ESP32-S3 Mini OTG not recognized serial port

Question

I am working on a new iteration of a project I have been working on for awhile and recently upgraded to the ESP32-S3-MINI from ESP32-S2-WROVER-N4R2. For the esp32-s2-wrover I was able to simply put 5k resistors on the CC lines and route the differential pairs for D+ and D- to the proper OTG pins on the microcontroller and things just worked. The computer picked up the esp32-s2 and I was able to send code just fine.

The datasheet for the esp32-s3 looked pretty identical for the OTG aspect, so I set it up just the same, however, I cannot seem to get it to work. I have masked/solder up a few pcbs and verified traces over and over but cannot seem to figure out why I can't get a windows 10 desktop...or apple silica macbook to recognize the esp32-s3-mini. Also, I think next time I am going to route some debug points since the mini is routed entirely underneath.

I will say the esp32-s3-mini is much harder with my setup to reflow the solder but from what I can hit, data/power/enable/grand all seem good. I've tried every permutation of powering on/off with reset...holding reset and flash...all the things but no luck :(

Here is the schematic

The usb-c connector

and the mcu

I did come across this documentation that talked about 5v being a "hardware requirement" but not quite sure how that works with the chip being 3.3v.

Was hoping someone smarter than me knew of something to try...I cant seem to figure it out and would really like to get past this issue.

Answer 1

Alright so a few things were wrong and I wanted to update this post in case others run across similar issues.

1. Correct USB speeds - The 5k1 resistors on the CC pins were working as desired. However, when using a straight usb-c cable I was getting 1.64v across one of the CC resistors. I believe this means it is operating at USB 3 speeds which USB serial/OTG needs to operate at USB 2 speeds. I ended up using a usb-c to usb-a cable that I had and started getting 0.4v across the cc resistor and that seemed to get me at least speaking the right language

2. Drivers - I am using MacOS 12.0.1 and had really only ever used the CP210x drivers. I discovered that not all esp32 utilize the CP210x series chips...some use an FTDI chip. I found that information here. The drivers for MacOS 12 are in beta, so once you download you will need to move it to Applications folder to actually execute (it does give proper dialog to let you know).

Hopefully this helps anyone in troubleshooting this issue =)

Also, I needed the latest board manager dev branch for Arduino to be able to pickup utilize the "ESP32S3 DEV MODULE"