ESP01 does not light up any LEDs, or anything else [solved]

Other Hardware 3rd Party Boards
1

Hi!

I have some ESP01 boards from here: ESP-01 | Ai-Thinker | Price | In Stock | LCSC Electronics

Previously, I used ESP01S, I successfully programmed it with FTD232 adapter and it works.

ESP01 has a small difference, I have to put GPIO0 → GND, I solved that too. Then I noticed how the built-in LED is connected.

I managed to successfully program ESP01, at least that's what it says in Arduino IDE, but I have doubts.

As sources of information and what I tried:

• Lighting Up the Onboard LED of the ESP-01 Board

Here are the settings for the built-in LED, I have to set pin 1 in Arduino IDE, but the blue LED doesn't light up.

• ESP-01 and ESP-01S How program and use the Pins and Leds

The ESP-01S_LedFlasher.ino sketch does nothing, I thought it was different (there is a lot of information on this site, by the way).

• https://simple-circuit.com/arduino-esp-01-esp8266-programming/

Here I also found some information on the LED blink sketch that I have to connect CH_PD to 3V3. Well, I made a short for a while with a jump wire and I noticed that the red power LED on the board goes out, so it's not good idea.

Therefore, I was unable to make even one LED blink (builtin oe external). I took the Blink sketch from the Arduino IDE, and one by one I set GPIO 0,1,2,3 and nothing. I don't understand at all.

I don't think I damaged the boards, I worked with 3.3V, plus the Arduino IDE signals successful programming.

What ideas would you have?

2

Upload the WiFi scanner sketch and check serial monitor. Does that work?

1 Like
3

Thanks for the reply, I solved it, as usual, the problem was with me.
I would start by saying that sometimes it's good to take a break, and yet something still remains...
I ran the WiFiScan sketch, it's OK.
The programming circuit looks like this:
ESP01 → FTDi adapter
Rx → Tx
Tx → Rx
VCC → 3V3
GND → GND
EN → 3V3
RST → RTS
100 → GND
Nothing special, the programming is done successfully. It seems that I had a problem with 3V3 and the EN pin of the ESP01, I'm a bit blind and it took me some time to solve the situation. 🤦‍♂
I moved on, I attached a DHT22 to the ESP01 but it seems that it reads a false temperature, it is higher compared to other thermometers. But I will have another topic on this subject.

4

I don't know exactly about your physical setup. But an ESP-01 basically needs to have

  • Vcc at 3.3v
  • CH_PD at 3.3v (possibly through a 10K pullup)
  • RST at 3.3v (most ESP-01 boards have a 10K pullup already)
  • GND to GND
  • GPIO 1(tx) & 2 'not to GND'
  • GPIO 3(rx) doesn't matter
  • GPIO 0 to GND for programming mode and 'not to GND' for normal operation.
    (Most programmers will have this built in, and at the end of programming, the ESP-01 will automatically do a soft-reset which will also run the sketch that has been uploaded, but only after a hard-reset is performed with GPIO 'not to GND' will the ESP-01 be in complete normal operation)

These settings for the GPIO pins are for the moment of boot or power on. When i say 'not to GND' i mean not connected to GND also not through a LED or an NPN transistor.

Most ESP-01 will have the built-in LED on GPIO 1(tx) and whether they are on GPIO 1 or 2 they will always be 'active LOW'. I always just use the pin number to indicate which pin i want to toggle, rather than setting it in the board settings before upload.

When using a programmer, keep in mind that usually they have GPIO 0 hardwired to GND, which means that only a soft-reset will make the sketch run, but if the IDE setting for reset is a hard-reset (available in newer core versions and the default) that will result in the ESP-01 will never going into normal operation. (this is probably what is happening)

There is the rare case of the ESP-01 being an ESP8285 (instead of an ESP8266) which will upload as normal, but will just not work. The ESP8285 boards are rare except in my workshop. In that case you need to select 'generic esp8285'

All ESP-01 with a black pcb have 1MB flash, the ones with the blue PCB have only 512KB flash.

1 Like
5

That's pretty vague and won't help others with similar problems in future. Swallow your pride and tell the forum what you did wrong and how you fixed it.

Hmmm.... Ok, I guess that sounds reasonable. But know that the forum has a strict rule about cross-posting and you are in the grey area.

6

While this issue is resolved, there is a new issue. It makes complete sense to start a new topic.

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7

It's not about pride, I work for pleasure, as a hobby.
The situation is as I described it, the cause was me, the "blind" man in the room (:sweat_smile:).

8

After the situation I described in this topic, I don't have to check twice, but 3 times. Before, I had DHT22 connected to ESP01S, but I managed to get ESP01 to work as well, so that's why I said it could be another topic.

9

Yet you seem too proud to explain what you did wrong and how you put it right. That could be useful for other "blind" people with similar problems in the future.

1 Like
10

Maybe a bit vague, but the connections that do work have been listed.