ESP8266 not seen by pc (sort of)

Development Tools IDE 1.x
1

I hope this is the right place to ask, I've searched but can't seem to find this exact issue or at least not entered the right questions.

I bought an ESP8266 module with usb connection CH340. (still total novice with Arduinos ect.)

The problem is that when plugged in there's a brief flash of the blue LED but nothing else, no hardware beeps or anything.
Nothing shows in System manager either.

The cable works fine with ESP32 and other Arduinos.
CH340 Drivers are installed and show up if I connect an Arduino Mega.

I found if I press reset on ESP I do get the Beeps and CH340 driver shows for a second before terminating.
Nothing is seen by Arduino ide and I do have Esp8266 boards installed (port not found)

I have since discovered if I press and hold reset and then press flash and then release reset and then flash buttons CH340 will remain visible in System manager.

I can then use Arduino ide to uplaod blink Sketch and it works, led flashes.
However it then promptly disconnects from the port so I can't use Serial monitor.
The last line in the Arduino error space says "Board at COM11 is not available"

So does anyone have an idea how to make it function correctly?

Thanks for reading.

2

That behavior sounds like a hardware problem to me. Resetting the ESP8266 should have no effect on whether the CH340G is visible to the computer (in fact, the CH340G can't even tell if you're holding the reset button). I think the board is defective.

3

Yes I thought I was in trouble when it wasn't seen by pc when I first plugged it in, just found my original listing

V3 Wireless module CP2102 ch340 NodeMcu 4M bytes Lua WIFI Internet of Things development board based ESP8266 ESP-12E for arduino

I did find a few mentions of ESP8266 going into reboot loops but not for this particular set up, I think they had to do something with some of the pins but couldn't find any details.

Anyway it's probably not worth messing with I'll just get an ESP32.

4

Final update for anyone interested, I believe the issue was lack of power.
I tried several cables all of which worked with arduinos and eSP32s but all failed with ESP8266.
They were all 1 meter long cables so I purchased a shorter cable 0.5 meter and the ESP8266 works perfectly.

I did try the other cables again without success.