Build Instructions

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• 1

  Making an Adapter and Power source for the ESP-01

  Looking at the 01 version we see that it is not very breadboard friendly so we have to make an adapter for programming. You could buy one on ebay for a few cents but waiting one month just for shipping is silly because you can make one in 5 minutes.

  I made my adapter using male and female headers soldered on a tiny 4x4 square cut out of a prototype PCB. You could also use female to male jumper wires as many people do but I don't have them. As a last resort theoretically you can just solder wires to it (like we will have to do on the 12F version) but it is rather messy and you could short something.

  The ESP8266 runs on 3.3V and consumes anything from 20 to 250 mA so to properly power the module you must get a power supply that can deliver that amount of current or the ESP will be unstable if it works at all. Do not even try to connect it to the 3.3v pin on the Arduino or the FTDI breakout because it can't deliver that amount of current. For example if you have an old PC power supply you can use that or in my example use a voltage regulator, because I will fit these module in my wall switch so it has to be a small one. The AMS1117 3.3V version is the perfect coise, it is small and can deliver up to 1A. I have connected its input to the 5v pin of the Arduino and here is the schematics (capacitors are there for smoothing and decoupling, you don't need to use the exact same values but it's recomended):

  C1 10uF - for stabilizing the input
  C2 0.1uF or 100nF - decoupling, must be placed near the voltage regulator
  C3 100uF - for stabilizing the ESP8266 input
  C4 0.1uF or 100nF - decoupling, must be placed near the ESP8266

• 2

  Communication Setup

  If you can successful power up the module it's time for the next step, setting up a communication to the PC. The easyest way is to use a FTDI Breakout board (link in the project components list) or using an Arduino Uno as a Serial programmer.

  1. Using a FTDI Breakout board

  Communication on the module is using 3.3V (it is not 5V tolerant, not even the RX pin!) so if you happen to have a FTDI breakout that has an on board jumper for voltage selection (like mine) set it to 3.3V and you can skip the 2 resistor and connect the RX line from the ESP directly to the TX on the FTDI. If your programmer uses 5V for communication connect everything as the picture shows. The resistors form a voltage drop so the 5V signal from the FTDI board gets "converted" to 3.3V.

  2. Using Arduino Uno

  To use an Arduino as a USB to Serial converter you must disable the onboard Atmega chip. There are 3 ways:

  • Connect the RESET pin to GND or
  • Upload a Sketch (The sketch basically stops the Atmel chip to interfere the communication between FTDI chip (on the Arduino board) and your other device)

    void setup(){  
    pinMode(0,INPUT);  
    pinMode(1,INPUT);
    }
    void loop(){
    }

     or

  • Remove the Atmel Chip (If you have the SMD version you can't do this)

  The original post is HERE.

  And now just instead of connecting the TX and RX line to the FTDI board as the picture above shows, you connect it to the Arduino (be sure to conncet the two resistors as on the picture because the Arduino uses 5V serial communication).

  Arduino UNO - Pin 0 goes to the RX of the ESP and pin 1 to the TX of the ESP.
  

  Pins explanation:

  •     TXD (goes to the 3.3V Rx of the Programmer)

  •     CH_PD (enable/power down, must be pulled to 3.3v directly or via resistor)

  •     REST (reset, must be pulled to 3.3v, not necessary but recommended)

  •     VCC (3.3v power supply)

  •     GND (connect to power ground)

  •     GPIO 2

  •     GPIO 0 (leave open or pull up for normal, pull down to upload new firmware)

  •     RXD (goes to the 3.3V Tx of the Programmer)
• 3

  Lets do it

  For communication to the module we are using Arduino IDE, it's simple and it has a Serial monitor. We first need to install the ESP board so the software recognizes our board (If you have not already installed Arduino IDE you can go HERE and install it yourself, there are many tutorials online on how to do that.).

  To begin, we’ll need to update the board manager with a custom URL. Open up Arduino IDE, then go to the Preferences (File > Preferences). Then, towards the bottom of the window, copy this URL into the “Additional Board Manager URLs” text box:

  http://arduino.esp8266.com/stable/package_esp8266com_index.json  

  Hit OK. Then navigate to the Board Manager by going to Tools > Boards > Boards Manager. There should be a couple new entries in addition to the standard Arduino boards. Look for esp8266. Click on that entry, then select Install. It may take a few minutes to download and install (the archived file is ~110MB). Once the installation has completed, an Arduino-blue “INSTALLED” will appear next to the entry

  Or you can read the full detailed tutorial.

  Select “Generic ESP8266 Module” from the Tools > Boards menu, then select your FTDI’s port number (if you are programming your module with Arduino select the Arduino Uno port number) under the Tools > Port menu (if your FTDI board port isn't listed in most cases you will need to install the appropriate drivers for that particular board and there are plenty tutorials online for that.).

  Everything is setup now, go to Tools > Serial Monitor, set the baud rate to 115200, restart your ESP8266 and there should be a "ready" message. If everything is ok when you type "AT" and press send you should get a "ok" message. With sending these simple AT commands you can control the ESP, HERE is the list.

  If you try setting up the baud rate to 76800, when you power up the module it will list some debug messages, that is not the right baud rate of your board because you must find the one on witch you get the "ready" message.
  

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