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
  
  

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

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, @Gordon mentions that some other boards are able to handle qio and those boards can use it '...for faster access'.
    
    

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
    

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?

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

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

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?

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)