ESP8266 programming on Arduino IDE: first time setup, do not see ESPTool in programmer menu?

MakerNewbie wrote 05/24/2016 at 01:24 2 points

I just purchased a generic ESP8266 dev board, just installed the arduino IDE (1.6.9), and then because the ESP board wasn't showing up, I added it on Board Manager (http://arduino.esp8266.com/stable/package_esp8266com_index.json). I selected the generic ESP8266 module as the board.

I believe I also need to change the Programmer to esptools, but even after restarting the IDE, I'm not finding that option; what I see is:

* AVR ISP

*AVRISP mkll

* USBtinyISP

* ArduinoISP

* USBasp

* Parallel Progammer

* Arduino as ISP

* Arduino Gemma

* Atmel STK500 Development Board

* BusPirate as ISP

Has the IDE changed in a way that I should be using one of these, or if not, what steps do I need to take to have esptools show up as an option?


Thank you!