diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index f3a76626..cd04f50d 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ sdkconfig.old*
 build/
 app/
 components/*/.output/
+tools/toolchains
 
 #ignore Eclipse project files
 .cproject
diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
index 6ef2b33e..b467ca68 100644
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -1,6 +1,3 @@
-[submodule "toolchains"]
-	path = tools/toolchains
-	url = https://github.com/jmattsson/nodemcu-prebuilt-toolchains.git
 [submodule "sdk/esp32-esp-idf"]
 	path = sdk/esp32-esp-idf
 	url = https://github.com/espressif/esp-idf.git
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 8e4e22df..79504893 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -5,10 +5,31 @@ ifeq ($(IDF_PATH),)
 THIS_MK_FILE:=$(notdir $(lastword $(MAKEFILE_LIST)))
 THIS_DIR:=$(abspath $(dir $(lastword $(MAKEFILE_LIST))))
 IDF_PATH=$(THIS_DIR)/sdk/esp32-esp-idf
-all:
-%:
+
+TOOLCHAIN_VERSION:=20181106.0
+PLATFORM:=linux-x86_64
+
+ESP32_BIN:=$(THIS_DIR)/tools/toolchains/esp32-$(PLATFORM)-$(TOOLCHAIN_VERSION)/bin
+ESP32_GCC:=$(ESP32_BIN)/xtensa-esp32-elf-gcc
+ESP32_TOOLCHAIN_DL:=$(THIS_DIR)/cache/toolchain-esp32-$(PLATFORM)-$(TOOLCHAIN_VERSION).tar.xz
+
+all: | $(ESP32_GCC)
+%: | $(ESP32_GCC)
 	@echo Setting IDF_PATH and re-invoking...
-	@env IDF_PATH=$(IDF_PATH) PATH=$(PATH):$(THIS_DIR)/tools/toolchains/esp32/bin/ $(MAKE) -f $(THIS_MK_FILE) $@
+	@env IDF_PATH=$(IDF_PATH) PATH=$(PATH):$(ESP32_BIN) $(MAKE) -f $(THIS_MK_FILE) $@
+	@if test "$@" = "clean"; then rm -rf $(THIS_DIR)/tools/toolchains/esp32-*; fi
+
+$(ESP32_GCC): $(ESP32_TOOLCHAIN_DL)
+	@echo Uncompressing toolchain
+	@mkdir -p $(THIS_DIR)/tools/toolchains/
+	@tar -xJf $< -C $(THIS_DIR)/tools/toolchains/
+	# the archive contains ro files
+	@chmod -R u+w $(THIS_DIR)/tools/toolchains/esp32-*
+	@touch $@
+
+$(ESP32_TOOLCHAIN_DL):
+	@mkdir -p $(THIS_DIR)/cache
+	wget --tries=10 --timeout=15 --waitretry=30 --read-timeout=20 --retry-connrefused https://github.com/jmattsson/esp-toolchains/releases/download/$(PLATFORM)-$(TOOLCHAIN_VERSION)/toolchain-esp32-$(PLATFORM)-$(TOOLCHAIN_VERSION).tar.xz -O $@ || { rm -f "$@"; exit 1; }
 
 else
 
diff --git a/tools/toolchains b/tools/toolchains
deleted file mode 160000
index 3f4f3890..00000000
--- a/tools/toolchains
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Subproject commit 3f4f3890f97fe01870770dd5a624ee0823d71a13