ESP8266 Community Forum

Hello,
I've been trying to get a NodeMCU version of the ESP8266 to work with this W5500 ethernet module on the Arduino IDE, but I haven't had much luck. The W5500 ethernet module works fine on regular Arduino Uno, I'm able to get this Ethernet2 library example to connect to my router and display IP address in serial monitor. But when I try the same example on the ESP8266, I get a memory dump on the serial monitor, and it does not successfully get an IP address.

The W5500 works via SPI to the Arduino. This is how I've wired it to the ESP8266
https://preview.ibb.co/ifaqwa/SPI_on_esp.jpg

I'm using this Ethernet2 library that is written for the W5500
https://github.com/adafruit/Ethernet2/blob/master/examples/DhcpAddressPrinter/DhcpAddressPrinter.ino

In case this W5500 ethernet module isn't familiar, it looks like this:
http://www.haoyuelectronics.com/Attachment/W5500-Ethernet/W5500-Ethernet-2.jpg

I've never used SPI devices on the ESP8266 before. And this might be complicated by the fact that the Ethernet2 library is making calls to the SPI bus, you don't actually specify the ESP8266 SPI pins. So, maybe I need to edit the Ethernet2 library specifically to reference the right pins on the EsP8266?

Any ideas will be appreciated. Thanks.

I suggest examining the adafruit feather ESP8266 and W5500 board schematics to determine how adafruit hooked up the boards then hook up the same pins on your boards. You did not mention RST which probably needs to be connected to the ESP8266 RST or at least pull high (or low) on the W5500 board. If the W5500 RST is connected to an ESP8266 GPIO, the driver must be told which pin to use.

Specifying the SPI pins is not a good idea because the driver will probably switch to bit-bang mode instead of using the hardware SPI controller.

Hi gbafamily1,

Just a quick pointer for you (and anyone else searching for W5500 info) in case you're still struggling with the connections. This board does work with the NodeMCU, but you need a buffer between the chip select (on the W5500) and GPIO15 (on the NodeMCU). A single PNP transistor and a single resistor will do it. The circuit is available here (with more details, too):- https://esp8266hints.wordpress.com/2018/02/13/adding-an-ethernet-port-to-your-esp-revisited/

I used the WizNet library, btw.

-John-

Hello,
just playing with this modul too here. I figured out you can use other GPIO pin for CS and init it by Ethernet.init(D3) for example.

I just do not know why GPIO15 (D8) can not be used for this module. For SPI display it works fine. Actually it also stuck programming when it's connected to module.

note:
D3/D8 are addressed for NodeMCU v1 (or Wemos D1 mini)