Noob: Problems with ESP8622-01 programmed via Arduino UNO R3.

Using Arduino Project Guidance
1

Hello everyone.
As stated in the title, I am pretty much beginner lvl in electronics, but trying to have a go at some ideas I have.

I was aiming to create a Wifi controlled relay, a task that seemed pretty simple at first, but turned out to be surprisingly problematic for me.

I already have the ESP8622-01 WiFi borard, with a matching esp01 relay module and an Arduino UNO R3.

Ideally I was aiming to use only the ESP8622-01 to control the relay via the Internet. Any way to activate the relay for a couple seconds over the web would do.

I tried following a couple tutorials on how to do that, like:
[https://www.instructables.com/id/WiFi-Internet-Controlled-Relays-using-ESP8266-Quic/](http://this one) from instructables or
[https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/jeffpar0721/add-wifi-to-arduino-uno-663b9e?f=1](http://the other one)

using the Arduiono to flash/program the ESP module.

I tried searching this forum for possible solutions too, but little luck, and I admit - not the greatest deal of effort.

After reading how a PC USB port may not be providing sufficient power, I also tried to feed some external power from a mobile charger - 5v 1A fed into arduino's 5v pin and GND - seems like with no significant effect.

It seems like I am having issues communicating with the ESP. Sometimes I need to reset the board a couple times so I can flash it. Even if I succeed to flash it, that is the furthest I have gone so far, could not connect wit ESplorer to upload lua after flashing NodeMCU, nor could I connect with Arduino IDE after flashing Micro Python. Even to get the mac adress from the ESP it seemed random - resetting the board sometimes gave the response shortly, sometimes it struggled to communicate but managed in the end and other (most) times I would just get a time out. After I got it succesfully running an access point, after connecting with my smartphone I could not get a TCP connection with the board.

I am having some problems troubleshooting the situation, I am getting suspicious of everything, starting from the breadboard and wires ending on the ESP module itself...

Perhaps I am doing something obviously wrong? Or maybe you have any other suggestions for me and my project?

I chose the NodeMCU tutorial to start with, because it seemed most straight forward to me - I would be able to control the relay by simply opening a certain url, but now also my router has changed and I might not be able to forward ports from the Internt to the ESP, can this be solved by going with some kind of Blynk solution?

If these are too basic questions to solve my issue, could you guys please at least point me to some tutorials etc?

Thanks for your time.

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OK, so you have an ESP-01 and a relay board. I cannot for the life of me figure out what the Arduino UNO has to do with this.

I would presume the relay is this one:

To program the ESP-01 you use this module:

Or this cheaper one with a jumper soldered between ground and IO0:

At the price, I have a number of the latter ones; one is fitted with a jumper link to program and others are used to construct things requiring a USB "phone charger" as power supply. In essence, buy a few, have one with the programming jumper permanently in place; you plug the ESP-01 into that to program it, pull it out (USB first) and plug it into your relay board or other system to run the program.

I am not sure what Lua is useful for but you can certainly use these adapters to program Lua into the ESP-01, then a non-programming adapter to "talk" to the Lua before swapping to your relay board. But I see no use for the UNO!

By the way, you manage to mangle your links! :astonished: