# NodeMCU ESP8266-12E Flashing Espurino

[espruino-discuss]

Posted at 2017-10-12 by stevo

NodeMCU ESP8266-12E Flashing Espruino

This is still a work in progress. Posting here hopefully with all exact error messages that were gotchas for me so it can be found more easily. More likely, I'll publish a github project to keep track of NodeMCU flashing info for Espruino and otherwise specific to this make/model.

Thanks to the Espruino forum admins to let use third-party board users have a lil' space on their forum to discuss this. I must mention, it seems if you want to use javascript on a microcontroller the best way to go is a genuine Espruino board NodeMCU and the like will likely take a lot of your free time for a couple weeks to get things working the way you thought they would :D

On with it then below you'll find:

• Model Info Sheet
• Flashing Espruino
• Additional Notes

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ESP8266 Model Info

Results of esptool's flash_id:

esptool.py --port /dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART flash_id
Chip: ESP8266
Manufacturer: c8
Device: 4016
Detected flash size: 4MB

This is what I bought: HiLetgo New Version ESP8266 NodeMCU LUA CP2102 ESP-12E Internet WIFI Development Board Open source Serial Wireless Module Works Great with Arduino IDE/Micropython

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Flashing Espruino Firmware

• Setup directories for your NodeMCU firmware, download latest ('cutting edge') Espruino, unpack it, and enter directory. (setup nested directory, because I also have nodemcu lua firmware I use on this device).

mkdir 'nodemcu-firmware' && cd 'nodemcu-firmware' # create firmware directory and enter it
mkdir 'espruino' && cd 'espruino' # create espruino directory and enter it
curl -O 'http://www.espruino.com/binaries/travis/master/espruino_1v94.136_esp8266_4mb.tgz' # download the firmware
tar -xvzf espruino_1v94.136_esp8266_4mb.tgz # upack the .tgz file
rm espruino_1v94.136_esp8266_4mb.tgz # if tar was success full clean up and remove .tgz file
cd espruino_1v94.136_esp8266_4mb # enter the new extracted directory

• Connect via USB
• Run erase_flash command.

esptool.py --port /dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART erase_flash

• /dev/ is specific to macOS

• I don't believe it matters if you use /dev/cu.* or /dev/tty.*

• SLAB_USBtoUART is what shows up for me your's may be different. I'll add directions to figure this out when I get to it :D

• Disconnect/Reconnect USB from device. (I haven't tested this to see if it's necessary)

• Run write_flash command:

esptool.py --port /dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART --baud 115200 write_flash --verify --flash_freq 80m --flash_mode dio --flash_size 32m 0x0000 "boot_v1.6.bin" 0x1000 espruino_esp8266_user1.bin 0x3FC000 esp_init_data_default.bin 0x37E000 blank.binaries

• Use dio to flash the device properly. -- Below, @gfwilliams mentions that some other boards are able to handle qio and those boards can use it '...for faster access'.

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Common Errors

• Using qio option when running the write_flash command to flash the firmware:

  • Esptool flashes the firmware to the device without triggering any errors
  • Espruino Web IDE connects to device, but doesn't seem to work properly and may exhibit these issues:
    • Terminal window will not respond. When clicking in terminal window, no text cursor is displayed and will not respond to keyboard entries. (Terminal window still triggered the ':active' state color change when clicked).
  • Settings >> Console -- the console log:

  >>> Connecting...
  Set Slow Write = true
  Unable to open device (connectionInfo=undefined)
  ERROR: Unable to open device (connectionInfo=undefined)
  ERROR: [notify_error] Connection Failed.
  >>> Connection Failed.
  >>> Connecting...
  Set Slow Write = true
  Unable to open device (connectionInfo=undefined)
  ERROR: Unable to open device (connectionInfo=undefined)
  ERROR: [notify_error] Connection Failed.
  >>> Connection Failed.
  >>> Connecting...
  Set Slow Write = true
  [object Object]
  Connected [object Object]
  Found a prompt... great!
  >>> Sending...
  ---> "\u0010console.log(\"<\",\"<<\",JSON.str­ingify(process.env),\">>\",\">\")\n"
  >>> Sent
  WARNING: No result found - just got ""
  >>> Sent

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[espruino-discuss]

Posted at 2017-10-12 by Wilberforce

It appears to me that the qio is documented here already?

http://www.espruino.com/ESP8266_Flashing

Perhaps the initial page on the esp8266 docs could contain flashing info?

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Posted at 2017-10-13 by @gfwilliams

Does dio work even on qio boards? It might be worth making the examples use it if so, with a note that you can use qio for faster access.

There are also the 'combined' images that are super-easy to flash, and don't need the erase (because they just overwrite the whole memory area). Personally I'd suggest using them for beginners - they're slower to flash but there's very little to go wrong

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Posted at 2017-10-13 by stevo

Apologies, I think the way I formatted the post's text made it difficult to see the command line code underneath 'Run write_flash command:'
You are correct. qio is documented there, but it did not work for this particular board.

The correct setting for this board: dio

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Posted at 2017-10-13 by stevo

I saw the combined images and wasn't sure how to flash them to the device without digging into esptool documentation. Could you provide example command or link to one?

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Posted at 2017-10-17 by Antoine

I have the exact same issue with a set of new nodemcu :(

Fist I had a lot of kernel panic on my mac due to a faulty driver. I had to reinstall my system.

Now the espruino IDE is not communicating with the board :'(

Connected [object Object]
Found a prompt... great!
>>> Sending...
---> "\u0010console.log(\"<\",\"<<\",JSON.stringify(process.env),\">>\",\">\")\n"
>>> Sent
WARNING: No result found - just got ""

I have an other nodeMcu board that's working perfectly (I guess it's an other model)