ESP8266 Community Forum

Thanks for the ideas.
@kenn unfortunately I don't have an oscilloscope. I'm using an FTDI breakout with a 3.3v and 5v switch I bought made so I don't think it's the problem.
@martinayotte I put a 10uF cap between 3.3v and GND and it does increase the time between resets but it still doesn't reply to any AT commands between resets.

magicsmoke wrote:@martinayotte I put a 10uF cap between 3.3v and GND and it does increase the time between resets but it still doesn't reply to any AT commands between resets.

Leave your 10uF there, but also add a 0.1uF and as well as a 220uF, maybe this will even make your supply more stable.
For AT commands, did you end it with CR/LF (not only CR) ?

Argh all my problems were caused by my 3.3v regulator going into thermal shutdown (it's rated for 100mA max). I never knew this little thing needed so much power! It should be publicized more that you need a good supply for this. Switched to a nice 5A supply just to be safe and all is good now.

just for reference I've had similar issues when powering the ESP from FTDIFiend (based on FTDI FT232RL chip) which was supposed to provide enough current to power the ESP. It did indeed work but some things didn't function correctly so I've used a separate power supply for VCC and used GND, RX, TX pins from FTDI for UART only. Since that It's been working like a charm.