ESP32 Multiple Access to update firmware

Questions & Answers
1

Hi there, I am an automation teacher in Brazil. I would like to know if your platform allows in the same mDash account, with several ESP-32, to be accessed by a group of people (e.g. pupils) once token is given to them, to update its firmware accordingly. In other way, if i set up 10 to 20 ESP32 i would wish the pupils to access the ESPs by their own home, taking into account that those ESPs will be configured and managed in my mDash account. Is this possible? Regards. Gilmar/Brazil.

2

With one mDash account you can have any number of devices assigned to your account.

The setup sequence would look something like this:

  1. Create a master mDash account for yourself
  2. You ‘add devices’ via the mDash console. Each device will be assigned a unique token
  3. Provision each ESP32 with a baseline firmware image and provision a unique token (or password) for each
  4. Distribute devices and enter WiFi credentials. At this point the should be able to connect to WiFi and the mDash cloud

At this point you can initiate remote FW OTA updates - the only caveat here is that the devices must be powered up and online to do so.

mDash works very well for managing a fleet of devices, be it for customers or pupils in your case.

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3

Firstly, thank you for your prompt reply.
One doubt i would like to address again: I wish, if possible, the pupils and me to modify/update the firmware of ESP-32 that are set up at my home, in my own WiFi network and at my own mDash account. In other way, following the procedures you have indicated, how each pupil will access each ESP-32 considering that each microcontroller will be configured by them if they are at my master mDash account? I think they could do that if the master mDash account could be shared with them? Am i right? The main point for me it is to allow the pupils to update firmware of ESPs i myself setup at mDash. Regards. Gilmar

4

Gilmar,

Let me see if I understand: You want to have all of the ESP32s physically located at your home (e.g. one device per student) and you want to enable each student to remotely update their one specific device remotely - is that correct?

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5

That´s Correctly. Due to COVID-19, students are at home and this feature would help a lot. Which means, a group able to update ESP32 firmware.
Kind Regards.

6

OK, that makes sense.

This arrangement is really like an upside-down version of the standard mDash model where you have one administrator that updates all of the remote client devices. In effect, you want all of the remote clients to update devices at one administrator’s site.

That in mind, one simplistic approach could be something like this:

  1. You would create a separate mDash account for each student with independent credentials.
  2. You would provision each of the devices independently (one per account), load a baseline image and verify the devices were online
  3. Lastly, you would distribute independent credentials to each student. You would want to keep a copy of these credentials so you could take over and reinitialize devices yourself if needed.

After doing all this, each student could update firmware for their specific device independently. There are also very useful tools on the mDash management console that are great for remote debugging: They can access shadow registers, read/write flash files, trigger RPCs, reboot devices, run SQL queries etc. all remotely. It’s quite powerful in that regard.

Hope that helps!
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