Also, in slave mode the ESP expects command/status/address bits in the leading bytes from the SPI master. This is what I understand from the examples and the documentation. Without these bits the ESP does not respond to the SPI transaction. Is it possible to avoid sending these command/status/address bits to successfully complete a full (or even half) duplex SPI transaction?
I posted these questions on the Espressif forum (http://bbs.espressif.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2727). Perhaps I may reach a wider audience here.