Can't connect to WIFI shield ESP8266

Projects Networking, Protocols, and Devices
1

I'm a complete noobie so I am finding this quite difficult to debug. I'm using osoyoo uno board and ESP8266 wifi shield. And this is tutorial one. I followed all the steps, loaded up the library provided in the website and the sketch. Sandwitched the shield and the arduino.

https://osoyoo.com/2020/05/30/wifi-shield-iot-learning-kit-for-arduino-lesson-1-arduinoesp8266-wifi-shield-as-web-server/

I've looked at a number of posts but none seem to have this shield, some do a firmware update - this shield doesn't even have an 'accessible' connector with which to load any sort of update.

I included the relevant bits of the sketch here:

#include "WiFiEsp.h"
#include <SPI.h>

#ifndef HAVE_HWSERIAL1
#include "SoftwareSerial.h"
SoftwareSerial softserial(6, 7); // RX, TX
#endif

... 

  // check for the presence of the shield
  if (WiFi.status() == WL_NO_SHIELD) {
    Serial.println("WiFi shield not present");
    // don't continue
    while (true);
  }

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Any guidance would be helpful.

2

did you setup the shield to connect the esp8266 to pins 6 and 7 for the SoftwareSerial?

3

Thanks! Is this line of code the setup you mean?

SoftwareSerial softserial(6, 7);
WiFi.init(&softserial);

Otherwise, is there anything I need to do in addition to this?

5

you have pins 6 and 7 and the shield is on 4 and 5

a picture from the tutorial

421×530 87.9 KB

6

Right yeah - that was me trying different pins. I've attempted it with other pairs, including the default tutorial ones (4, 5). Same message:

[WiFiEsp] >>> TIMEOUT >>>
[WiFiEsp] >>> TIMEOUT >>>
[WiFiEsp] Cannot initialize ESP module
[WiFiEsp] >>> TIMEOUT >>>
[WiFiEsp] No tag found
WiFi shield not present
7

the SoftwareSerial can't run at 115200 baud. you have to change the baud rate of the AT firmware and SoftwareSerial

if you can replace the AT firmware I recommend you my WiFiEspAT library
https://github.com/JAndrassy/WiFiEspAT#getting-started

8

Thank you. It doesn't really have any ports I can update it the firmware with.
Is there any way I can get around it?

Otherwise, are there any other cheap wifi modules you could recommend me?