PlatformIO Open Source May Updates

PlatformIO Core bugfix release, Support for the latest ESP-IDF, Updated Arduino cores Espressif32 and Microchip AVR/megaAVR

Valerii Koval

Head of System Integration at PlatformIO Labs

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Welcome to the May 2023 updates of PlatformIO Open Source professional collaborative platform for embedded development.

This month we received a lot of helpful feedback from our community, which let us identify the most important parts of our OSS ecosystem that required our attention, so there are plenty of updates pushed in this month that we hope you will like.

During May, we published a bugfix release for PlatformIO Core, added support for the latest ESP-IDF v5.0.2, rolled out updates for the Espressif32 and Microchip AVR/megaAVR development platforms, resolved a lot of issues. Some of the key highlights include:

• PlatformIO Core 6.1.7
• ESP-IDF v5.0.2
• Espressif32 dev-platform v6.3
• Microchip AVR dev-platform v4.2
• Microchip megaAVR dev-platform v1.9

PlatformIO Core 6.1.7

PlatformIO Core is the heart of the whole PlatformIO ecosystem and we are excited to announce the next v6.1.7 release with lots of great improvements and bugfixes:

• Introduced a new --sample-code option to the pio project init command, which allows users to include sample code in the newly created project
• Added validation for project working environment names to ensure that they only contain lowercase letters a-z, numbers 0-9, and special characters _ (underscore) and - (hyphen)
• Added the ability to show a detailed library dependency tree only in verbose mode, which can help you understand the relationship between libraries and troubleshoot issues more effectively (issue #4517)
• Added the ability to run only the device monitor when using the pio run -t monitor command, saving you time and resources by skipping the build process
• Implemented a new feature to store device monitor logs in the project’s logs folder, making it easier to access and review device monitor logs for your projects (issue #4596)
• Improved support for projects located on Windows network drives, including Network Shared Folder, Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, and other similar services (issue #3417)
• Improved source file filtering functionality for the Static Code Analysis feature, making it easier to analyze only the code you need to
• Upgraded the build engine to the latest version of SCons (4.5.2) to improve build performance, reliability, and compatibility with other tools and systems (release notes)
• Implemented a fix for shell injection vulnerabilities when converting INO files to CPP, ensuring your code is safe and secure (issue #4532)
• Restored the project generator for the NetBeans IDE, providing you with more flexibility and options for your development workflow
• Resolved installation issues with PIO Remote on Raspberry Pi and other small form-factor PCs (issue #4425, issue #4493, issue #4607)
• Resolved an issue where the build_cache_dir setting was not being recognized consistently across multiple environments (issue #4574)
• Resolved an issue where organization details could not be updated using the pio org update command
• Resolved an issue where the incorrect debugging environment was generated for VSCode in “Auto” mode (issue #4597)
• Resolved an issue where native tests would fail if a custom program name was specified (issue #4546)
• Resolved an issue where the PlatformIO Debugging solution was not escaping the tool installation process into MI2 correctly (issue #4565)
• Resolved an issue where multiple targets were not executed sequentially (issue #4604)
• Resolved an issue where upgrading PlatformIO Core fails on Windows with Python 3.11 (issue #4540)

See Release Notes for more detailed information and use pio upgrade command to update to the latest version.

ESP-IDF v5.0.2

We’re happy to announce updated support for the latest patch update of ESP-IDF v5.0.2 - the official development framework for the ESP32, ESP32-S and ESP32-C Series SoCs. It provides a self-sufficient SDK for any generic application development on these platforms, using programming languages such as C and C++. ESP-IDF currently powers millions of devices in the field, and enables building a variety of network-connected products, ranging from simple light bulbs and toys to big appliances and industrial devices.

Major enhancements in v5.0.2:

• Support BLE privacy by controller
• Added custom GATT server functionality and encryption
• Improved the handling of station SA query procedures

More information on project configuration for ESP-IDF can be found here.

Related resources for ESP-IDF:

• Release notes for v5.0.2
• Documentation for ESP-IDF
• Supported boards

Espressif32 dev-platform v6.3

The new release of the Espressif 32 dev-platform brings support for the latest ESP-IDF v5.0.2, updated Arduino core v2.0.9 and several minor fixes and improvements:

• Added support for Arduino v2.0.9 (release notes)
• Added support for ESP-IDF v5.0.2 (release notes)
• Better handling of macros exported from the IDF build system (#1080)
• Improved integration with the upstream version of ESP32 Arduino core (#1092)
• Fixed flash memory size for ESP32S3 CAM LCD board (#1095)

See Release Notes for more detailed information.

Related resources for the Espressif32 dev-platform:

• Documentation
• Project Examples

Microchip AVR dev-platform v4.2

The latest release of the Microchip AVR v4.2.0 comes with updates for highly customizable Arduino cores by MCUdude and initial support for the Urboot bootloader:

• Updated MCUdude’s cores (#302):
  • MajorCore v2.2.2 (release notes)
  • MegaCore v2.2.3 (release notes)
  • MightyCore v2.2.2 (release notes)
  • MiniCore v2.2.2 (release notes)
  • MicroCore v2.3.0 (release notes)
• Added initial support for the Urboot bootloader for MicroCore (#311)
• Fixed an issue with missing tool-avrdude package when bootloader target is selected (#269)

See Release Notes for more detailed information.

Related resources for the Microchip AVR dev-platform:

• Documentation
• Project Examples

Microchip megaAVR dev-platform v1.9

The new release of the Microchip megaAVR v1.9.0 brings several updated Arduino cores:

• Updated MegaCoreX to v1.1.2 (release notes)
• Updated megatinycore to v2.6.7 (release notes)
• Updated Arduino core to v1.8.8 (release notes)

Related resources for the Microchip megaAVR dev-platform:

• Documentation
• Project Examples

Stay in touch with us

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Valerii Koval

Published on 5th Jun 2023

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