How to easily Firmware Update the AI Thinker ESP8266

This is not just another post of how to connect Arduino UNO to ESP8266 board.

Yes there is how to connect it and how to configure it in details. Also, in this post you can find the detailed steps of how to firmware update of the ESP8266 board.

This firmware update is essential for some boards to have the function of AT commands.

Why

ESP8266 is a smart solution for many IoT projects indeed. It's so cheap and powerful that you can start prototyping and making your own products quickly.

ESP8266 is based on the ARM processor and Arduino compatible. It also has its own Wifi transceiver.

So you can use it as a stand alone Arduino board with Wifi capability and you can also use it as an Arduino Wifi Shield.

The problem is when you get the AI-Cloud inside version of ESP8266 you need to Firmware Update it before using the AT commands.

This means that you can use it only as a standalone Arduino board before the update.

But to be able to use it as an Arduino Wifi Shield with AT command you have to update the firmware.

Got it ?

Components

Arduino
ESP8266

How

Connections

ESP8266 -- Arduino

VCC 3.3V

CH_PD 3.3V

GPIO2 3.3V

GND GND

GPIO0 GND

TX TX

RX RX

Circuit

Source: Arduino Website

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How to configure ESP8266 with Arduino - Arduino WiFi Shield

Yesterday we knew how to add the ESP8266 board to Arduino IDE.

Today, we are examining how to configure it using Arduino UNO board.


ESP8266 is low cost Arduino compatible development board. It can act as a standalone board that runs Arduino code just as any Arduino compatible board.

It can also be thought of as an Arduino Wi-Fi shield. In this concept, you can configure it and then use it as Wi-Fi shield that serially connects to Arduino.

In the previous post, we learned how to configure connect and program the ESP8266 using USB to TTL converter that has 3.3v selector switch (FOCA).

We can also configure the ESP8266 using Arduino UNO board as we’ll see in this post.

Components 

Arduino UNO
ESP8266

Connection

Code

You can find a list of AT commands used to configure ESP8266 here.

Source: Arduino Website

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How to install ESP8266 on Arduino IDE - Arduino Compatible Wifi Board

Installing the ESP8266 Board

Here is how to install ESP8266 board into Arduino IDE.

I just followed the steps in this guide.

To install the ESP8266 board in your Arduino IDE, follow these next instructions:

First, I added the URL in the additional boards in the preferences page.

1) Open the preferences window from the Arduino IDE. Go to File > Preferences

Then I opened boards - board manager and chosen Install option.

2) Enter http://arduino.esp8266.com/stable/package_esp8266com_index.json into the “Additional Board Manager URLs” field as shown in the figure below. Then, click the “OK” button.

3) Open boards manager. Go to Tools > Board > Boards Manager…

4) Scroll down, select the ESP8266 board menu and install “esp8266”

The package is so large (about 157MB).

5) Choose your ESP8266 board from Tools > Board > Generic ESP8266 Module

Connection

Then I used FOCA instead of the FTD232 converter.

The FOCA board has the same pins as FTD232 board plus those pins in which you can connect XBee to your PC.

So it can be easily used as a USB to TTL converter.

Make sure to put the voltage selector switch on 3.3V so you don’t harm the ESP8266 board.

Test Circuit

This circuit is a simple LED Blinker that uses ESP8266 to blink an LED.

Code

/*********
  Rui Santos
  Complete project details at http://randomnerdtutorials.com  
*********/
int pin = 2;
void setup() {
  // initialize GPIO 2 as an output.
  pinMode(pin, OUTPUT);
}
// the loop function runs over and over again forever
void loop() {
  digitalWrite(pin, HIGH);   // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
  delay(1000);               // wait for a second
  digitalWrite(pin, LOW);    // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
  delay(1000);               // wait for a second
}

Source: RandomNerdTutorials

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Arduino UNO ESP8266 interfacing - How to connect Arduino UNO to ESP8266

ESP8266 is a popular board developed and introduced in 2014. It’s an Arduino compatible board that has WiFi connectivity.

In this post we’ll learn how to connect Arduino UNO to ESP8266.

First, we’ll learn how to configure and upload code into ESP8266.

Then, we connect it to Arduino UNO to act like a serial WiFi shield.

Components

Arduino UNO

ESP8266

Logic Level Converter Circuit

Connection 

Circuit

Code

https://github.com/Circuito-io/ESP8266_SoftwareSerial/commit/f5591181490751700dc01c32155d7543d0c04f49

Source: Arduino Website

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