ESP8266 Community Forum

- Fri Dec 26, 2014 11:18 am #5745 Hey all,
First post here, I've tried getting help on our Swedish board but they can't figure out what's wrong so I'm trying here now to see if you guys have any idea what might be wrong.

First off, the connections.
I'm running the ESP8266 on 3.3V with a 800mA supply. Data lines are connected through a logic converter to change the voltage on the datalines from 5V from my RS232-UART adapter to 3.3V that the ESP8266 likes. The GPIO0 is floating while not in firmware update mode, I then connect it to GND. CH_PD is always connected to 3.3V. I have common ground between 5V and 3.3V and that's it for the connections.

I don't know which version I had in the module from the beginning, but I've updated to cloud update 00180902 and in the beginning that seemed like a nice firmware. Because when I first started out I couldn't power on the ESP8266 more than once every 10-15 times I tried to start it. Also it seems like if I cut the power for a minute or so it then is able to start like it should. This was not the problem with the cloud firmware 00180902. I could also issue AT+RST and that worked great.

However, I ran into problems when communicating with my server, I will describe that more later on, that made me chat with my Swedish guys and they said that you need to update the firmware to 0.9.2.2 / V00180902_02. So I did, it kinda went back to what it was before cloud update.. I have start problems, I can't do AT+RST again and so on. Also the communication with my server didn't get any better.

So, I thought.. lets try the cloud update again and now it's like before and after the cloud firmware. I have startup problems, I can't do AT+RST.. Now NO firmware seems to work properly.. Also when I do AT+RST I get OK, then the modules locks up and gets very warm..

What's wrong!? I've also tried hooking the RESET pin to VCC but that seems to put the module in the RESET state, the same goes for hooking it up to GND.. So I need to have that floating..


Ok, so when I finally get the module up and running, I run the following commands;

Code: Select allAT
I get OK

AT+CWMODE=1
I get OK

AT+CIPMUX=0
I get OK

AT+CIPMODE=0
I get OK

AT+CWJAP="Networkname","password"
Works!

AT+CIFSR
I get correct IP

AT+CIPSTART="TCP","www.myserver.com",80
AT+CIPSEND=66
GET /xxx.php?value1=3\r\n HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: www.myserver.com\r\n\r\n


After I send that GET line, after waiting to get a > of course, my server locks up completely.. I feels like it "bans" my IP address for a while and then after a few minutes I can reconnect again. If I do the same with the ESP8266 module, the server locks once again.

If I try www.google.com instead, it works like a charm. But of course, I dont have any page over at google.com so I dont know if I actually accesses that page or not.. but still, I dont get banned from Google and the module responds quickly and all that stuff.

So, I tried a larger string length with AT+CIPSEND=150 and it works.. Well, I dont lock my server up, I dont get any info from the file it runs as that is a simple page that will update a database when the module has connected. So it all seems to work quite ok, I guess.

Except that the module doesn't actually run the webpage that I'm trying to access. I don't get any lines in the log on my server that it has tried to access the page even, but at least, I'm glad it doesnt lock up the server..


So now, asking for some help!
- Why does the connection to my server lock up the server? I can run the webpage in a browser without any problems.. so there's no endless loops or anything..

- Why can't I issue AT+RST anymore so that it restarts itself and doesn't hang itself?

- Why do I have these startup errors?


I've tried with two modules and I get the same results. I'm about to throw everything in the trash cause I'm so tired of all the problems, as if you compare with Youtube videos it all looks so easy, just do this and that and it works.. I do the same, F* OFF to me! I don't understand it..

Please help me out! What should I do, which firmware should I use, in which sequence should my AT commands go, can I do something to the electronics?

Thanks in advance!

- Fri Dec 26, 2014 1:21 pm #5750 1. something is not normal in your server.

2. do you send cr lf / \r\n after each command?

3. what is this 3.3v 800ma power supply you are using? a lot of chinese thing with these rating are problematic. make sure your power supply is a good one.

also, what board model are you using?
and make sure your firmware upgrade is really ok.
for fw, use the latest. at_2.0 i think.

- Fri Dec 26, 2014 1:54 pm #5751 Hey there,
Thanks for your reply!

Something can't be normal with my server for sure. But I'm not so sure that it is the server that is the problem anymore.

I send CR LF / \r\n after every command yes, I'm using Atmel Studio which has a built-in terminal window which works great. I have the option to automatically send CR LF with every line I send. Also, the rest of the AT commands works, so there's nothing wrong with sending AT+RST. At least what I can think of.

The power supply I'm using is indeed a Chinese one, the following;
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-3V-5V-MB102 ... 27e8da0bfc

It says 700mA, but it's around there so that shouldn't be any problem. Also, I've been using my STK500 from Atmel to route the RS232-UART signals from my computer to the ESP8266 module through a logic level converter which converts from 5V to 3.3V. I changed all that to a USB-UART module but still the same power supply as above.

So now I don't have any startup problems and I dont have any problems with AT+RST. IT ALL WORKS!!


But, now I still have the problem that when I send the following

Code: Select allAT+CIPSTART="TCP","www.myserver.com",80
AT+CIPSEND=66
GET /xxx.php?value1=3\r\n HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: www.myserver.com\r\n\r\n

Nothing seems to happen on the server side. I've tried this both with my own server and Thingspeak, but neither of the servers seem to update the database when I try to access the page through the ESP8266 module. However, running the page through a browser works without any problems.

So it's only when I try to access it through the ESP8266 module that it doesn't work. The module has access to Internet, it has it's own IP address on my network and all that. But nothing happens on the servers still

The FW I'm using right now is.. well something out of this;

Code: Select all[Vendor:www.ai-thinker.com Version:0.9.2.4]

AT+GMR
0018000902-AI03
OK

Not really sure, but I guess you guys are better at reading out which version that actually is hehe

at_2.0, do you mean this one?
http://bbs.espressif.com/viewtopic.php? ... bdae940867

The files in there, I just use them with that "black window" flasher and add the files there and that should work? I'm more used to the binary files that is just one single file. But I guess I could try that out with all those files

Edit..
Oh and I'm using the regular ESP-01 board

- Fri Dec 26, 2014 2:55 pm #5754 can we access your webserver?

i have esp module connected to thingspeak without issue. could it be the you are sending incorrect data? what are you getting in the serial monitor after you send data to thingspeak?