Merge pull request #71 from geeksville/master

add OS-X instructions from @android606

README.md

@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ Prebuilt binaries for the supported radios is available in our [releases](https:
 The instructions currently require a few commmand lines, but it should be pretty straightforward. Please post comments on our group chat if you have problems or successes. Steps to install:
 
 1. Purchase a radio (see above) with the correct frequencies for your country (915MHz for US or JP, 470MHz for CN, 433MHz and 870MHz for EU).
-2. Install "pip". Pip is the python package manager we use to get the esptool installer app. Instructions [here](https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/install-pip-for-python/).
+2. Install "pip". Pip is the python package manager we use to get the esptool installer app. Instructions [here](https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/install-pip-for-python/). If you are using OS-X, see these [special instructions](docs/software/install-OSX.md).
 3. Run "pip install --upgrade esptool" to get esptool installed on your machine
 4. Connect your radio to your USB port
 5. Confirm that your device is talking to your PC by running "esptool.py chip_id". The Heltec build also works on the TTGO LORA32 radio. You should see something like:

docs/software/install-OSX.md

@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+(Here's some quick tips on installing the device code from OS-X, thanks to @android606)
+
+First time using LoRa for anything, just checking it out.
+
+I bought a T-Beam on eBay, followed the instructions to install the firmware here:
+[https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-esp32](https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-esp32)
+
+I'm using a Mac for this, so that might account for differences in the steps to get it working. I just swapped out my SSD last month, I'm using a pretty fresh install of OS X 10.15.3/Catalina.
+
+I got it working fairly smoothly, but there were two hang-ups I thought I'd mention:
+
+1. I am about 0% familiar with Python, so there were some issues getting esptool.py working. Basically, this OS X comes with Python 2.7 and no pip. Pip installed okay, so I used it to install esptool. Esptool appeared to install correctly, but I couldn't get it to work to save my life. Simply typing "esptool.py" doesn't work, and I just don't know enough python to figure out why. For some reason, it installs but isn't in the \$PATH anywhere, and I don't know where it went. Python 2.7 kept giving me warning messages about being old and unsupported, so I figured that might be a hint that I should upgrade.
+
+I ended up doing this:
+
+- brew install pyenv (to install pyenv)
+- pyenv install 3.7.7 (to install and select python 3.7.7)
+- pyenv global 3.7.7 (to select the new version of python)
+- brew install pip (to install pip3)
+- pip3 install --upgrade esptool (note I specifically had to use "pip3", not "pip")
+
+...then I was able to execute esptool.py
+
+2. esptool.py didn't work though, because the virtual com port wasn't showing up as a device. I had to install a driver from Silicon Labs, which I got here:
+   [driver for the CP210X USB to UART bridge from Silicon Labs](https://www.silabs.com/products/development-tools/software/usb-to-uart-bridge-vcp-drivers)
+
+After I installed that, esptool.py was completely happy and the firmware loaded right up.