SparkFun Electronics Comments

mistergreen on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2017-01-27T08:26:02-07:00

Does anybody know how many simultaneous sockets the ESP8266 can connect to? The WZ5100 can do 4 sockets for instance. It makes so when creating a web server, a socket won’t lock up when needed.

Dormouse on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2016-09-14T00:06:35-06:00

I’ve had some luck so far getting this to work with my old Diecimila, thanks! Then I put it into “transparent transmission” (a.k.a. pass-through) mode with AT+SAVETRANSLINK, and now it won’t respond to any AT commands. It just transmits whatever I say… is there any way to get it back out of pass-through mode? Or some kind of factory reset?

Customer #351984 on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2016-07-27T07:47:41-06:00

I am trying to connect to my home wifi. Its open w/ no password( Ive tried an empty string and a space in the password string.) When I run the demo here is what I get:

Press any key to begin.

ESP8266 Shield Present Mode set to station Connecting to Helds Error connecting Error: -3

Customer #808650 on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2016-06-29T09:54:55-06:00

Hi all,

I am using an ESP8266 to send a file from an Arduino DUE to a server using PHP. Basically, I read the data from the Serial and send 1000 bytes packages to the server. It works perfectly for any file that takes less than 2 minutes to send. I noticed that, independently of the size of the file, after 2 minutes the client.print() doesn´t work anymore. The server doesn´t return any error too. I thought it could be the timeout but timeouts are related to idle time… I am sending the data constantly.

Do you know anything about this issue? Thanks! :D - See more at: http://www.esp8266.com/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=10593&sid=52666a3fceea032bbabbdaea6cb9553f#sthash.zk2dQ3s4.dpuf

fratti on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2016-06-16T09:18:53-06:00

Are there any SO-8 package regulators that are more appropriate and have the same pin-out as the AP2112k, so users could mod it? All I’ve found from a local store is the L4931, where sadly the “Enable” pin maps to an “Inhibit” pin.

fratti on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2016-06-16T08:29:31-06:00

Can anyone give me some ballpark figures on the power draw I can expect from this in different modes when attached to an Arduino Uno? I’ve seen that it has a sleep and a deep sleep mode, though, this comment suggests that the deep sleep mode won’t work due to the board’s design.

I’m looking to power this from a 9V 109mA solar cell (hooked up to a Sunny Buddy with a battery), and I’m not quite sure whether I’m even close to having enough power. I’m still waiting for my Arduino Uno to arrive (since this doesn’t fit my trusty Duemilanove) so I can’t just trial and error this right now.

According to measurements on nurdspace.nl, the ESP8266’s power draw during operation is close/beyond what the solar cell outputs, but since I don’t plan on it continuously sending data, I’m hoping on it just scraping by.

Any suggestions on power conserving tricks for this are appreciated as well. If push comes to shove, I’ll just hook up a second solar cell in series.

Jermtown on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2016-04-09T12:21:36-06:00

I ran out of memory and had to shift to a SAMD, any suggestions getting to work with the SAMD? I’ve tried switching the switch to HW on the shield but not luck

Jermtown on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2016-04-09T12:19:34-06:00

UART communication in the MEGA2560 isn’t via the same pins…duh

Jermtown on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2016-02-24T21:31:18-07:00

I’ve tried this with two different routers based on other comments I read. I get the same Error with both routers.

Jermtown on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2016-02-22T23:33:19-07:00

I have tried resetting and reprogramming but continue to receive the below message only. I made sure to leave the UART switch in the SW position. Using Genuino MEGA2560, power light is solid, and stat is blinking.

Error talking to ESP8266. Error: 0 Looping forever.

M-Short on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2016-02-01T09:39:46-07:00

That is surprisingly harder than it sounds. Our selective solder machine is great for soldering PTH parts and basically goes through and squirts solder on the PTH part. The thing is though that with the stackable headers that liquid solder drips down the male part of the headers which is a problem. Consequently for us to do stackable headers we have to solder them by hand, which gets time consuming. So, it isn’t impossible for us to do, but I don’t see us doing it happening anytime soon.

Osqui on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2016-01-31T16:07:31-07:00

Please, could you sell this shield with already preassembled headers? I don’t mind to pay a little more. Thanks!

