ESP8266 Community Forum

- Sat Mar 19, 2016 3:12 pm #43581 Hi there,

I'm kind of newby on esp world and after many many tries and internet searches, i'm lost. Here is the story :

After successfull programming of a nodemcu, I recently received several esp8266-12E and esp8266-12F that i'd like to integrate in my projects.

I followed this tutorial to communicate with my ESPs : http://www.instructables.com/id/Getting ... /?ALLSTEPS
using :
- a FTDI232 to communicate with my laptop.
- a MB102 to provide power to the ESP. Output voltage is ~ 3.21V

I use the Arduino IDE console to try to communicate with option "both NL & CR" enabled . After several RSTs which sent me strange characters, i found the appropriate baud rate to be 74880 on the "-12F" and 115200 on the "-12E"

First problem is that, with GPIO0 to HIGH, and after a reset, i got :
- on the -12E :

Code: Select allets Jan  8 2013,rst cause:2, boot mode:(1,7)

and that's it. No replies to any command

- on the -12F :
i got a few AT commands working, like

Code: Select allAT+GMR

            AT version:0.40.0.0(Aug  8 2015 14:45:58)
            SDK version:1.3.0
            Ai-Thinker Technology Co.,Ltd.
            Build:1.3.0.2 Sep 11 2015 11:48:04

but most of the time, i got the infamous watchdog timer reset, something very frequently (2 or 3/sec). AT+CWLAP was also making it reset.


So i decided to try to flash them with latest nodemcu firmware. I connected GPIO0 to GND and used this command from my ubuntu (with files downloaded locally of course) :
sudo python ./esptool/esptool.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 write_flash 0x00000 ./nodemcu_integer_0.9.6-dev_20150704.bin

It took sometimes several tries. I got this error message at different % :

Code: Select all<...>
Connecting...
Erasing flash...
Took 2.77s to erase flash block
Writing at 0x00009800... (8 %)
A fatal error occurred: Invalid head of packet

Then a success (was it?) :

Code: Select allConnecting...
Erasing flash...
Took 2.40s to erase flash block
Wrote 450560 bytes at 0x00000000 in 43.5 seconds (82.9 kbit/s)...

Leaving...

I re-wire GPIO0 to HIGH. Go on Arduino IDE, restart console, and i have this :
- on '-12E' :

Code: Select allload 0x40100000, len 29824, room 16
tail 0
chksum 0x0b
load 0x3ffe8000, len 3064, room 8
tail 0
chksum 0xc3
load 0x3ffe8bf8, len 8, room 8
tail 0
chksum 0xa5
csum 0xa5
system param error
56 45 52 31 00 00 00 00 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff

... a lots of ff, some 00, then garbage

- on the '-12F' ? well it seems dead now, don't remember what i tried

So am i totally wrong ? Did i miss something "obvious" ? Help would be really appreciated.
Thanks,
Pascal.

- Sun Apr 10, 2016 3:04 pm #45246 I am not an expert, but couple suggestions on things you can try that might fix some of these things. It does look like you have more than one problem happening, so debugging is challenging.

Suggestions:
- be sure powerful enough FTDI / USB. Important to use large capacitor across + and - to stabilize the current. Also consider using external power source (common ground)
- the "end of packet" error looks like the binary might be corrupt. when I have seen this before, I have downloaded again and it fixed.

- Sun Apr 10, 2016 6:01 pm #45260 I have had a lot of problems because the chinese FTDI module isn't powerful enough (300mA) to keep the esp8266 running.
At the very best, my esp8266 keeps rebooting.

I solved my problem by connecting an arduino to laptop on another USB port and then used the arduino's 3.3V output to provide power for my esp8266.

The arduino alone has enough juice on the 3.3V rail. But if you have a "chinese arduino" and you still have not enough power, you can combine arduino's 3.3V with the FTDI 3.3V and also arduino's GND with FTDI GND.

- Mon Apr 11, 2016 7:45 am #45275 Happy for you that you've been so lucky, because Arduino 3.3V rail is even worst than the one of FTDI.
The Official specs says that it can deliver a maximum of 50mA.

You should better using a wall adaptor along with 3.3V voltage regulator and capacitor.

BTW, you can NOT combine power supplies, you can destroy your hardware doing so !