Flash · over USB · firmware 0.13.6

A blank M5Paper, running in a minute.

This writes the bootloader, the partition table and the firmware straight to the device from this browser page. You do not need a toolchain, a build, or an account — an account is for afterwards, when you want the device to talk to the cloud. Nothing is uploaded from your machine; the images come from our firmware store and are checked against their published SHA-256 before anything is written.

1 · What gets written

Version

0x1000	bootloader.bin	second-stage bootloader	24.3 KB
0x8000	partitions.bin	partition table (default_16MB)	3.0 KB
0xe000	boot_app0.bin	otadata — boots the app0 slot	8.0 KB
0x10000	firmware.bin	PEPhone 0.13.6	3.74 MB

ESP32 · qio · 80m · 16MB · 3.78 MB total

2 · Connect the device

Plug the M5Paper into this computer with a USB-C cable, switch it on, then choose its serial port. On macOS it appears as a usbserial device; on Windows as a COM port. If nothing is listed, the cable is often the reason — some USB-C cables carry power only.

921600 baud

3 · Write it

Erase the whole chip first. Leave this off unless the device is misbehaving. It wipes WiFi credentials, the lock PIN, installed apps and the books volume — everything in flash, not just the firmware — and it adds a minute or two.

esptool output

Nothing yet. Everything the flasher does is printed here, verbatim.

If it goes wrong

No port in the list. Most often a charge-only USB-C cable. Try another cable before anything else.
Fails partway through. Drop the speed to 115200 and connect again. Some USB-serial chips are not reliable at 921600, and a failed write leaves the device exactly as it was.
Flashes, but the screen stays blank. Hold the side wheel to power on. E-ink keeps the last image drawn, so a device that is off can look like one that is broken.
Still stuck. Tick “erase the whole chip” and flash once more. That clears a corrupt partition table, at the cost of everything stored on the device.