Using DTR pin of FTDI to auto-reset
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2016 9:13 am
If you want to use a FTDI device to program your ESP-12F (or similar) and do not want to include a FTDI chip on your board, you can use a simple circuit to accomplish the feat. This page shows you how. The final schematic on the page has the circuit. It is worth reading the comments though because you can eliminate two of the diodes and replace the other one with a 1N4148. I struggled with trying to do the same thing except via the RESET pin, same as the author of this page. I had a variety of ESP-12F chips from various sources and it worked for some of them and not for others. This way works for all of them.