ESP8266 Community Forum

- Fri May 29, 2015 3:55 am #18827 Hi thanks for the reply.

I have 2 different ones. Firstly a horrible looking Chinese one the same as your 3rd "here" link. Also I have an adafruit one which is a non breakout version. With both all I have managed to do is use putty at 78400 to see some "header" info. I cannot seem to get any more life out of them with AT commands. I've tried all the different baud rates. Regards steve

- Fri May 29, 2015 4:37 am #18832 Ok, i'm not sure which you adafruit one is so lets start with the "horrible looking Chinese one". Thats an ESP-201. As you've said you're an Arduino guy the easiest way might be to just use the Arduino ESP8266 support which lets you run Arduino sketches on the ESP: Get a 1.6.4 version of the Arduino IDE and follow the instruction here to add ESP8266 support to the IDE.

You've said you can see it with putty so i assume you have it wired up to some sort of FTDI adapter. Once the ESP board support is installed in the IDE set the board type to Generic ESP8266 module, and the correct COM port, then open File -> Examples -> ESP8266WebServer -> HelloServer. Update that sketch with the ssid/passord of your Wifi access point. To program (flash) the ESP-201 with that sketch you need to use a jumper wire to connect pin GPIO-0 to GND and then switch off/on the power to the ESP-201 to put in flashing mode. Then in the IDE click the upload button, and you should see it uploading the sketch to the ESP-201.

Remove the GPIO0-GND jumper, open the Arduino serial monitor and set the speed to 115200, toggle power to the ESP and in serial monitor you should see it boot up and start up a web server. In a browser go to the ip address of the webserver and it should display a page saying "hello from esp8266!".

If it doesn't boot up its quite likely a power supply issue, a lot of FTDI adapters don't supply enough power to boot an ESP so you need an external power supply, even just a couple of AA batteries can be enough.

- Fri May 29, 2015 4:57 am #18833 Thanks for the reply, much appriciated.

This is the Adafruit one https://www.adafruit.com/products/2491 (probably not the best one to get with no experience)

I've done all the arduino bit, so i'm probably ready to roll with that.

At first I thought all the processing was done on the Arduino and the ESP was just an "interface", but reading your last post it seems to me that , for want of a better phrase "its a mini arduino", in that you upload the "sketch" to the ESP module. I'm also gussing that the previous comment is in part true, but as i get further into it, there will be ways to interface it to the Arduino.

I'm just hoping i havent made a total fool of myself with the above comments, as soon as i get all my orders processed today i will start "playing" again

- Fri May 29, 2015 5:09 am #18834 Yep thats right. The ESP Arduino support was only released in April, before then people used ESPs like a Wifi adapter for an Arduino, but now with the ESP Arduino support sketches can run directly on the ESP and you don't necessarily need another Arduino board.