Jimb0 on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2016-01-18T08:38:14-07:00

Cool! Unfortunately, there isn’t a really easy way to bypass the level-shifting circuitry. I see two options:

Solder in a couple jumper wire’s to connect the drain and source pins of both MOSFETs (here’s the Datasheet for those FET’s, in case you need to see the pin-out), and remove the 4 10k pull-up resistors surrounding them.
Or you could try supplying 3.3V to the shield’s 5V input pin instead of 5V. That’ll leave the level shifter’s in-circuit, but they’ll just shift up to 3.3V. This one’s easier to try, but might be a little dicey – you’ll need to make sure the 3.3V supply on your ChipKEY can push enough current to keep the ESP8266 going.

DLC on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2016-01-17T11:12:56-07:00

I would like to use this shield on a ChipKEY board (Arduino compatible running a 32 bit processor at 3.3V). Do you have a preferred path to take to get rid of of the level switching circuitry?

bboyho on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2016-01-08T12:18:51-07:00

———- Tech Support Tips/Troubleshooting/Common Issues ———-

If there are no visible shorts on the board, it could be the way that the shield’s header pins are connected to the Arduino. Try to not jam the whole board into the Arduino and connecting the board level with the microcontroller. You might see this error in the serial monitor when running the ESP8266_Shield_Demo.ino sketch example code:

Error talking to ESP8266.
Error: 0
Looping forever.

During a few instances, the board would work again when I pulled the known good ESP8266 shield off the Arduino and restacked it so that the shield is level.

Connecting with an Arduino Mega?

You can also see this error if you are using the example code with the Arduino Mega. Unfortunately, the Arduino Mega has limitations on certain pins and the Rx on pin 9 of the Mega will not work with software serial.If you are using software serial [ https://www.arduino.cc/en/Reference/SoftwareSerial ] , you need to reroute the pins and redefine the software serial pins. The reason why is because not all the pins on the Arduino Mega 2560 can support change interrupts so only certain pins can be used for the Rx pin. Due to this limitation, you are not connecting properly to the ESP8266 Shield and therefore seeing this output error in the Arduino serial monitor.

Try looking at these two comments for alternatives and for an idea of how to reroute the software serial pins on your Arduino Mega => https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/arduino-shields/discuss .

Customer #659937 on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-12-28T19:50:31-07:00

which pins of the Arduino Uno does this shield use? I need 3 pwm pins, but it seems like there’s a problems with the ones I’m using now

makerblog.at on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-12-10T13:48:37-07:00

Is there any demo sketch for using this shield as an access point running a web server? I had no luck adapting the examples delivered with the SparkFunESP8266WiFi Library.

eustaman on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-12-01T08:52:43-07:00

I received this today and soldered headers onto it. I plopped it onto an Arduino Uno (maybe this is my issue?) and plugged it in to try out the examples from the library. When I plug it in, it seems to kill off any existing wireless connections around… For instance, my home network goes down (laptop/phone both lose connections and can’t find the network – SSID disappears), and it seems to do the same with near by networks. Once I pull power from the Arduino, the networks pop back up and I can connect back to my home network again. Moreover, even with it plugged it, I upload an example and none can find the ESP8266. Any thoughts? Thanks!

Jimb0 on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-11-23T11:25:04-07:00

You should be able to use this shield with the pubsubclient MQTT Arduino library. There aren’t any examples of using the library with an ESP8266 shield, but the basic example should be a straightforward port from the Ethernet library to the ESP8266 AT library.

Customer #742534 on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-11-21T14:37:03-07:00

Hi, I got this shield and the Sparkfun ESP8266 Thing a couple of days back, my interest is to use it for Machine-to-Machine using MQTT. There is quite a bit of support in the ESP8266 community for the Thing, and you can find quite a bit of sketches for MQTT on the Thing using ESP8266 library. However, I haven’t found much on this Wifi Shield to plug-in MQTT support. Anyone having experience or familiarity with using this shield with MQTT please help. Thanks!

TM' on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-11-05T16:05:23-07:00

As previously posted, I had no luck using the shield plugged into Arduino UNO R3s (but was able to use the shield on a Mega 2560 with some tweaks to the library).

