ESP-IDF vs ESP-MDF

[Gardin]

So I started to study esp wifi mesh capabilities and found that there is an specific idf called ESP-MDF to build mesh applications.

What are the main differences between esp-idf and esp-mdf?
I know that esp-mdf is based on top of the esp-idf v3.2.2-42-g4a9f33944 but why not use an newer version of esp-idf?
Isn't it possible to build mesh applications with the bleeding version of esp-idf since there is an example folder for that?

For those wondering why I just don't use the older version of esp-idf that comes with esp-mdf is it because there are some new timers api that are not available in those...

[mpetersen]

@Gardin,

Have you learned anything since this posting?

I am wondering the same thing as I consider an ESP32-based Mesh application.

Out of curiosity which platform have you chosen to use for your Mesh eval?
I'm looking at the devKit-C as well as the M5Stack (a well integrated ESP32-based platform - in a box).

Thanks,
Mike

[Gardin]

Hi Mike,

I did not studied/learn nothing theoretical about these. But due to the presence of the examples and the name of the framework, using esp-mdf was the obvious choice. (But I'm still curious about the differences, just didn't had the time play around...)

As the platform I'm using a common DevKit-C development board.

[RichPiano]

Even though this question is one year old, I have exactly the same question as OP. Did you two learn something new already? I'm having trouble getting esp-mdf to compile, probably because I'm using the master branch of esp-idf. But I don't even know if its worth the trouble downgrading?

Would be nice if an ESP official could say something about it.

[mpetersen]

I second that comment, "would be nice to have an official response" and/or build-tip for sample mesh application.

[Gardin]

Hello guys, I did not advance in the studies about ESP-MDF.

For those who are asking the same question I think that a good solution would be to test both ESP-IDF and ESP-MDF to check the one that better suits your project.

Cheers,

Gabriel Gardin.