ESP32 sketch data upload for FAT file system

[thedub2001]

Arduino ESP32 filesystem uploader for FAT partition needed !

I discovered the FAT file system on ESP32 and compared performances with SPIFFS file system :

Using SPIFFS file system and SPIFFS_test sketch (serial output) :

Testing file I/O with /test.txt
writing................................................................
1048576 bytes written in 60708 ms
reading................................................................
1048576 bytes read in 830 ms≤

Using FAT file system and Ffat_test sketch (serial output) :

Testing file I/O with /test.txt
writing................................................................
1048576 bytes written in 13498 ms
reading................................................................
1048576 bytes read in 259 ms

It appears that FAT writing is 4,5 times quicker than SPIFFS writing
and FAT reading is 3 times quicker than SPIFFS reading

That's why I'am planning to use FAT file system because it's quicker and because the ESP-IDF uses it natively.

The only thing missing is a way to upload a file system like the "ESP32 Sketch Data Upload" plugin found at https://github.com/me-no-dev/arduino-esp32fs-plugin

Hardware:

Board : ESP-WROOM-32 Dev Module
Core Installation : 1.0.3
IDE name : Arduino IDE

[lbernstone]

See https://github.com/marcmerlin/esp32_fatfsimage.

[thedub2001]

Thanks for your quick answer!
The tool looks complete, is there a possibility to turn it as a plugin ?

[lbernstone]

Sure. Are you offering?

[thedub2001]

No sorry 😃
I just wanted to point out the need for this tool !
Thanks a lot for your work!!

[zekageri]

Ah i wanted to switch to FATFS so bad but because there are no plugins for it for arduino ide or PlatformIO i just can't use it. :( If there was a way to upload files to FATfs from browser like with SPIFFS i would be fine with that too.
Btw i have an ESP with 16MB flash and with SPIFFS it is slow A.F. I had to reduce the SPIFFS size to 1mb to work properly.

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[marcmerlin]

@thedub2001 sorry, the tool I published only works on linux (and I didn't write it, I just packaged it). For a plugin it should have to be done in java I think.
Obviously it fixes my problem, and I have had other things to keep me busy. Hopefully someone else can do this for the java IDE.

[magicmicros]

I just wrote a small python script to generate a filesystem e.t.c.
Should work on all platforms.
https://github.com/magicmicros/mk_espfat

[lbernstone]

@magicmicros : Your script will not work on esp32, as it does not include the wear levelling layer, used by the fatfs components.

[magicmicros]

I'm afraid you're mistaken, it's been working beautifully for a couple of weeks on a number of ESP32 boards.
The wear levelling might come into play AFTER a system has been created.
The initial filesystem will always be "clean".
I haven't read up on the wear levelling, but I'm pretty sure it's all done "outside" FAT, otherwise it would not be a FAT filesystem anymore.

There is no difference between the regular FFat.format() and the way I create the filesystem.
Well, except for my code not needed to to the same size calculations that the regular format does.

[lbernstone]

very interesting. I'll see what I can do about a plugin.