Both of the UNO R3 boards I tried had DIP packaged ATmega328ps. I wonder if perhaps the shield was developed and tested with a Sparkfun Redboard (with SOIC MCU). Has anyone got the shield working plugged into a DIP package UNO? Perhaps there’s too much electrical noise/EMI from a DIP packaged microcontroller?

Aristarco on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-11-05T15:36:42-07:00

As with every WiFi shield SparkFun starts selling, I must ask to those who have the experience, is this shield better in any way to the WiFly shield also sold by SparkFun? I use WiFly but I’ve been trying to find a shield with better support and documentation and can’t afford to buy every one that comes out. Any comments?

TM' on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-10-05T12:21:01-06:00

Works as a “Thing” but gets flaky when stacked on an Arduino UNO R3. I tried plugging the shield into a genuine Arduino UNO R3 and an Inland (Microcenter) clone. In both cases I had to pull the esp8266 RST pin low for a second to get any sign of life from the shield. The shield’s blue status light switches off after the first attempts to communicate with it (via sw serial pins 8 & 9).

I had more luck with a Mega 2560 board (Inland/Microcenter clone). Rather than cutting traces like Brad10 below, I set pins 8 & 9 as inputs and connected TX1(18) to 9 and RX1(19) to 8 with patch cables.

If you only have UNO boards, I’d suggest buying a “Thing” instead (until the next HW revision of the shield).

Changes to library to support Mega 2560

In SparkFunESP8266WiFi.h, add a third value

 ESP8266_HARDWARE_SERIAL1

to the definition of esp8266_serial_port.

In SparkFunESP8266WiFi.cpp, add a third clause:

else if (serialPort == ESP8266_HARDWARE_SERIAL1)
{
#if defined(__AVR_ATmega2560__)
    Serial1.begin(baudRate);
    _serial = &Serial1;
#else
    return false;
#endif
}

to the if statement at the start of begin().

Changes to example code

In setup(), add

pinMode(ESP8266_SW_TX, INPUT); 
pinMode(ESP8266_SW_RX, INPUT);

before calling Serial.begin().

Change the esp8266.begin() call to

esp8266.begin(9600,ESP8266_HARDWARE_SERIAL1)

That’s it. You should now be able to run the library examples on a Mega 2560 with the shield installed and TX1 & RX1 connected to pins 9 & 8.

Good luck.

P.S. The flash memory is 512KB (same as an esp-01): this is too small for recent versions of the stock AT firmware. If you’re shopping for modules look for more. N.B. Chinese sites sometimes label module memory as “4Megabits” - this is just 512KBytes.

Customer #722890 on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-09-26T03:30:05-06:00

I have recently bought two of this shield. However, I am really struggling in hooking it up. I will really really appreciate it if someone can give me some guidance.

I have read the hookup guide a lot of times and research on other sources on the internet. I must have missed something or done something really silly. For my situation, I cant stack the shield on my UNO because I have accidentally soldered shorter female jumpers on all of the pin.

I have connected the Tx, Rx, 5v and GND (from ESP8266 PROG) to Rx, Tx, 5v and GND of my UNO board with wires. After that I used the Putty Terminal in serial mode to communicate with the board. I had received some gilberish message followed by “READY!” and then “Wifi Disconnected”. I tried to type in “AT” into the terminal but after pressing “enter”, the “AT” message is still on the terminal screen as if my “enter” button was not working. I have also tried to power the shield witha FTDI basic breakout board and used putty terminal again but it was still the same problem.

Below are the pictures of how I have connected and powered the shield and the message I got from the putty terminal. I would really appreciate it if someone can give me a hand on this! :) Cheers! [IMG]http://i58.tinypic.com/2isdykw.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i62.tinypic.com/2dm6wz7.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i60.tinypic.com/xdw5z7.jpg[/IMG]

Toni_K on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-08-28T09:28:20-06:00

That’s a really cool project idea!

Brad10 on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-08-28T08:51:20-06:00

I’ve posted the open source to the Arduino library I wrote to filter out extraneous ESP8266 messages from HTTP responses. It uses the Sparkfun ESP8266 library. See https://github.com/bneedhamia/ESP8266HttpRead with an example (not ready for Prime Time) Sketch that uses it in https://github.com/bneedhamia/LunarClock

I’m using the ESP8266 Shield in a project to physically display the current phase of the moon.

