ESP8266, ESP-12F

Has anyone played with one of these? I’ve just found the one I bought some years ago; I want to use it in a new project. I’ve got a serial terminal connected, and I remember using AT commands with it first time round, but now whatever I type to it, the reply is always “ERROR”. (It does sign on with “Ai-Thinker Technology Co. Ltd.” followed by “ready”.)

In theory I could have reflashed it, but I don’t remember ever doing so. I’d have had to develop some alternative code; I know my memory’s bad and getting worse, but I have no memory of doing so.

Any clues would be welcome.

In the meantime I’ve ordered a couple more ESP-12F modules.

Probably just one of the AT command set based serial terminal firmwares on it.
IIRC those firmwares can be a pain to use. I’ve got a bunch of Esp8266 based things. I recall ages ago getting frustrated by something similar. Digging deep into questions on the internet got me through. I reflashed everything ages ago now so my memory is a bit vague on the whole thing.

This has a keyboard dance that needs to be done in the terminal first:

https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/projects/update-the-firmware-in-your-esp8266-wi-fi-module/

This has a keyboard dance that needs to be done in the terminal first:

If you have my !Serialterm program, and it has been seen, in a taskwindow type

serialterminal baud=xxxx -crlf

were xxxx is ther required baud rate.

The |m and |j in the link above are because carriage return, line feed line ending will be required. Putty sends CR as a line ending which makes it useless in some cases eg outputing debug data over the serial port where LF is the line ending. Termite on a PC is better for that. You don’t need baud=xxxx if the baud rate is 115200

I usually use !Connector with SerialUSB. obv for USB serial devices, not the onboard GPIO serial port which tbqh is more trouble than it’s worth. At least on a Pi.

I have to ask, are you trying to use AT commands to have a SLIP like setup or something utilising the AT commandset? If not, parhaps consider the Arduino route. Or alternately the NodeMCU/LuaRTOS or MicroPython.

I’ve found what was wrong. SerialTerm defaults to LF-only line endings, and the ESP8266 wants a CR; if it sees LF without CR first, it just says ERROR.

I now have three ESP-12F, so I’d better think up two more projects!

Well, you could always re-flash them with hass.io compatible smart light firmware. Or …err… I forget… whatever the OEM of the Mirabella bulbs is. I use the Mirabella ones in my house. They are esp8266 based.