While working on debugging an ESP32, I needed to get the log for the unit when WiFi was down. To do this I need a serial connection, which can be done using putty. Since this was the first time I used putty to connect to a serial device, I figured I’d give a short how to connect to an ESP32 using it.
The first step is to find the COM port used by the device. For this I went to device manager and found the silicon labs device that was connected to my PC (they’re the vendor for ESP chips). I’m this case it was COM8 that it was connected to.
Open up putty and select the serial button to change modes for it. After that change the COM port to COM8 in our case, or whatever COM port was shown in device manager. For the baud rate, we need 11520. This matters as the wrong baud rate will prevent it from working properly.
After that, hit open. You will be connected to the serial console for the connected ESP and get all the logs from the device whether or not it’s connected to Wi-Fi, or in my case crashing and rebooting! It’s a useful tool in the belt for figuring out why devices are having issues.
