ESP8266 Community Forum

- Fri Jan 12, 2018 4:26 pm #73099 Hi All.

I really did hit up Google with this question before posting here. The problem is not that there isn’t any information, there’s too much!!!

I want to reprogram an ESP8285 with the “official” AT Command firmware. I can handle the hardware side of this: adequate power supply, USB-Serial converter, switches for flash mode, reset, etc.

I’m just overwhelmed trying to find the correct download tool, SDK, and instructions. There’s stuff at [url]espressif.com[/url] and at [url]bbs.espressif.com[/url]. I’m not sure which set is right for the ESP8285 as most of the documentation and how-to guides only talk about the 8266.

I think if someone can point me to the right tool and SDK with correct binaries for ESP8285, I’d be most of the way there. Also, need the document that tells me the flash address where each binary should be loaded.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks.

Greg

- Fri Jan 12, 2018 7:48 pm #73100 Hello, I've got exactly the same problem.
I can write programs for the ESP8266, have them run independently, I can flash the modules, etc ....
I can basically do anything with them except use them as a Wifi network card for my Arduino's.
It seems that once you have loaded a sketch on them, they never accept any AT commands anymore. Not even after loading an empty sketch in to them or even erase the complete flash memory with a utility I found.

Can someone help me? And is there a library which replaces having to use AT commands?

Regards, Chris.

- Sat Jan 13, 2018 5:48 am #73111 These are 2 separate problems.

AT commands are supported by a separate firmware which is the default firmware supplied with most modules.

When you load new firmware like an arduino sketch then you are replacing the AT command firmware and the module is now running whatever is in it. You can load the AT command firmware back which will then replace your sketch. There is little point in having a separate library for AT commands to combine into your firmware as there are equivalent functions already available to include in your sketches.

I haven't used the esp8285 but I believe the only significant difference is that 1MB flash is built in and the external flash pins are gone. You should therefore be able to use exactly the same esp8266 flash tools and AT command firmware for it.

- Sat Jan 13, 2018 9:12 am #73117 Thanks for the info on ESP8285 / ESP8266 equivalency, that's a start. But, I'm still confused / overwhelmed. Most of my angst comes from my impression that the Espressif web sites and "documentation" are cluster f*ck of incomplete, vague, and conflicting information.

I still can't figure out which site between espressif.com and bbs.espressif.com holds the real "latest" firmware to download. After clicking a lot of links, I arrived here:
https://github.com/espressif/ESP8266_NONOS_SDK

I thought "great the dates here look pretty recent", so I downloaded it. Going to the "documents" folder, I found a readme file containing this link:
https://espressif.com/sites/default/fil ... ide_en.pdf

"Great", I thought, I'm getting somewhere. It talks about .bin files and where to place them in flash.

But, the SDK at GitHub contains multiple versions of the .bin files mentioned in the .pdf. To make up for that, the SDK doesn't contain any of the "eagle…..bin" files mentioned in the .pdf.

So, please, can someone just give me a pointer to the correct SDK for putting my ESP8285 back into the state as it originally left the factory? Just acting as a WiFi modem that accepts AT commands. Exactly which .bin files in the SDK do I need to flash? Does it leave the factory as OTA or non-OTA (I assume the latter)? Does it leave the factory as OS or non-OS (I assume the latter)?

Thank you. Sorry if this sounds like a rant.