ESP8266 Community Forum

- Fri Jan 09, 2015 5:11 pm #6854 You need to connect the GND of the USB serial adaptor to the ground of the esp so that the serial communication is referenced to the same ground that the chip is using. It's a bit hard to explain but this is a good little starter: http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/38298/why-do-networks-need-a-common-ground-cable

Just add in another wire to join all three grounds together and it might work!

- Sat Jan 10, 2015 6:52 am #6888

You need to connect the GND of the USB serial adaptor to the ground of the esp so that the serial communication is referenced to the same ground that the chip is using. It's a bit hard to explain but this is a good little starter: http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/38298/why-do-networks-need-a-common-ground-cable

Just add in another wire to join all three grounds together and it might work!

Well that's embarrassing - that was exactly it! Common ground! Thank you very much for the link as well - it's all so painfully obvious once you know

For any other hardware-oblivious people out there, i'll just quickly recap what I'm using, and how I'm wiring it. The following is my solder-free cheap-ass-ebay-based esp8266 setup:

Per esp you want to program:
1x ESP8266: £2
1x USB-A to 5.5mm / 2.1mm Barrel Jack Male DC 5v 2ft power charger connector cable: £1.5
1x 1Pcs 3.3V Output AMS1117-3.3 V DC/DC Power Supply Module + DC Socket (5V to 3.3V): £1
1x 5V USB charger (iphone charger or whatever)

And a single one of these to program your ESPs:
1xCH340G Serial Converter USB 2.0 To TTL 3.3/5V 6PIN for Arduino PRO mini PIC UK: £2.8

Wire them as in the attached image

Attachments

Working wiring