Feb 7th, 2026 at 2:41am (UTC)
 
 

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Hot Topic (More than 8 Replies) Upload issues (Read 250 times)
HomerRamone
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Upload issues
Jan 29th, 2026 at 7:59pm
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Been away from Arduino tomfoolery for a while and have finally found time to go back to it.
I did buy visual micro a few years back, and it worked well so I thought I would grab the trial and get up and running again then buy another license.
Dug out my Arduino boards, installed the Arduino IDE, then VS 2026 and finally Visual Micro

Not having much luck in getting it working though.

First issue was figuring out which board I had - Its an ESP for sure - its got ESP 32 written on the chip Smiley 

But there are a lot of ESP 32 boards in the boards manager.

I sort of had success uploading via the Arduino IDE - created a sketch (albeit an empty one) and clicked upload. (Selected the board type as ESP32-WROOM-DA - not sure if that's correct).

Once its compiled it says connecting and tries to upload.. then fails:
Edited:
A fatal error occurred: Failed to connect to ESP32: Wrong boot mode detected (0x13)! The chip needs to be in download mode.


When I looked on the website listed in the error it says to press the BOOT button when it tries to connect. I did this with the Ard IDE and it looks to upload.
However when trying to run from VS, selecting the same board and pressing Build and Upload I don't get a chance to press the button.
I see
Edited:

Uploading 'Sketch1' to 'ESP32-WROOM-DA Module (esp32_esp32da)' using 'COM3'
esptool v5.1.0
Serial port COM3:

Then

Edited:

A fatal error occurred: Failed to connect to ESP32: Wrong boot mode detected (0x13)! The chip needs to be in download mode.
Connecting......................................
For troubleshooting steps visit: https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esptool/en/latest/troubleshooting.html
The uploader process failed


I also don't recall having to press a button on the ESP to upload/run a sketch (though I could be mistaken)
What am I missing ?

Oh and just in case I have the wrong driver... the driver I have installed as shown in device manager is 
Edited:
Silicon Labs CP210x USB to UART Bridge

Not sure this is correct either.
  
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Simon@Visual Micro
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Re: Upload issues
Reply #1 - Jan 30th, 2026 at 12:38pm
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Thanks for the report.

Quote:
First issue was figuring out which board I had - Its an ESP for sure - its got ESP 32 written on the chip

If you attach an image of the Module (with the silver casing) and the back of the board its mounted to we should be able to advise which specific board is best from the plethora of ESP32 boards now available.

Quote:
When I looked on the website listed in the error it says to press the BOOT button when it tries to connect.

With most ESP32 Boards there is a BOOT and RESET button.  If you hold down the BOOT button, then tap RESET while BOOT is held down, then release BOOT, it should leave the board in "Upload Mode" until either an upload completes or it is reset again.

If you do this with the Serial Monitor connected, you should see something like "waiting for download" when it is done right.

This is needed on some boards due to how the wiring/resistors are setup between the DTR/RTS lines and the EN pin, and how long they are asserted for in the software.

Let us know if this helps, and if you can get clear images of the board markings it should help further.
  
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HomerRamone
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Re: Upload issues
Reply #2 - Jan 30th, 2026 at 3:28pm
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Tried the reset with boot held.
Just gives me random characters:
Port closed
Opening port
Port open
&LQ�!��>

I also cant see a way to post a pic of the board Sad
  
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HomerRamone
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Re: Upload issues
Reply #3 - Jan 30th, 2026 at 3:30pm
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Aha
  
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Simon@Visual Micro
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Re: Upload issues
Reply #4 - Jan 30th, 2026 at 3:35pm
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Thanks for the image, and with the ESP32 board package installed I would expect the standard ESP32 Dev Module would be the best option.
  
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HomerRamone
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Re: Upload issues
Reply #5 - Jan 30th, 2026 at 3:56pm
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OK, progress. Ive managed to get it to upload by pressing the boot button after 
Serial port COM3:
appeared in the output window.
But I still can convince it to stay in that mode. Infact still just get random chars when I press and hold boot then press reset

  
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Acuario
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Re: Upload issues
Reply #6 - Jan 31st, 2026 at 5:00am
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Check the baud rate in the serial monitor and for upload, it should be 115200 in the serial monitor.
 
For the upload check in the vMicro menu Option 1 (probably), I think it defaults to 921600 but can be changed.

If you get garbage and upload failures it can be related to this.
And in your sketch; 

void setup()
{
    Serial.begin(115200);

.
.
.
  
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HomerRamone
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Re: Upload issues
Reply #7 - Jan 31st, 2026 at 10:22am
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Change the settings so upload speed is now 115200.

My sketch has 
Serial.begin(115200);
in the startup.
When I hold boot and press reset I can see this in the serial monitor:

Edited:
rst:0x1 (POWERON_RESET),boot:0x3 (DOWNLOAD_BOOT(UART0/UART1/SDIO_REI_REO_V2))
waiting for download


So far so good.
Click build and upload and it builds.. followed by
Edited:
Uploading 'Blink' to 'ESP32 Dev Module(esp32_esp32)' using 'COM3'
Uploader started for board ESP32 Dev Module(esp32_esp32)
Upload method will be: bootloader
Uploading via Bootloader 
tool.exe --chip esp32 --port "COM3" --baud 115200 --before default-reset --after hard-reset write-flash -z --flash-mode keep --flash-freq keep --flash-size keep 0x1000 otloader.bin" 0x8000 rtitions.bin" 0xe000 s/partitions/boot_app0.bin" 0x10000 n"
esptool v5.1.0
Serial port COM3:
Connecting......................................
A fatal error occurred: Failed to connect to ESP32: Wrong boot mode detected (0x13)! The chip needs to be in download mode.
  
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HomerRamone
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Re: Upload issues
Reply #8 - Jan 31st, 2026 at 10:36am
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I Also tried another board (same brand etc but still in the packet) in case the was something amiss there. Same result Sad 
  
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Acuario
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Re: Upload issues
Reply #9 - Feb 1st, 2026 at 4:41am
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Whenever i get strange problems with a board I use the Expressif flash download tool to erase the chip. It usually works. Then I return to VS/VM for the upload.

In my case it is found here on an Arduino install:

h_download_tool_3.9.5.exe

If that doesn´t sort it out for me then it´s recycle time.

  
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