I might not be new to arduino, but I sure am to the forum/website, so please excuse any mistakes.
So I’m thinking of starting a new project involving a bare esp8266 with a ceramic antenna instead of a aithinker module.
I read the design guide , and I found out that the chip does not include internal flash, and that I must program it with some obscure official program. I did some research, and I concluded that this firmware doesn’t work nodeMCU (I think).
So how do I flash the esp8266’s external flash so that it works with arduino ide? I’m no arduino ide expert.
Search for "boot rom", it is in the ESP8266.
I think Espressif puts a default code in there and the Arduino IDE uses that. Have you read the serial messages with the right baudrate during boot ? That is from the default boot code. As far as I know, it is the same boot code for a long time.
Which board, specifically? 90% of my projects are on a Wemos D1 Mini and a few ESP8266-01 boards. I've never had a problem flashing them from the IDE using a USB UART adapter.
I didn't realized that those messages are actually readable. I just though someone at Espressif decides to send some random characters to the UART at boot up
It seems this fellow is really trying to do things the hard way and wants to use the actual ESP8266 chip - the one that is combined on the standard "ESP-xx" boards with a serial EEPROM - and needs to know how to load the bootloader to this combination.
If you are trying to use the ESP8266 chip and not an integrated board then you are trying to pilot an ocean liner but never paddled about in a canoe before.
This is why I am confused. HOW do you plan to use the ESP chip? This is ehy I asked which board you are using.
The chip actually doesn’t have its own flash, you need to use external spi flash. So I don’t think they can really flash anything on a random storage chip just because I intend to connect it to the esp8266.
You just have to figure out how to write the bootloader into the actual ESP8266 chip, so you need to decipher the instructions for doing so. Presumably, once you have done this, a bare serial flash chip can be programmed in the usual manner. Many or most of the ESP-xx modules have then been programmed (in the serial flash) with an "AT modem" code which can be accessed by the serial port but this is a severely limited use of the capability of the ESP8266.
The thing is, it is extremely unlikely that anyone contributing to this forum will have any experience of doing so because no-one here - apart from now, the OP - can even imagine any reason to re-manufacture what is already readily and cheaply available.
