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The project is called "Tactility" and its website is https://tactility.one/
You can run ELF binary apps directly from an SD card without restarting or flashing the ROM. There's an SDK for building these apps, but I haven't made an official release yet.
I wrote a blog post with some background information: https://bytewelder.com/posts/2025/01/06/tactility-one-year-later.html
Source code and project files: https://github.com/ByteWelder/Tactility
Looks cool, but what should I look to do with it?
In its current state, it's mainly a tool for developers to be able to build prototypes or experiments quickly. From a user perspective, there isn't enough yet. We'll need more apps before it's useful for end-users. I want to improve the core functionality before I build more apps: I already have to maintain about 2 dozen apps and I'd rather spend my time on building a better platform for now.
I have a python app that would love to run on a small wifi device like an ESP, how far away is the possibility to do that? Could I freeze the python fikes to (8MB IIRC) executables (Linux) and run them?
Also, how do you use an sd card on the esp?
I toyed around a lot with the old ESP 8266 back in the day so I'm a bit out of the loop with thise newer ones.
I don't expect regular Python apps to ever run on Tactility, as the memory requirements are likely too high. There is at most about 8MB of RAM for apps available. Perhaps a special build of micropython could work at some point.
You can open the Files app and there's a folder named "sdcard". So far, all SD card implementations are done via a serial interface (SPI). I cannot mount them on-the-fly yet - only at boot.
I cross posted this to !esp32@lemmy.ml
Thanks! Good to see there's an ESP32 community too. I just subscribed ^^
Having some blackberry flashbacks with that keyboard.
Nice! I currently only use my tdeck for meshtastic but this would broaden it's capabilities.
Meshtastic is cool I wish there were more public users around me.
Admittedly, I don't know a whole lot about what instruction set features the ESP32 actually has, but isn't an embedded processor that small by nature lacking in things like, say, a memory management unit? Don't take this the wrong way, but the notion of making a general-purpose OS that relies on cooperative multitasking seems a bit sketchy at a time when you could just spend an extra buck to move up to something like a Raspberry Pi Zero that can run a proper memory-safe and preemptive OS.
There is indeed no way to create new virtual memory mappings. When a binary is loaded, it's manually mapped into IRAM (instruction RAM).
The target audience for things like Lilygo T-Deck is probably the more technical side of the Flipper Zero audience. I can see how it could also become an end-user device (like Flipper Zero is to many people), but we'll need more apps for that.
And sure, you could use a Raspberry Pi, but part of the fun/challenge of this project is that it hasn't been done for ESP32 before (as far as I'm aware). Some differences: a Raspberry Pi draws more power, costs more, and generally doesn't boot in under 2 seconds. I'm also not aware of compact Pi-based handhelds like the Lilygo T-Deck is to my project. edit: There's the uConsole, but it's twice the price, likely has 6+ months delivery time, is much larger, and weighs much more.
Is there a reason you didn't use the ESP-S3's MMU? https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/en/latest/esp32s3/api-reference/system/mm.html
I didn't know this exists! I'm currently using a dependency to load ELF files: https://components.espressif.com/components/espressif/elf_loader
I guess it would make more sense to have the memory mapping done inside elf_loader, so that S3 devices can load to PSRAM and non-S3 devices can load into IRAM. Thanks for the tip!
Looking at some of the bug reports it looks like your dependency may already be using the MMU.
very cool! lots of neat other projects too
I just picked up one of those lily go systems and am excited
You can find some builds at the bottom of the page here: https://github.com/ByteWelder/Tactility/actions/runs/12659191949 These files expire in 30 days though.
Looks cool! However, there is with badge.team also a similar app platform which they used on https://flow3r.garden/, on the MCH22-badge and the now in preorder namatsu: https://shop.nicolaielectronics.nl/products/tanmatsu?variant=55608856183133 (which I just ordered two of)
While it definitely is a cool project, it’s a micropython one, so the target audience is similar but not the same.