Cabling to ESP-01 seems important
Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 2:56 amThis info might be useful to someone out there:
When I obtained my first ESP-01 module, I cabled it to my breadboard using about 20cm of 10-way ribbon cable, with a male IDC connector to the breadboard & the home-brew FTDI adapter, and a female IDC connector into which I inserted the 8 pins of my ESP-01.
I battled for hours trying to get comms with the ESP, and even checked the ESP's TX line with an oscilloscope. I could see activity but not much, with the blue LED faintly flickering on reset/boot. Not knowing the correct baud rate also complicated matters. I constantly checked continuity for each line to the ESP, and doubl-checked voltage etc, all to no avail. In Coolterm I would get garbage but no "ready" message. I changed my FTDI circuit from USB-powered to self-powered, suspecting insufficient power supplied by the USB socket, but this did not change anything.
I then decided to rather solder the ESP onto a piece of Vero board, along with terminal pins which I inserted into the breadboard, with short jumper cables between it and the FTDI USB-serial adapter. Finally I was able to communicate with the ESP, and was able to use the AT commands!
So it appears that the cabling between the ESP and the FTDI adapter could affect the comms with the ESP device.
When I obtained my first ESP-01 module, I cabled it to my breadboard using about 20cm of 10-way ribbon cable, with a male IDC connector to the breadboard & the home-brew FTDI adapter, and a female IDC connector into which I inserted the 8 pins of my ESP-01.
I battled for hours trying to get comms with the ESP, and even checked the ESP's TX line with an oscilloscope. I could see activity but not much, with the blue LED faintly flickering on reset/boot. Not knowing the correct baud rate also complicated matters. I constantly checked continuity for each line to the ESP, and doubl-checked voltage etc, all to no avail. In Coolterm I would get garbage but no "ready" message. I changed my FTDI circuit from USB-powered to self-powered, suspecting insufficient power supplied by the USB socket, but this did not change anything.
I then decided to rather solder the ESP onto a piece of Vero board, along with terminal pins which I inserted into the breadboard, with short jumper cables between it and the FTDI USB-serial adapter. Finally I was able to communicate with the ESP, and was able to use the AT commands!
So it appears that the cabling between the ESP and the FTDI adapter could affect the comms with the ESP device.