ESP8266 Community Forum

Im trying to understand what is the difference between using the Arduino IDE with the ESP8266 module versus flashing my ESP with Espressif's SDK.

- If I load a sketch through Arduino IDE, is firmware still running in the ESP?
- Where is that firmware sitting? in the flash memory? Is it partitioned?
-If firmware is still in play when using Arduino IDE, how may I invoke AT commands?
- I've seen this command to get the firmware version AT+GMR, but where do I run it if I am using the Arduino IDE?

Would really appreciate if someone dares try to make me understand.

Your sketch is the firmware!!!

The ArduinoIDE just compiles your sketch into some code that is uploaded to the ESP, replacing whatever firmware might have been there previously. The SDK does exactly the same, but instead of compiling an Arduino sketch, it compiles your C code.

AT commands are provided by "the AT firmware"; as soon as you upload your code, that firmware gets deleted, and thus you can no longer use AT commands.

Hi,

I have a related question, when you look at the flash loader there are 4 pieces of firmware
blank.bin -> Probably nothing to worry about
boot_v1_x.bin -> Is this being used by the Arduino compiled code and should this be up to date?
esp_init_data_default.bin -> Same question here
user1.1024.new.2.bin -> This is the AT code, and is clear it will be overwritten.

Thanks
Paul
(Newbie)

When using as an Arduino, the memory map is:


See: https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino/blob/master/doc/filesystem.md#flash-layout

Ray