ESP8266

ESP8266 is a low cost Wi-Fi capable microcontroller created by Espressif, a Shanghai based company. I got a few from Ebay for $1.75USD each (some even cheaper when on auction).

For more information, read the Wikipedia article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESP8266

Usage

The ESP8266 runs on 3.3v and is not 5v tolerant. However, I was able to connect the ESP8266 to a 5v FTDI adapter without any issue. Ideally though, the RX/RX should be connected through a voltage divider.

To power on and play with the ESP8266, connect

1. vcc to 3.3v
2. gnd to ground
3. GPIO-15 to ground via 10k resistor
4. GPIO-2 to vcc via 10k resistor
5. GPIO-0 to vcc
6. TXD0 to TX (on FTDI or Arduino board without the atmel chip)
7. RXD0 to RX (through voltage divider)
8. RST to vcc via 10k resistor. (Connecting this to gnd will reset chip)
9. EN (or CH_PD on some boards?) to vcc via 10k resistor

The serial connection by default out of the box was 115200 baud.

The NON-OS firmware will boot and will start accepting AT commands.

AT Command Reference

See: https://room-15.github.io/blog/2015/03/26/esp8266-at-command-reference/

Flashing

To flash the stock firmware (NON-OS), get the SDK and the flashing tools from:

• http://espressif.com/en/support/download/other-tools
• http://espressif.com/en/support/download/sdks-demos

Source code can be found at:

• https://github.com/espressif/ESP8266_NONOS_SDK

See Also

• https://homeautomationfordummies.wordpress.com/2016/03/04/esp8266-esp-12-getting-started/
• http://support.thingplus.net/en/esp8266.html
• https://tttapa.github.io/ESP8266/Chap03 - Software.html

• http://yaab-arduino.blogspot.ca/2015/03/esp8266-wiring-schemas.html