1. Choose your gate type
36 glyphs
39 glyphs
39 glyphs
39 glyphs
39 glyphs
2. Choose your LED wiring
This depends on how your gate's PCB is wired, not on the gate model. If your glyphs, chevrons and event horizon are each on their own separate LED strip (their own data pin), choose Multiple LED strips — this is the default for most builds. If everything is wired on one continuous LED strip (a single data pin for the whole gate), choose Single LED strip instead. When in doubt, count the data wires going into your ESP32 for the LEDs.
3. Connect & flash
Disconnect the LED strips and the sound module from the board, or plug in the gate's own power supply. Writing the flash draws short current peaks, and a USB port feeding the strips as well can dip just enough to corrupt the write.
Plug in your ESP32 via USB to this computer.
Click the button below and select the serial port of your ESP32.
The firmware will be flashed automatically. This takes about 60 seconds.
Make sure the DRV8825 and buck converter are already calibrated (see the build tutorial) before powering this board on for the first time.
This firmware variant has not been published yet. Check back soon, or reach out on Discord.
Test firmware available for this gate. The dev channel carries builds that are still being tried out — newer fixes, but less mileage. Pick it only if you are helping test, or if a known issue of yours is fixed there. You can always come back and flash the official build again.
Keep your gate's memory. When you click the button, the installer
shows an “Erase device” dialog with an “Erase
device” checkbox. Leave that box unchecked and click
Next: the firmware is replaced and everything else is kept — your
gate's network identity (and with it your naquadah balance, favourites and gate
address), your WiFi and broker credentials, your LED calibration and your sound pack.
Only check Erase device for a brand-new board, or if you deliberately want
to start over: a full erase gives the gate a new identity, and the
old one — with its balance and progress — does not come back.
Select a gate type above to continue.
4. Configure WiFi
After flashing, unplug and replug your ESP32. It will create a WiFi hotspot named Stargate-Config.
Connect to it with your phone or laptop and follow the captive portal to enter your WiFi credentials and MQTT settings.
Once configured, your gate will reboot and connect to the OpenGate network automatically.
Troubleshooting
My ESP32 doesn't show up in the port picker
By far the most common cause: missing USB drivers. Most ESP32 boards use a Silicon Labs CP210x chip to talk over USB. Without the driver, your computer can't see it as a serial port at all — so it simply won't appear when you click the flash button, even though the cable is plugged in correctly.
Fix (mainly needed on Windows):
- Download the CP210x Universal Windows Driver from Silicon Labs: silabs.com – USB to UART Bridge VCP Drivers
- Extract the downloaded zip file.
- Right-click
silabser.infinside it and choose Install. - Unplug and replug your ESP32.
- Refresh this page and try flashing again.
macOS and Linux usually handle this chip without extra setup, but if the port still doesn't show up there either, the same page above also has drivers for those platforms.
Flashing stopped partway through — “Failed to write compressed data to flash”
If the error mentions status 193, that is the ESP32 itself reporting
ESP_BAD_DATA_CHECKSUM: the data it received over USB did not match what your
browser sent. The firmware is fine — the bytes were damaged on the way in. The two
usual causes are a power dip on the board and a poor USB
link.
Your gate is not bricked. Flash memory is rewritable, and only the firmware area was being written — so as long as you leave Erase device unchecked, your gate keeps its identity, WiFi settings, LED calibration and progress. The board simply will not boot until the write completes.
To recover:
- Unplug everything from the board except the USB cable — LED strips, sound module, DHD buttons.
- Use a short, good-quality USB data cable, plugged directly into the computer — no hub, no extension lead. A long or thin cable is the single most common culprit.
- If the board does not appear, hold the BOOT button down while you plug it in to force download mode, and keep holding until the port is selected.
- Flash again, leaving Erase device unchecked. Repeating a failed write is harmless.
- If it fails at the same point every time, the USB-to-serial speed is likely too high for your cable. Reach out on Discord and we will walk you through flashing at a lower speed.