I had issues for a while but they were all related tot eh FTDI serial board, cheep chinese knockoff which got bricked because of new drivers. Took me a while to fix it.
I'm running through the following example with an ESP01:
http://importhack.wordpress.com/2014/11 ... eb-client/
With GPIO0 set to ground it was set to upload mode so could send or receive anything. Disconnecting it and switching off and on power gave me the standard init text 'ready' etc.
I used coolterm on a mac, and even at the wrong baud I at least got something, garbage text or otherwise.
Seems odd that two of your chips don't seem to work, I would assume something else along the 'chain' is effecting them.
try the configuration above and see if anything changes?
best of luck
Cdr
Some time ago i told you my story about a couple of ESP8266 I could not get to work even following all clever advices from this Forum. I told to myself my ESP must have a HW problem so I jumped to eBay for another couple of ESP8266.
I've just received them. Hurried to connect them to my USB/serial adapter... and guess what... The red LED on... that's all. A tried Arduino and 2 other USB/serial devices and several terminal sofrware as Arduino, Putty, Termite.... Nothing to do !
Therefore I'm asking you guys to stop telling people that one can get a WiFi 5$ chinese device working as a WiFi sender/receiver.
I pay 100$ for a couple of Serial/USB - ESP8266 working on a W8.1 standard PC. 50$ for a YouTube show.
I also send gratis my 4 ESP8266 to any amator.
Greetings to all dreamers.
Jacques
if this is not working, please upload pictures of our setup and connections.