Arduino and ESP8266

Last update: Sat Jan 10 23:04:53 2026

Setting up on Arduino

RTFM : https://randomnerdtutorials.com/how-to-install-esp8266-board-arduino-ide/

Board

See the pinout here https://randomnerdtutorials.com/esp8266-pinout-reference-gpios/

Beyond this point is legacy stuffs, kept for memory.

Setting up Linux for cross compilation

Setup of PlatformIO

See the page about Raspi, most of the setup will be there. See the PlatformIO quickstart guide also, this is basically just a summary.

sudo apt-get install emacs-nox python-setuptools

⇒ install emacs without X modules, python's easy_install so you can get pip tool

sudo easy_install pip

⇒ install python's pip tool

sudo pip install -U platformio

⇒ install platformio

mkdir wherever/the/project/will/be

platformio init --board esp01_1m

⇒ Inits a platformio project for a standard ESP8266 ESP-01 board

put the main.cpp file (arduino syntax) in src/

platformio run

⇒ will build the project

Firmware uploading

Just use esptool:

git clone https://github.com/espressif/esptool.git

Push firmare: sudo python esptool.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 write_flash 0x00000 The_Path_To_The_NodeMCU_Firmware.bin

Backup the firmware: sudo python esptool.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 read_flash 0x00000 0x400000 The_Path_To_The_Firmware_Backup.bin

LUA on ESP8266

http://benlo.com/esp8266/ is a good entry point

Get the LUA firmware? Go to this page and build your own https://nodemcu-build.com/

Flashing:

Install esptool

Clean all esptool.py --port COM2 erase_flash

Flash esptool.py --port COM2 write_flash -fm qio 0x00000 "nodemcu_0.9.5.bin"

Random old stuff

For uploading the firmware:

get the firmware https://github.com/nodemcu/nodemcu-firmware/tree/master/pre_build
get the flasher https://github.com/nodemcu/nodemcu-flasher/tree/master/Win64/Release
power off
Connect GPIO0 to ground
Power on
Run the flasher
Set the COM port and baud rates
In the 2nd tab add the firware to upload
Go for upload
Once finished, unplug gpio0
Use http://benlo.com/esp8266/ LuaLoader to play with lua or simple putty
1. Samples here http://nodemcu.com/index_en.html

Manual https://nurdspace.nl/ESP8266
Forum http://www.esp8266.com/

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