Second option is to use Flash Download Tool software that is described below.
It is much easier to push the button than hold or connect/disconnect the wire each time you need to re-program the module. Next step is to build a programmer for ESP. It looks like some modules have even larger Flash so feel free to use those as well, if you are lucky and you have one. Modules with W25Q80 chip has 8Mbyte of FLASH on board. Modules that have chip Winbond W25Q40 installed have 4Mbit of FLASH.
There are two options how to detect flash size – check the chip or let the software to ask. First modules were assembled with 4Mbit of Flash and for them you need to use a lot older firmware version. We will cover all three above mentioned options using Windows based tools.Īt first make sure you have a module that has at least 8Mbit of Flash on board because newer firmware versions do not support anymore modules that have less memory. It is possible to program ESP8266 either in Windows or in Linux.
For example connect just some external sensor through the UART or I2C interface to it and module starts living its own life by checking sensor data and sending update over the network. There are about 30 examples together with SDK how you could use your ESP8266. You can use either stock firmware or RTOS based firmware as the basis and build your application on top of that. Use SDK that makes possible to write your own code on to ESP8266.This script you can send directly through your UART. Basically if you want to reconfigure your WIFI module you can write lua scripts, load it to the module and your code will be executed automatically after next reboot. The most important feature is lua script support. You can still send string based commands to it but they look different. For example last firmware adds SSL support, more AT commands and many bugfixes. You still have option to upgrade the firmware to the latest version. It is by default supported by stock firmware. You can communicate with ESP8266 using AT commands.There are actually many ESP8266 programming options: Soon there will be tutorials how to change the firmware to NodeMCU and write your own custom firmware. In this post I will cover only AT firmware update. I decided to put everything together ino one blog post. There are many tutorials how to program ESP8266 but many of them are missing with detailed instructions or how to make a programmer for this purpose or does not guide where to get the firmware and tools. When it comes with the factory firmware it has AT interface support that is sufficient to cover all configuration options. ESP8266 is currently one of the most widely used WIFI chip because of its low cost and small number of required external components.