ESP8266 Community Forum

Hi guys,
I have this ESP8266-12 Test board, like the one in this link: http://blog.squix.ch/2015/01/esp8266-te ... eview.html
I have been playing it for the past one week. All long, i was using the firmware 0.9.2.2 using ESP_flasher tool. I could use the AT commands and everything was working fine.
I wanted to upgrade to the latest one, found in the expressif github page: https://github.com/espressif/ESP8266_AT/tree/master/bin
After that I've been encountering this weird problem:
I am powering the module with 3 AA batteries, which has about 3.4V now. But when i power the esp8266, the voltage shows 2.9v and is constantly decreasing, ultimately the power leds keep on dimming until the board gets fully switched off.
If I take out one battery for about 5 mins, and put it back, it again glows brightly slowly losing voltage until it again shuts down.
While it is powered up, I am still able to flash firmwares to it, but i get only garbage at some random baud rates.
I dont know what to do now. All my connections are correct, and I could very well use the ESP. I dont know whats causing the problem now.!
Please help me out.

I read somewhere While communicating unit uses 200+ ma

AA battery has zinc/carbon has 320 MAH life ?

That's normal behaviour, especially with drained batteries. Battery voltage will drop under load and recover slightly when idle. At less than 1V per cell, your batteries are obviously drained completly.

Ah! Yes.! Thanks a lot! Replaced the board with a fresh set of batteries. Its working good now!
Since this happened right after flashing the new firmware, I got freaked out! Maybe I should switch to rechargeable AA batteries or use a 5V DC adapter and regulate it to 3.3 V.