Hi,
a while ago I was using an ESP8266 with perfectly satisfactory results. Then I got to thinking .. ooh if only the WiFi was capable of a better range … I got a couple of ESP8266-201’s.
Then I spent hours … days …. weeks trying to get the connections right to let me load it through the Arduino IDE. I took lots of advice and read lots of stuff on the internet. Every one was helpful with telling me to ground pin GPIO-0 – some mentioned to just have a button and flick it to ground just before “downloading” whilst others didn’t mention this nugget. Some mentioned pin 15 – marked “1015” and said variously that this pin should be connected to ground or VCC or 3.3vdc – no one seemed too sure.
I spent my days / spare minutes variously connecting then disconnecting different wiring configurations and eventually concluded both my FTDI modules were junk and both the esp modules were probably blown too – I threw the lot in a drawer in my shed.
I don’t usually give up and so today I got it all out again and searched the internet some more and combining various postings I came up with this – connect CHIP_EK to 3.3vdc and keep pin marked 100 connected to ground all the time but disconnect once the module is loaded satisfactorily. Now, no one anywhere had ever mentioned the CHIP_EK pin so you may find that useful here.
It all worked beautifully first time. Extacy. Program runs.modules not blown, FTDI’s not blown, sanity restored.
Just thought you’d like to know.
Best regards
D6