ESP8266 Community Forum

- Thu Feb 01, 2018 2:12 am #73628 Hello,

A fully newbie here.
I bought an ESP, with a controlled switch basically to switch on and off a lamp as a test…

I have started, step by step. Connected the ESP through a small dedicated board to USB-Serial
tested AT command, get connected to wifi… all OK
then flash.
Then uploaded the sample hello-souliss-wifi, with changing the SSID and password. (I am using the arduino IDE)
I see the ESP on the wifi, It gets an IP through the DHCP… all OK
So, I plugged it to the dedicated controlled switch, but tho wifi doesn’t set (the blue led makes a very short blink at the beginning then nothing. I wondered if something wrong with this board and decided to try the ESP alone.
So, I tried to just give it 3.3v from the USB-serial board without plugging anything else. Same result, no wifi.
So I looked a little further and plugged the CH_PD to the 3.3V through a resistor and the GPIO0 directly to the 3.3V. Indeed, it works, the wifi get connected.

But now I am surprised. The piloted switch is designed specifically for this board. So I was suspecting you just had to plug it and provide power. But it seems it doesn't work.

Do you have any idea on how to test further? some known resistance I should be able to mesure to test if the board is working?



Thanks for your help.

- Tue Feb 06, 2018 6:04 am #73746 Sorry to bother you, but it seems my problem doesn't ring a bell to anybody

I am very surprised by the GPIO0 that should be at VCC to boot and to work. I read that on another post and indeed that's how I get the ESP working. But it seems it makes no sense. GPIO are supposed to be entry or exit. If it has to be stuck at VCC, why isn't it soldered to VCC internally. So I guess it should be possible to make the ESP work (in its normal state, not the flashing one) without having GPIO0 to VCC.

Anyone could explain that to me?

Thanks

- Tue Feb 27, 2018 11:30 pm #74245 Hello, for the one arriving here with the same problem, I am not the only one.
It is confirmed that once you change the firmware on this module it won't boot without the changes made to the connection
http://www.esp8266.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=16732 This topic here claims exactly the same.

I have now to go further and check if I can still use the GPIO to switch on and off the relay.