ESP8266 Community Forum

- Fri Oct 09, 2015 11:50 am #30958 Hello,
I have set up my ESP-12E board (as ordered from AliExpress) and an FTDI adapter as shown in this link. However the module fails to boot (LED does not flash) while the adapter is successfully recognized. When I try to connect in Putty I am greeted by a black terminal which does not allow input. I have tried swapping the chips and adapter as well, but I have not been able to make any progress. Is there something I am missing at this point? Many thanks!

PS: You can find pictures of the chip and the adapter here

- Sat Oct 10, 2015 8:54 am #31023 How are you powering your ESP?

- Sat Oct 10, 2015 9:46 am #31029

I have set up my ESP-12E board (as ordered from AliExpress) and an FTDI adapter as shown in this link. However the module fails to boot

Although it is clearly simpler, it is bad form to connect I/O pins directly to Vcc or ground. Instead, use a separate resistor, say 10K, between each pin and Vcc or ground. Although less significant, I would also use a pullup on CH_PD rather than tying it directly to Vcc.

Also, the diagram in the instructable shows GPIO0 connected to ground. With that connection the ESP will always boot to "command mode" rather than running the application.

Don Kinzer
ZBasic Microcontrollers
http://www.zbasic.net

- Sun Oct 11, 2015 10:17 am #31099 Thank you for your replies.
I am powering my ESP with a MicroUSB power supply unit ordered from AliExpress as well (5V). I have attached it to a voltage converter which converts it down to 3.3V. I have now determined that these chargers do not supply 5V but rather 5.4V, which causes the voltage regulator to not supply enough voltage for the ESP to boot. I have tried soldering two 4.7 Ohm resistors in parallel to mitigate this issue, but the voltage regulator loses power (the LED turns off) as soon as it is connected to the breadboard. I cannot use smaller resistor values since that would make the voltage to low to use again. How do you suggest I fix this issue?

Also, the diagram in the instructable shows GPIO0 connected to ground. With that connection the ESP will always boot to "command mode" rather than running the application.

This is intended, since I first want to get communication running before programming/flashing the ESP.

Many thanks!