ESP8266 Community Forum

- Fri Jan 16, 2015 3:40 pm #7462 Thanks for attempting to enlighten me re DTR and CTS - I think I get it, the DTR controls the boot mode, and CTS is wiggled low briefly whilst this is held low.

My manual process is simple (now I've got it working - it caused me headaches at first!) - make CH_PD high, GPIO15 low, GPIO0 low, leave GPIO2 floating (high) and apply power. And since I've been using the limpkin dev board - this has a handy button to do the reset whilst holding GPIO0 low briefly - I just press the button and issue a esptool.py write_flash command. After the flash has completed I let GPIO0 float again and either toggle CH_PD or just break and re-apply power.

I would try to get the manual way working before getting the CTS and DTR lines working - one less thing to debug.

Also have you got just the one module? I've been fairly lucky with mine but at this price you can't expect 100% perfect quality control - maybe you have a bad module?

Good luck and do post back with your results - it helps others especially newbies who might not have ever worked with micro-controllers before.

- Fri Jan 16, 2015 5:48 pm #7473

My manual process is simple (now I've got it working - it caused me headaches at first!) - make CH_PD high, GPIO15 low, GPIO0 low, leave GPIO2 floating (high) and apply power.

Just confirming that I use this same procedure on an ESP-07 from Banggood, that looks similar as the ESP-12 (ceramic antenna vs PCB antenna).
Instead of apply power also temporarily GND-ing the RST line will do.

- Sat Jan 17, 2015 1:53 pm #7532

I would try to get the manual way working before getting the CTS and DTR lines working - one less thing to debug.
.

Tried it, but still can't flash :s
Exactly the same behavior, so it wasn't the RTS and DTR lines.


Just got the one...

Is the internal flash connected differently in this module or so? I'm reading references to SPI DIO mode around the web, would this affect the flashing procedure?

- Sat Jan 17, 2015 2:17 pm #7536 I've just flashed a dev board with an ESP-12 module on board - no special procedures just the same as previously outlined.

Looking back at your problem - you do seem to be in flash mode, because esptool.py starts by saying 'erasing flash' - which it only does if it starts communications with the board.

Have you tried getting a fresh copy of the esptool and the firmware you're trying to burn?

I seem to remember that "Invalid head of packet" error - maybe a thorough search would find helpful info?