ESP8266 Community Forum

OK, I admit I'm a complete newbie with these modules, and there is so much info out there on these things that I feel like my head is going to explode!
Here's the situation: I bought 2 of these modules - ESP-05 (no GPIO's) and ESP-07 (lot's of GPIO's). Not having an FTDI, I decided to test them via an Arduino Uno (Rx - Rx, Tx - Tx, load a blank sketch and voila!) They both booted up & I could communicate with them using AT commands. Beautiful!!
Next I tried communicating via Softwareserial (2,3) - using a simple sketch that read input from the hardware serial & sent it to the software serial & visa versa - no luck! It was at this point that I abandoned the ESP-05 and focused on the ESP-07. I tried numerous examples but nothing worked! (I had the following connections: GPIO0 - HIGH; GPIO2 - HIGH; GPIO15 - LOW; CH_PD - HIGH; RST - HIGH via a 10k pullup. I also had both Rx & Tx going through a level shifter)
At some point I figured maybe it's the firmware so started looking at how to update that - I installed the ESP8266 for Arduino & tried to see how I could upload a sketch (GPIO0 - LOW & recycle power) - I managed to upload a blank sketch, but this seems to have wiped the original firmware. Now this module does nothing!! I have since tried to upload NodeMCU firmware, and although it goes through the process (complete with flashing BLUE lights) - when I connect to it with PuTTY, Terminal, or even the Arduino serial monitor I get nothing!!
I then flashed Electrodragons firmware - same thing (it goes through the whole process with the blue flashing LED) - I still get nothing! Issuing ANY AT Commands is met by resolute silence! However - if I momentarily ground the reset pin I get some garbage - regardless of what baud rate I use.

So here's the question: Have I completely killed this thing, or is there some way to "start over" i.e completely wipe everything off it & install a virginal firmware version??

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Moin,

seams not that easy to kill those. I suggest getting some uart usb adapter to program the esp.
The "garbage" is a boot message @74880 baud.

Cal

Hi Cal, yes - I'm waiting for them to arrive (ordered some 3.3v / 5v switchable jobbies from Aliexpress).
I kind of suspected that it's not dead, but that I somehow managed to corrupt the "boot program", but I don't really understand how I would have done that. I would have thought the boot code region would be somehow protected - at least when uploading to it from the ESP8266/Arduino IDE. (I would have thought there would be a user code upload area separate from the boot area)
Where can I get a firmware list of exactly what is supposed to go where? (i.e. memory addresses) I have the flash download tool (v1.2) so I can see now how to load the bin files to particular addresses, the problem is I don't know which files to use and where they are supposed to sit! At this point I don't really care if the ESP uses Lua or AT - as long as I can communicate with it!

Again, any help is appreciated!
Otto

Moin Otto,

take your time to read through the wiki esp. the memory map and parts of the forum. The unofficial nodemcu FAQ
in the wiki may have a few parts interesting for you, too.
The flashing uses auto detect so 9600 baud are usable.
The boot code uses 74880/115200 until the firmware sets otherwise.
So you can't see where the problem is when flashing the firmware failed.

Cal