ESP8266 Community Forum

Hi,

really exited about this! i have been reading everything i can on this topic, but the one thing i cant work out is what firmware i need on the ESP8266?

can anyone help guide me?
thanks
Raptor

None.
The Arduino IDE generates machine code from your c source and uploads it to the ESP8266.
It doesn't matter what firmware was previously flashed, because it will get overwritten, anyways.

the esp8266 has a built in bootloader which is used to upload code ( program the chip). The bootloader is selected at power up by the state of GPIO pins. A serial uart based uploader is often selected by default. The arduino esp8266 IDE is an extension of the arduino IDE. Code in a sketch is compiled specifically for the esp8266 and together with the API's for the esp8266 is uploaded via the bootloader. The esp8266 can now run the code in the sketch and the sketch can call the wifi features as well as other features of the esp8266 since the code for these API's was also loaded. Information about the esp8266 API is part of the esp8266 SDK. Now libraries used for avr or atmega chips may not work without modification since the esp8266 chip is very different.

I just registered to say...

Thank you for that thorough explanation.

When one googles esp8266, the first thing they should find is That Paragraph in a set of similarly written paragraphs that explain from start to finish exactly what the esp8266 is, and is capable of, and how to do it (via the handful of different ways).

So just to confirm (what is obvious to some and a mystery to others...) If one sets up:

A PC with the arduino IDE
the necessary additional files installed into the Arduino IDE to add the ESP8266 to the list of SOC cards the arduino IDE is already capable of programming
an FTDI USB to RS232 cable, with - if necessary - level shifters to convert from 5v to 3.3v
an esp8266, along with the support hardware (breadboard etc.) in order to power it and to invoke bootloader mode

With all these components in place, one would have a development environment for the esp8266, and one would not need to mess with the other deployment methods such as nodemcu, the built in AT set, and custom written firmwares.

Is that correct? If so, it seems to me that compared to the others, this is the vastly superior alternative!

So, here I go!... putting aside the arduino + esp8266 'web server' I have built that uses the unreliable AT commands.
My next goal... a 'hello world' type blinking led on one of these ESP8266's.
Thanks again!