>> import machine
>>> machine.reset()
$ mbm board-list
Platform   Name                                               State
esp8266    nodemcu1                                           idle
$

It’s now possible to use the mbm utility to upload/run code on the board.