Customer #703446 on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-08-20T07:06:26-06:00

I had a similar problem, I’d be sending it AT commands and it would decide to reboot itself. I tried hooking it up with just the 5v/gnd/d8/d9 pins and it seems to behave much better. Not sure if there is a short based on how it soldered it or something internal. Give that a try and see if it helps out. Kevin

boconn7782 on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-08-17T13:36:11-06:00

My shield started randomly resetting the ESP8266 and I have no idea how to fix that. I see no damage that would suggest some short is causing manual reset and in the few moments the blue light is on I can communicate using serial paththrough fine. This is one of those “It was working yesterday” type issue in that I put it away one day and then it just started doing this. Any advice?

Brad10 on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-08-16T21:16:55-06:00

Woops. That’s “\n0,CLOSED” that the board sends at the end of data.

Brad10 on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-08-16T19:46:50-06:00

My ESP8266 Shield is now working with my Arduino Mega 2560, with one exception which I’ll mention at the end of this comment.

I first modified the Sparkfun 8266 library, to add serial port definitions for the Mega’s Serial1, Serial2, and Serial3 (all #if defined() the Mega2560 processor so that it would also compile on an Uno).

Second I used hookup wire to connect the Shield pin 8 to the Mega pin 15 and Shield pin 9 to Mega pin 14 - the Mega’s Serial3 pins.

I found I also had to cut the Shield header pins 8 and 9 to prevent them from connecting to the Mega pins 8 and 9. I’m not sure why I had to do that - I would expect those pins to be set to high-impedance with no pullup - but the board wouldn’t work with those pins in place.

I then modified the Shield Demo Sketch to specify the Mega’s Serial3 port in the board begin() function.

Voila! It successfully connected to my password-protected WiFi hotspot. I then modified the clientdemo() function in the Sketch because it assumed that the server’s response would be immediately available. I added a loop to wait for data from the Shield.

Now it successfully reads and prints the contents of www.example.com. The one thing I still have to fix is fairly messy: the data read from the board includes the board data messages: “\n+IPD,0,1470:” and at the end a “\n0,CONNECT”. I’ll be adding a state-machine to the input processing to remove these strings.

So with a little work, the board seems to work fine with an Arduino Mega 2650.

Customer #471158 on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-08-16T10:50:11-06:00

I have two “Thing” boards that are configured with AT firmware. I’m guessing the Sparkfun ESP8266 AT library for this shield should also work for me. I was able to wire up TXO and RXI and get the Shield Demo sketch working but posting to Phant hasn’t worked yet. Perhaps my trouble is not related to the library but to some http configuration? Has anyone successfully posted to Phant? Any pointers? I have double checked my public and private key values and I know they are correct. Thanks!

Brad10 on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-08-09T15:08:35-06:00

I’d love to know what others have done to connect this shield to an Arduino Mega 2560.

So far I’ve found that the Mega doesn’t support software serial on pins 8 and 9 (the shield I/O) because those Mega pins don’t support Change Interrupts. See https://www.arduino.cc/en/Reference/softwareSerial for details.

I’m planning to 1) cut the shield’s header pins 8 and 9 so they don’t connect to the Arduino, 2) use hookup wire to connect the shield’s pin 8 and 9 to Mega pins that support software serial (for example pins 10 and 11) or hardware serial (for example pins 18 and 19), then 3) modify the Sparkfun Esp8266 library to work with the new pins.

I’ll post again once I get it working.

mholzma on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-08-03T22:43:28-06:00

I also want to thank you guys for the board. I tried setting it and my Arduino Uno as a web controlled servo but I noticed every time it goes to do a client.read() or respond to an inbound request the attached servo twitches quit a bit instead of staying still. I’m new at this stuff, so it could be something I need to add, like a resistor or cap or something.

