I've tried all the different board settings, i'm back to
Generic ESP8266 Module, 80Mhz, 40Mhz, DIO, 512k (64K PSIFFS), ck, Disabled, None
but none make any difference (unless I choose a setting way out of spec).
Whilst the tutorial i'm using
http://www.instructables.com/file/FCH0MSCI697OYRQ/
doesn't have any external resistors i notice some others are using 5-10k resisotrs to perform pull ups,
should i be using them?
A picture of my setup is here: