How to flash RobotDyn ESP8266PRO board?

Question

Working with the RobotDyn ESP8266PRO version of the NodeMCU.

First, no doc provided by manufacturer.

Here is as far as I got:

• 10Kohm between EN and 5V
• 10Kohm between IO15 and gnd
• ground IO0 and reset
• I used a PL2303 cable (success with Ardruino Mino Pro)
• python esptool.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 write_flash -fm dio -fs 32m 0x00000 nodemcu-master-12-modules-2016-11-17-02-07-27-integer.bin 0x3fc000 esp_init_data_default.bin

Results: fatal error: Digest mistmatch

Anybody successful with this thing yet?

Answer 1

I just received this unit from RobotDyn. Using the exact same pin connections as you, I am able to upload sketches via the Arduino IDE. I am using a CP2102 USB to UART. For uploading I selected "Generic ESP8266" and uploaded at 115200 baud.

Here is my Arduino IDE setup: https://i.stack.imgur.com/glRRn.png

Update: some additional scripts:

• https://github.com/rpakdel/esp8266-pro-i2c-spi
• https://github.com/rpakdel/esp8266-pro-i2c

Answer 2

Reza's answer certainly helped me, but I was able to program the RobotDyn ESP8266-Pro with a simpler configuration using no resistors or external 5V power.

For clarity's sake, let me say that I'm not using any external power, relying only on 5V the power coming through my SiLabs CP2102 breakout programmer plugged into my Mac. The wires from the CP2102 almost line up correctly with the EPS8266-Pro, except that you must swap order of GROUND and CTS coming from the CP2102. Here are the connections needed:

CP2102 -> ESP8266-Pro
---------------------
   DTR -> RST
   RXI -> TXD
   TXO -> RXD
   VCC -> 3.3V
   GND -> GND
   CTS -> IO12

In order to be able to program from the Arduino IDE, I then had to make a few more connections from the ESP8266-Pro to itself. I did not use resistors for the EN-VIN and GND-IO15 connections, as Reza did.

 EN -> VIN
GND -> IO15
GND -> IO0 

With any of the three above connections missing, you can't program the ESP8266-Pro. All three are necessary. This makes the board pretty inconvenient to program in place, so I think I'm not going to be ordering any others in the future.

Here are the settings I'm using in the Arduino IDE:

Programming works just fine with these settings. When using an FTDI232 programmer, I had to drop the speed down to 460800 baud, but otherwise the experience was the same.

Unfortunately, I still can't seem to get the serial monitor working from the IDE so I can see what is (and is not) going on with my code.