Customer #74104 on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-07-26T07:46:14-06:00

Thanks Sparkfun for the wireless shield option for my Uno! Tried the board and it works using the example. Took a couple tries to connect but did finally. I connected to my garage router which is weak connection on my laptop. Thanks for the library and example. This is awesome! The ESP8266 opens up many possibilities for new boards.

funkathustra on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-07-21T03:53:45-06:00

I tie XPD_DCDC to RESET on all of my ESP8266EX-based designs, and I need a FET on the reset pin to be able to pull it down – it sinks 30 or 40 mA of current, which most MCUs can’t provide. I don’t remember if the high current consumption is due to the RESET pin alone, or due to tying it to XPD_DCD, but it’s worth checking with a multimeter to see that it’s actually “trying” to pull the pin down.

Also, if I remember correctly, Windows has a nasty bug that prevents you from toggling one of the control lines (I think it’s DTR) by itself – i.e., you have to set the control line to the new state, then toggle the other control line to actually update that state. My memory is foggy, but it’s either specific to USB CDC devices, or COM ports in general. May want to look into it.

funkathustra on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-07-21T03:47:35-06:00

This isn’t bad for a first revision, but this design has a few nasty bugs that SparkFun should address:

For most MCUs, the reset pin is a high-impedance input. However, the ESP8266EX’s reset pin sinks a crap ton of current when pulled down to ground (I don’t remember if this is only the case when RESET is tied to XPD, or if it happens regardless). I design with the ESP8266EX SoC a lot, and I always put a FET on the reset pin to be able to pull it down. Definitely a nasty omission on SparkFun’s part.

I really wish this board were designed with battery power in mind. SparkFun should have tied XPD_DCDC to the reset pin – otherwise, you can’t put the ESP8266 into deep sleep mode. It uses a ridiculous amount of current otherwise. I know that they’ve at least broken out the pin, but there’s really no reason not to jumper it to reset – users can cut the trace if they really need that extra GPIO input. And what’s with the AP2112 regulator? It’s got nasty-high quiescent current – do you really need a 600mA regulator that’s stable with 1uF of output capacitance to drive a 150mA part that you hung a 10uF off of it? Strange choice, but maybe that’s all they have laying around?

Also, that PCB antenna shouldn’t have any ground pour on the side (read TI’s appnote), and those traces don’t look like they’re matched to 50R – are those designed as microstrip or CPW? I wonder what kind of performance they’re getting out of the RF section of that board.

Jose Luiz on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-07-20T18:52:39-06:00

Hi Jimb0, I did some tests and it’s not possible upload codes to ESP8266 using only DTR to activate RESET and GPIO0 even with 0.1uF or 1uF CAP. The upload runs OK only int two situations: 1) when connecting GPIO0 direct to ground and using DTR to reset ESP8266. 2) When using DTR to set GPIO0 to ground and RTS signal from FTDI cable to reset de ESP8266.

Jose Luiz on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-07-20T09:41:17-06:00

ThankYou very much. I did not see that 1.0 uF capacitor on DTR line. Now everything makes sense.

Jimb0 on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-07-20T09:08:03-06:00

Good eye! If you close the DTR jumper, the DTR signal can pull GPIO0 low when the ESP8266 needs to be programmed. That DTR signal also goes through a 0.1uF cap to the ESP8266’s reset line - so when DTR goes low, it’ll also briefly toggle reset to cycle the chip into bootloader mode.

This section of the tutorial explains re-programming the shield in a bit more detail. It describes using a wire from GPIO0 to GND to enter the bootloader, but the backside jumper should work as well.

Jose Luiz on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-07-20T08:03:41-06:00

Hi, SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266 has a Auto-Programing Mode circuit that is supposed to use DTR signal to auto configure GPIO0 to GND during uploading. How is it going to work if we must power down an up the ESP8266 ? Is there any special config to use this resource ? ThankYou Regards

quozl on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-07-20T03:00:05-06:00

Me too. I’m often reflashing with NodeMCU LUA. On the other hand, the level shifters built into this design should let you use an Arduino Uno or RedBoard as an FTDI, if you swap TXD and RXD, see my example sketch.

Nate on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-07-17T08:52:38-06:00

There’s a built in 2.4GHz trace antenna that works well and a U.FL connector for larger gain external antennas. The adhesive one works well for me.

Customer #426421 on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-07-17T08:49:39-06:00

No mention of what sort of antenna is required?

Customer #603773 on WRL-13287 - SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266

2015-07-16T22:37:29-06:00

Can we have one of these with an FTDI built in for SDK programming? Would make life so easy!