ESP8266 Community Forum

Hi all,
I am trying to use ESP-07 for the first time. The idea was to extend my Arduino nano appication with wifi.
But since 1 week i am fighting to get even a basic answer of the ESP on basic AT commands.
First trial was with Arduino, following the numerous guides in the forums, no success. I bought another ESP from different vendor (now AI-Thinker) and a FTDI (USB-TTL) interface with 3.3 volt, to try it without Arduino, and get rid of the 5V/3.3V issue. I have checked the simple wiring and application many times, and observing the signals with oscilloscope, no success. The ESP is supplied by a separate regulator to be sure, that the FTDI 3.3V is not overloaded, and i tried also to exchange RX/TX, change baud rates ...
I am using the serial interface from arduino IDE, NL and CR is turned on. When i send AT commands, i do not get any answer from ESP.
Only if i pull reset or Enable, the ESP is sending some signals, and if i use baud 74880 if is readable:

ets Jan 8 2013,rst cause:1, boot mode:(7,7)
waiting for host

Strange looks to me also the behviour of GPIO0, which should be used for bootmode activation. It is always sending out 27MHz clock full scale. Even if i pull it down with 220 Ohm to GND or 3.3V and start the device, it is driving with high power the 220 Ohm with 27MHz.

Is my assumption wrong, that the ESPs have usually a basic firmware installed by default?
Something is running completely wrong,
I am fighting now since 1 week with much frustration, any help and advice is very appreciated.
Thanks, Peter

Is there a technical reason why you are using the Arduino?

Trying to use the AT commands invites a whole lot of headache!

A suitable esp8266 like the NodeMCU or Wemos D1 Mini has plenty of capacity to run a script like you are running on the Ardunio nano.

You do not say what you are trying to achive, but for most tasks there is a multitude of example scripts on the net.

AcmeUK wrote:Is there a technical reason why you are using the Arduino?

Trying to use the AT commands invites a whole lot of headache!

A suitable esp8266 like the NodeMCU or Wemos D1 Mini has plenty of capacity to run a script like you are running on the Ardunio nano.

You do not say what you are trying to achive, but for most tasks there is a multitude of example scripts on the net.

Hi, thanks for your quick answer.
There are several reasons:
1.I have buildt my homecontrol and heating control with arduino, including the hardware interface to my heating and all the parameter collections (temperatures, energy consumptions, heating controls ...).
I do not like to rebuild all hardware now for an ESP.

2. For this i need a number of accurate ADCs, and i understood the ADCs of 8266 are pretty bad. I am also using some EEPROM for datasaving, which are not present on ESP (i think).

The idea came at the end now, to transmit a bunch of data through wifi to a cloud, in order to have access and control of some functions also from abroad. Therefore i am trying now to connect an ESP to the Arduino nano, only for the task of WLAN connection.
Are the options, which you mention, easier to handle, connecting them to Arduino? (NodeMCU, Wemos.., or ESP32?).
I chose the ESP-07, because there is the option of external antenna, my WLAN signal is a bit week on that location.
According to some posts at several forums, it should be "so easy" to connect an ESP to Arduino for such "simple" task, but i get even not any answer on ATs.

Best regards, Peter

The ESP8266 is very sensitive to power issues. A lot of people underestimate the difficulty of supplying sufficient power to the device. That is why it is strongly recommended to start with a complete development board like the Wemos or NodeMCU or similar type of boards. Because at this point you really don't know what the problem is, and it might still be power.