November 2019 Note: The application has been updated to support the latest version of the Adafruit AMPY application. (1.07)
Windows GUI for the Adafruit MicroPython Utility
A simple GUI wrapper that executes the AMPY command to manipulate the files on an ESP8266 board running MicroPython.
It was written in C# in Visual Studio 2017, so you will need VS Express or better to compile it. It's only external dependency (besides Python and Ampy) is the Scintilla editor control (https://github.com/jacobslusser/ScintillaNET), which allows for Python3 syntax highlighting.
As a development tool, I wrote the utility to mainly just edit the files directly off of the device. I have also embedded a simple terminal emulator to send commands to the serial REPL.
A precompiled binary is available for download here:
http://wezensky.no-ip.org/shared/afm.zip
Just unzip to a convenient location and run the AmpyFileManager.exe. NOTE: The latest .Net Framework is required for this application to run.
HOW TO START:
- Plug your MicroPython device into your computer and determine what com port it was assigned to
- Start the application.
- Select the com port for your device (if there is more than one)
- The main window should appear with the files on the root of the device listed
- If there was a problem and the files were not listed, click on the Refresh button
HOW TO USE:
All the features are pretty self-explanatory, but here is just a short description of it's general use.
- To open a file for viewing or editing, select the file and click "Open" (or just double-click the filename)
- To go into a sub-folder select the folder and click "Open" (or just double-click the folder name)
- "New" will prepare a new file for editing
- "Load" will allow you to import a file
- "Delete" will delete the file from the device
- "MKDIR" will allow you to create a sub-folder
- "Refresh" will reread the file list of the current directory
- "Backup Device" will prepare end execute a batch file that will backup the contents of the device
- "Console/Edit Mode" will toggle between an active console window and an active edit area
ADDITIONAL INFO:
- The backups are stored in a sub-folder of the directory where the EXE is located.
- Configuration setting are located in the AmpyFilemanager.exe.config file
CAVEATS:
- Because of some limitations, in order to use this tool you must follow this guideline...
- Directories will be recognized by their zero size reported
- Editable files are recognized by their use of an extension
- Although it should work with any device that AMPY works with, it has only been tested with a Wemos D1 Mini and a Witty Cloud Board
- This is mainly for text files (binary files will upload to the device but will not download correctly)
- Switching between the console and the editor (and back) is a little rough.
- You may have to "Refresh" or try again to get a feature to work.
- Sometimes the software will pause until the device is momentarily unplugged
- This is highly dependent on the type of application that is running