Here's the situation: I bought 2 of these modules - ESP-05 (no GPIO's) and ESP-07 (lot's of GPIO's). Not having an FTDI, I decided to test them via an Arduino Uno (Rx - Rx, Tx - Tx, load a blank sketch and voila!) They both booted up & I could communicate with them using AT commands. Beautiful!!
Next I tried communicating via Softwareserial (2,3) - using a simple sketch that read input from the hardware serial & sent it to the software serial & visa versa - no luck! It was at this point that I abandoned the ESP-05 and focused on the ESP-07. I tried numerous examples but nothing worked! (I had the following connections: GPIO0 - HIGH; GPIO2 - HIGH; GPIO15 - LOW; CH_PD - HIGH; RST - HIGH via a 10k pullup. I also had both Rx & Tx going through a level shifter)
At some point I figured maybe it's the firmware so started looking at how to update that - I installed the ESP8266 for Arduino & tried to see how I could upload a sketch (GPIO0 - LOW & recycle power) - I managed to upload a blank sketch, but this seems to have wiped the original firmware. Now this module does nothing!! I have since tried to upload NodeMCU firmware, and although it goes through the process (complete with flashing BLUE lights) - when I connect to it with PuTTY, Terminal, or even the Arduino serial monitor I get nothing!!
I then flashed Electrodragons firmware - same thing (it goes through the whole process with the blue flashing LED) - I still get nothing! Issuing ANY AT Commands is met by resolute silence! However - if I momentarily ground the reset pin I get some garbage - regardless of what baud rate I use.
So here's the question: Have I completely killed this thing, or is there some way to "start over" i.e completely wipe everything off it & install a virginal firmware version??
Any help will be greatly appreciated!