But I get nothing.
I'm connected with USB-TTL converter on a development board and not sure if the RX line connected directly to the chip. The TX line I see on a terminal and on the Serial Monitor in Arduino.
It's a very good article but actually I'm stuck at basics - receiving a single char. I suspect RX line has some trick cause flashing goes automatically, I don't touch any program related pins. Some RX toggling mechanism.
I'm not sure how to define the board DOITING ESP-12F - is it the bare ESP8266 chip ? is it ESP8266 based NodeMCU? Any way I have the communication - Arduino burns my code in it (TTL<---->USB converter is located on the board). Do I still have to install the file? If so - how do I do it?
Follow these procedures: 1. Connect ESP8266 chip with PC using TTL<-----> USB converter. 2. You need to have Arduino Bootloaded installed in the ESP8266 chip. I don't know how to do it. If you don't know, then begin to learn with the following ESP8266/NOdeMCU Learning Kit (Fig-1 of Post-4).
3. Open the IDE. 4. File ----> Preferences 5. Copy the following text in the box named "Additional Boards Manager URLs:". And then click on OK button.
6. Sketch ---> Include Librar ----> Manage Libraries... ; Library Manager window will appear. Enter ESP8266 and then click on "install" button when sub-window mentioning ESP8266 based NodeMCU appears.
Then everthing is alright. You don't need any converter. You just plug-in the cable with USB Port of PC. The Kit has bootloader. You just need to install mapping package by following Step-6 of Post-6.
I did the following test - connected to external pins RX(GPIO3) and TX(GPIO1) with my external USB-TTL converter. And I see all prints outside but when I type - nothing happens. We can not blame a platform or a dev. board in this case, can we?