diff --git a/firmware/deploy-firmware.py b/firmware/deploy-firmware.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..146789f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/firmware/deploy-firmware.py
@@ -0,0 +1,129 @@
+import struct
+from collections import namedtuple
+from datetime import datetime
+import subprocess
+from distutils.version import StrictVersion
+from esptool import LoadFirmwareImage  # required to get hash and checksum right
+import os
+
+# locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, 'en_US')
+
+APP_DESC_SIZE = 256 # sizeof(esp_app_desc_t)
+
+APP_DESC_STRUCT = "<II2I32s32s16s16s32s32B20I"
+AppDesc = namedtuple('AppDesc',
+                     [
+                         "secure_version",
+                         "version",
+                         "project_name",
+                         "time",
+                         "date",
+                         "idf_ver",
+                         "app_elf_sha256",
+                     ]
+                     )
+
+
+def version_number_from_git(tag_prefix='release/', sha_length=10, version_format="{version}.dev{commits}+{sha}"):
+    def get_released_versions():
+        tags = sorted(subprocess.getoutput('git tag').split('\n'))
+        versions = [t[len(tag_prefix):]
+                    for t in tags if t.startswith(tag_prefix)]
+        return versions
+
+    def tag_from_version(v):
+        return tag_prefix + v
+
+    def increment_version(v):
+        parsed_version = [int(i) for i in v.split('.')]
+        parsed_version[-1] += 1
+        return '.'.join(str(i) for i in parsed_version)
+
+    version_strings = get_released_versions()
+    version_strings.sort(key=StrictVersion)
+    latest_release = version_strings[-1]
+    commits_since_tag = subprocess.getoutput(
+        'git rev-list {}..HEAD --count'.format(tag_from_version(latest_release)))
+    sha = subprocess.getoutput('git rev-parse HEAD')[:sha_length]
+    is_dirty = len(subprocess.getoutput(
+        "git status --untracked-files=no -s")) > 0
+
+    if int(commits_since_tag) == 0:
+        version_string = latest_release
+    else:
+        next_version = increment_version(latest_release)
+        version_string = version_format.format(
+            version=next_version, commits=commits_since_tag, sha=sha)
+
+    if is_dirty:
+        version_string += ".dirty"
+    return version_string
+
+
+def read_app_description_from_segment(segment):
+    def process_bytes(b):
+        if not isinstance(b, bytes):
+            return b
+        s = b.decode()
+        return s[:s.find("\x00")]
+
+    unpacked = struct.unpack(APP_DESC_STRUCT, segment.data[:APP_DESC_SIZE])
+    unpacked = tuple(process_bytes(e) for e in unpacked)
+    magic_word, secure_version, _, _, version, project_name, time, date, idf_ver, app_elf_sha256, *_ = unpacked
+    assert magic_word == 0xABCD5432
+    return AppDesc(secure_version, version, project_name, time, date, idf_ver, app_elf_sha256)
+
+
+
+def patch_app_description_in_segment(segment, version, project_name, time, date):
+    assert len(version) < 32
+    assert len(project_name) < 32
+    assert len(time) < 16
+    assert len(date) < 16
+
+    def fill_zeros(s, total_length):
+        s += "\x00" * (total_length - len(s))
+        s = s.encode()
+        assert len(s) == total_length
+        return s
+
+    raw_app_desc = segment.data[:APP_DESC_SIZE]
+    unpacked = list(struct.unpack(APP_DESC_STRUCT, raw_app_desc))
+    unpacked[4] = fill_zeros(version, 32)
+    unpacked[5] = fill_zeros(project_name, 32)
+    unpacked[6] = fill_zeros(time, 16)
+    unpacked[7] = fill_zeros(date, 16)
+    packed = struct.pack(APP_DESC_STRUCT, *unpacked)
+
+    original_data = segment.data
+    segment.data = packed + original_data[APP_DESC_SIZE:]
+
+
+def patch_firmware(input_file, output_file):
+    img = LoadFirmwareImage("esp32", input_file)
+    version = version_number_from_git()
+
+    now = datetime.now()
+    time = now.strftime("%H:%M:%S")
+    date = now.strftime("%b %d %Y")
+    patch_app_description_in_segment(img.segments[0], version, "swimtracker.bauer.tech", time, date)
+    img.save(output_file)
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    firmware_file = ".pio/build/esp32/firmware.bin"
+    version_file_name = "VERSION"
+
+    patch_firmware(firmware_file, firmware_file) # patch inplace
+
+    version = version_number_from_git()
+    print("Deploying ", version)
+    with open(version_file_name, "w") as version_file:
+      print(version, file=version_file)
+
+    subprocess.run(["scp", firmware_file, "root@server:/volumes/swimtracker-update"])
+    subprocess.run(["scp", version_file_name, "root@server:/volumes/swimtracker-update"])
+
+    os.unlink(firmware_file)
+    os.unlink(version_file_name)
+
diff --git a/firmware/esp-idf-install.readme b/firmware/esp-idf-install.readme
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8f356eb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/firmware/esp-idf-install.readme
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+git clone -b v3.3 --recursive https://github.com/espressif/esp-idf.git
+set -x IDF_TOOLS_PATH /home/martin/code/swimtracker-firmware/idf-tools
+cd esp-idf
+./install.fish
+
+# install arduino
+mdir components
+cd components
+git clone https://github.com/espressif/arduino-esp32.git arduino
+
+# to get into environment (works only bash?)
+export IDF_TOOLS_PATH=/home/martin/code/swimtracker-firmware/idf-tools/
+.  /home/martin/code/swimtracker-firmware/esp-idf/export.sh
+
+
++ use only arduino libraries that are really necessary => smaller firmware 
+
+-> result: new esp-idf version doesn't work together with arduino-esp
+-> use 3.3? 
+-> not yet clear: how to use arduino component libraries
\ No newline at end of file