merkelck asked 5 years ago
Recently I bought some more of these devices to add to my motion sensor collection. However, I could not get the sketch to load. I was using a sketch from last summer when I built several devices. After a lot of head scratching, I discovered that these devices would not load the sketch unless I reverted back to the 2.5.0 Board Manager in the IDE.
The IDE is 1.8.12(Windows 1.8.33). The board manager version was 2.6.3. The TOOLS page of the IDE also had several new items listed that I was not familiar with such as the Flash Size. and some different choices as to the RESET method. I have also noticed that some of the newer -01 devices have two LEDS instead of one. On some of the devices, the blue LED is lit all the time except when motion is detected. Others barely flicker when the code is being uploaded. The one with two LEDS has a red LED that is simply a power indicator.
Does anyone know where I might find some details about these boards?
KentM
Steph answered 5 years ago
Hi Kent,
Maybe just try changing the upload speed.
I’m guessing it should work at 115200 bps.
(although I don’t have an ESP-8266-01 board to test, sorry)
merkelck answered 5 years ago
Hello Stéphane ,
I didn’t try that but I found that there were new choices in the flash size. Apparently the newer ones have 1M vs 512k and all of the choices now mention an OTA value. I can’t seem to find any explanation for those items. So for me, it will back to v2.5.0 as it still seems to get the job done. I also have no idea how you identify the newer version of the board other than the single or dual LEDs on the board. It would be nice to know which boards work with the newer versions of the board manager. I am not a github pro but I thought sure that I might an explanation for the new board manager versions. I will do some more searching.
Regards,
Kent
Steph answered 5 years ago
Hello Kent,
You can at least try to change the upload speed!
Okay, then maybe take a look at this:
http://www.massmind.org/techref/esp-8266.htm
You may also find some answers here:
https://arduino-esp8266.readthedocs.io/en/latest/faq/a01-espcomm_sync-failed.html
merkelck answered 5 years ago
Stéphane , Thanks for the reply. Most of the info in the links is quite old and doesn’t spend much time on the -01 version. I use the speed of 115200. It works well with the old board manager version. This whole thing is like the OTA issue with the new board manager. When I went to the new version, I could not get my OTA system to work with the ESP8266-NodeMCU 12E device. Everything seemed to work great , I could ping the device but the available port would not show up in the IDE. I solved my issue with that by just switching to the ESP32 system as explained in RUI’s ESP32 course. and it has been working great. I have several remote located LED features that I like to change the sketch on and the 8266NodeMCU devices failed me several levels of board manager back. I just don’t have the patience any more to have to keep track which version went with which device.
Regards, Kent M
Sara Santos Staff answered 5 years ago
Hi Kent.
I also had trouble with OTA updates in the past. They worked well in some versions and didn’t on other versions. Many times the solution is to get back to the version that was working previously.
When it comes to the ESP-01 board, most recent versions come with 1MB flash instead of the old version 512 KB. However, they should work similarly in terms of code. I haven’t been working with ESP-01 boards lately, so I don’t know much information about that issue.
I’m sorry that I can’t help much.
Regards,
Sara
merkelck answered 5 years ago
Thanks, Sara. I have just resolved my self to use the older BM for some projects. At least I can get the older version to allow me to build a few more working sensors. I have one of my remote esp8266 NodeMCU boards in the shop now that I am going to try to use the OTA sketch with the old BM and see if the will fix that issue. It seems such a waste to put a ESP32 out there using one GPIO but the ability to use the OTA is worth every penny of it….
Regards Kent M
Sara Santos Staff answered 5 years ago
Yes. OTA updates are very very useful.
And yes, if you’re just using one GPIO, the most affordable option is an ESP-01.
Then, let me know if you were able to use it with the old BM.
Regards,
Sara