Use this forum to chat about hardware specific topics for the ESP8266 (peripherals, memory, clocks, JTAG, programming)

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By mrburnette
#52842 I'm using the LoLin V3 NodeMCU for all of my ESP8266 development under Linux Mint .... absolutely rock solid performance for my projects such as This One.

I gave up on Windows development last year dur to numerous driver support problems... I was spending more time "fixing" Windows 8.1 than writing C++ code... after trying W10, I knew that Redmond was in the hands of Satan and I did what I should have done years ago and moved to a reasonable Open Source development platform (I am an ex-MCSE but there is just too much wasted time using Windows.)

I do apply a UV bonding agent to reinforce the mechanical stability of the microUSB jack. Using a toothpick, I carefully apply the UV bonding fluid and then Zap with a 100mW UV laser! I reapply more adheasive in thin layers until the jack is very secure.

Ray
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By forlotto
#52847 I have used about 15 of these boards for various things...

I am using the basic interpreter from mmiscool may wish to give it a shot totally up to you and just see if it works. If it works you should get an AP after preforming the flash and reset that says ESP(with your mac id) should show up under list of connections. Visit 192.168.4.1 to visit the settings page and editor etc once connected. Very simplistic yet able to do nearly anything I wanted so far...

Did you check your device manager to see if there is a serial mouse driver being detected?

Did you push up on your esp chip with a little force to make sure it is soldered well?

The reason I ask about the esp board on the lolin board is because I have had this cause intermittent issues on 2 of my boards out of 15+ ...

How I fixed this issue. I got some flux added it near all the solder joints. Heated these edges with a hot air station until don't take long then just lifted it with some needle nose pliers. Then I cleaned the flux off with some 95% Isopropol alcohol beefed up the pads with some silver bearing solder. Then I laid a little no clean flux down and set the esp board so it lines up with the pads and heated up the edges until all pads melted and the chip was in place very simple process providing everything cooperates at worse you may have to tap it ever so slightly with a tool while the solder is molten to square everything up. It does require some practice like anything. Some of the things you will learn is not to over heat the components on the board, not having the air flow or temperature set too high or too low, flux is your friend and finally how did I expect to do any of this without a good smt smd rework station. I have also successfully done similar using a heat gun but failures were more common because you cannot have tips that focus airflow on a smaller area and the heat and air control is almost not existent you have 3 settings at most.

Can you do it any other way possibly if you were to use a large tip on your soldering iron with flux and you were careful absolutely likely this could be done easily seeing has how the esp chip hangs off the edge of the board you could put this end in an aligator clip and screw it to a 2x4 so it is raised in the air working your iron across the 3 edges with flux the gravity should help the pads release. Start with one of the sides and the bottom to get one side released then do your other side and it should fall off with lots of flux and a wide tip on your soldering iron. Once off you can clean the area and pads are easy to add solder too now don't go too wild you don't need so much solder where the pads are going to merge together. You just need enough to raise the pads for me it was a small bit it almost seems as if they use a minimal amount of solder on these pads actually not enough in many cases to create a good bond with the esp.

As far as the usb port I have never had one fail on me yet but mrbrunett seems to have a pretty good idea using a UV bonding agent I don't believe you will hurt anything with uv but its all up to you in the end.

I am rather curious to see where your issue lies in this case. I suppose it is possible that you have a bad lolin board but I have not had one that wasn't fixable except for the one I burnt up trying to do Dual SPI modification too I heated the cover a bit too long when taking it off. Trial and error lifes best lessons.

@mrbrunette does it really matter with todays current chip design is there not a management system in intel since 2006 and amd since 2013 that basically grants access to control a PC for satan as you call it? Is it not also true that satan as you call it has had keys to control your PC's implanted in windows since Windows 98? I have also heard mixed opinions on linux and what they are doing as well with their OS packaging a bunch of drivers in a single area some security concious people are wary of this I don't recall the specifics of it but these guys are not nuts in my book they are simply aware! As far as development what made things faster in linux base vs windows could you list some of the things I am rather curious as to what it is I am missing I've used linux before and some things were actually cumbersome in linux as well. Save time in development maybe I recall taking like a month or better just to get all of my hardware working correctly in linux especially being a new user and not knowing how to use it while I agree the OS is very full featured and has an excellent price point and is open source it lacks support in many areas say if you are like me and like bluray and a few programs that are only built for windows. Anyways I am just curious if you could list about 5-10 things that actually have saved you time in linux vs windows I am sure you are correct this is a question to further my own understanding more or less.
User avatar
By mubase
#52906
ChrisSparks wrote:I have 2 of these boards myself and I am having issues with Windows driver. Are you trying this with Linux? Seems less of an issue to me.


I've tried it on Mac osx 10.8 and Windows 7. I have an HP2133 running Ubuntu but haven't tried yet but I suspect its something to do with power. It only works with a powered USB port which I've read elsewhere a few people have also found to be the case.
User avatar
By mubase
#52907
forlotto wrote:Couple of things to check.

Solder often these boards do not get enough solder on the chips I had one of them that the whole side lifted just by applying limited pressure got out hot air station added some more solder and reworked esp back on and connection issues don't happen.

Other thing is 340 driver once in a while comes up as a serial mouse driver which causes issues with coms in device manager in windows remove the serial mouse driver and replug and try again interesting as to why this happens but it happens to me sporadically.

Maybe one of these were your issue too?


I thought about the solder issue. I'll have a look. Thanks. Do you think I should reflow the serial chip?