ESP8266 Community Forum

For the fun/heck of it I tried to register on AI-thinker's web site.
Well, they are geeks... The question I had to answer to register is:
换一个 51单片机常用的工作电压是多少V ？
Ah!
Google tells me this means For a working voltage of 51 microcontroller used is the number of V? (Capital needs)
Whoo!

So I tried FIVE, then 5V Sent me back another mail, now asking
For a common operating voltage ESP8266 number V? (Capital needs)
So this I know, 3.3V, right .
That worked... I'm now a novice on their site... Fear is the only darkness, grasshopper...

Greg-hoper...

So, I downloaded the ESP-12E specs from AI-Thinker site, and mind you, the pictures they have in their document are the ones with the 'dirty' PCB, with AI-Cloud inside printed on it .... Those that were thought as 'fake' in the earlier posts...

Now, the rest of the docx is in Chinese, need to run it through some translator...

They also have the specs sheets for all the ESP-NN modules...

Greg

gregware wrote:Hi,
If you get anyone from AI-Thinker to talk to you (assuming you're a westerner), let us know !

I have never ever found any communication from this company, their web site is chinese-only, and I would say that our small world of hobbyists-DYIer is not in their scope at all.

My feeling is that this is not out of carelessness on AI-Thinker's part, it's just that they do their stuff for the chinese market, they probably sell tons of ESP-XX boards to the chinese industry for integration in IoT devices, and we're the least of their concern.
It just happens that some of their boards are sold off to westerners on eBay or AliExpress by local folks alongside many gadgets, and on TaoBao for the internal hobbyist/entrepreneur market. They do not have a PR dept that will handle kids playing with their stuff as a hobby.
Fair enough.

In terms of electronics, there are many chips out there that we do not have access to, ESP-8266 has been an exception for incidental reasons. Lookup the GongKai article there http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?tag=gongkai for background...
See my other post on this some time ago: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1124

That's just a feeling, right, I may be wrong, and I welcome a debate, or even better, hard facts on the matter. Anyone reading chinese better than google could tell us what goes on on AI-Thinker website?

Thanks,
Greg

Hi Greg

As mentioned, I have got in touch with them fine.
Our company is looking to use ESP modules in one of our products, and they were more than happy to speak to us. I have had no problems talking to Espressif, or to Sales / Technical and the CEO Of AI Thinker.
Yes I am a westerner.
I didn't go in via their website. We started communications with Espressif, and got a referral to their CEO, who then put us on to the sales team, who then put us on to the lead engineer for AI Thinker.
So yes, I have direct contact at the moment.

Very understandable on their part why it would be difficult for hobbyists etc to get in touch with them. Really, who wants hundreds of hobbyists asking questions to the engineering team at their factory. They would be inundated with questions. That is what forums are for. Sadly it is in Chinese for us non-Chinese speaking/reading people, but really its a Chinese company and its just part of the challenge. Want to use Chinese parts, you have to deal with the Chinese language, unless the company has spent the time to cater for other countries and make another version of their website - which at the moment Ai Thinker hasn't. Sales / Technical and CEO all speak and write good English, so from our point of view we are very happy. We do have a few Chinese colleagues in another department, however we haven't had to go there yet.

Flip the coin and have a Chinese company want to use a part from a USA company, they have to deal with them in English right... its no different.

Regards
WanaGo

louisd wrote:Hello,

I recently bought a esp8266 12e, with printings on it (AI-Cloud inside) that categorizes it as "fake" according to the descrption of the first message of this thread. And when I hooked it up to my computer, the only things that is sent back via serial is "NON GENUINE DEVICE FOUND!" that appears a few times when I power it up, and then each time I send a command, it just keeps printing the same sentence again and again while the blue led is blinking, only printing the number of letter I sent in the command (if I send "AT" it'll print NO, then if I send "AT" again, it will send "N ", and if I send rubbish like "ATTTTTT" it will just answer by "GENUINE", etc etc....).

Does anyone had the same issue? May it be realted to those "fake" chips?

I had the same issue. To unbrick it, here is the solution I found:
1. Connect :
GPIO0 to GND,
GPIO2 to +VCC with 10kohms pullup resistor
GPIO15 to GND with 10kohms resistor
CH_PD to +VCC
RST not connected
TX/RX to 3.3v FTDI serial adapter
2. power the device (3.3v)
3. flash it with esp8266_flasher.exe and an original binary code (easy to find)
4. disconnect GPIO0
Launch a serial monitor software at 115000bauds and reset the chip.
ESP is now working fine, answering to AT commands.