ESP8266 Thing (WRL-13231) serial console (RESOLVED)

Development Boards Arduino
1

So I got the ESP8266 Thing (WRL-13231) along with the FTDI Basic and I’m able to upload my Arduino code and it works.

However I can not get the serial debug console to work. I tried this very simple sketch:

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
  delay(1000);
  Serial.println("This is a simple test");
}

void loop() {
}

And all I get on the console is this:

tail 12
chksum 0x73
ho 0 tail 12 room 4
load 0x3ffe8000, len 1332, room 12 
tail 8
chksum 0x96
load 0x3ffe8540, len 1624, room 0 
tail 8
chksum 0xca
csum 0xca
RT! bA!  Ac bh  |r <

Any ideas ?

2

If this thread

https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino/issues/189

is analog to your issue then I think the delay is tripping the Watchdog timer and it resets while still in setup.

This definitely seems to apply:

https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino/issues/34

It’s supposed to be fixed in the latest stable release.

https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino

[EDIT] I don’t know how/if the SparkFun ESP-8266 Thing board package is dependant on that stable release. Or wether SParkfun needs to make their Thing changes to it again.

3

Just tried:

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
  Serial.println("This is a simple test");
}

void loop() {
}

And I get the same output. Tried the same strange output. On a standard Uno or Mega and or works as expected.

4

It’s a ESP8266 specific thing (no pun intended), other Arduino boards are unaffected.

This last code you tried does not seem to take a long time, but I’ve seen other issues raised on the GitHub - esp8266/Arduino: ESP8266 core for Arduino site regarding Serial port use (due to incomming data and use of serial.Available and serial.Read.) Maybe it is broader than that. I suggest you ask SparkFun Techsupport wether they need to fix something in their boards manager package for this. Or how to get it updated otherwise. Reference this thread to them.

5

Ok, so serial console works, you just have to disconnect the DTR signal.

Couple of ways to do this. You can cut a trace and install a jumper as indicated in https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/es … uino-addon (Serial monitor section).

Or the way I did it for prototyping is to put the Thing on a breadboard and use jumper wired to go to the FTDI serial module. When I upload I connect the DTR to the Thing. Then I disconnect it to get serial console. Works great.

Thanks Sparkfun support for a quick answer.

6

As is usual, I’m not following the [KISS principle. (sigh)](KISS principle - Wikipedia)