Let's Control It

Hi,

I am having issues with a ESP-01 connected to a relay. When the ESP-01 is connected to my USB programmer the device connects to my network. When i connect the ESP-01 to the relay and power the relay the ESP-01 turns on but doesn't connect to my network.
The ESP-01 flashed fine and ESP easy was setup.

I have no idea what is going wrong. I have tired powering the relay from the pins of the same USB programmer it works with and still get no network connection. I have included images of the two devices I have for reference. I hope you can help me.

P.S I have tried two ESP-01s and two of the same relays with the same result.

Please take a picture of your ESP-01 since I suspect you do not have it correctly set to boot.

I will do when i get home. All i did was plug the esp-01 into the yellow connector of the relay.

looking into the further and look like i need to boot into "boot from flash mode" how do i go about this? Am i guessing the USB programmer goes into boot from flash as default?

To boot into flash mode:
put the "CH-EN" to HIGH
put "GPIO00" to LOW

Picture


To boot into normal mode:
put "CH-EN" to HIGH (recommended with a resistor between, I managed to just solder a piece of wire = unprotected)
put "GPIO00" to HIGH (disconnect the cable)

More info on the wiki: https://www.letscontrolit.com/wiki/inde ... figuration

Thank you. How can I do this while connected to the Relay board?

Solder a wire between those two pins (VCC---CH-EN) Solder on the "top" of the board.

Ok cool. so just solder those two terminals. Then power up? or do i need to connect GPIO0 to something also on boot uo?

No just connect those two (permanently using a wire and solder). Then just power it up.

OK just to check Solder VCC to CH-ENG then power up

Sorry being thick today.

Correct

Placed a 10k resistor between vcc and Ch Eng and getting the same.problem. any ideas

I flashed a ESP-01 just an hour ago (to make this wiki page): https://www.letscontrolit.com/wiki/index.php/ESP-01

Im really not getting this. My unit has been flashed with firmware. Just doesn't connect.to WiFi after I disconnect it from the usb programmer and just apply power.

Do you get any serial information?

When I disconnect it from the programmer I don't have anything connected to the unit no serial info. As I said it works fine when connected to the programmer. I am able to connect via the IP address. When disconnected from the programmer it doesn't appear on my network.

Do you have any other programmer?

But please send a picture of your soldering / connection when trying to run it with NO programmer.

Yes I do. I have a standard ftdi programmer. I will send over a photo to.orrow if you don't mind. By soldering those pins does that mean it's in bootloader mode 247? I thought these where the pins I shorted to flash the firmware.

Yes that jumper is a permanent thing. Do not remove it.

Ok all soldered. Still not connecting to my network ;(

Image attached

Really want to get this to work. But im on the verge of giving up. A lot of information online is different from one page to another.

You sure it's 1MB? Have you removed it from the back relay board and booted it?

Do you get Wifi from the ESP if it is connected to the programmer?

I sure do.

grovkillen wrote: ↑03 Dec 2017, 20:28 You sure it's 1MB? Have you removed it from the back relay board and booted it?

Not sure if it is 1mb. And no I haven't booted away from the relay. As I don't have a 3.3 psu

Try to get 3.3V and boot before giving up. Also double check the memory size.

I'll try powering from my arudino.

If Wifi is OK with the programmer the ESP is working and should have 1 MB.
Something does not work when the ESP is plugged into the relay board.

As the board should work with it's own software deleiverd with the board
something is stopping the ESPEasy firmware on the board.

Sadly i don't have a schematic or a sample of the board so it's difficult to say what's going on.

Just a question. Why does it work from the programmer without the link out? Why is it then needed?

The programmer board connected these two pins via the board. You can test if they do using a multimeter.

This may answer your question.
I suspiced some needed pull-up resistors are missing on the board so i just checked the pictures of the board on AliExpress.

Beware - i'm judging only by the photos and may be wrong.

This is an interesting relay board.....
- Relay connected to GPIO0 - no pull-up resistor on the board
- GPIO2 floating - no pull-up resistor on the board
- ch-pd floating - no pull-up resistor on the board
- Reset just connected to the button - no pull-up resistor on the board

seeing this I checked ESP-01 and ESP-01S from my shelf:
The older ESP-01 (the one you used juding by your photos) has a internal pull-up on reset only.
The newer ESP-01S has internal pull-ups on reset, ch-pd (enable) and GPIO0 (I see 9..12 KOhm with multimeter) but
not on GPIO2 (I see some MOhms).

There may be other ESP-01 types differing from this.

It might be worth a try to solder the missing resistors to the board for a test.
Possibly it would work with the newer ESP01S, but not with your older ESP-01 types.

If you have a multimeter or voltmeter try the following:
- put the ESP-01 into the board
- power up the board (it needs 5V)
- check the voltage from GND to GPIO0, GPIO2, CH-PD (enable) and reset.

If possible give the results here.

Regards
Shardan

Balls! Powered from arud and it's booted.

cbirchy87 wrote: ↑03 Dec 2017, 22:33 Balls! Powered from arud and it's booted.

Great! You can get a DC-DC step down to 3.3V.

Possible. However I wanted to use this relay due to the size. Which sucks!

You probably can by modifying it a bit...

I can does reading tomorrow. It has esp01s printed on the rear of the relay if that helps

See photo.

Yep, i think that's the reason - some pull up resistors are missing.
If you check the pictures on AliExpress et al you will see they all use a ESP-01S type.

Look at this picture:
. .
In the upper left marked area there are some more parts on the ESP-01S.
In the lower area are two resistors that are missing on the ESP-01.

As said check the voltage on the four pins as described some might have too low voltage to start up.

Regards
Shardan

cbirchy87 wrote: ↑03 Dec 2017, 22:48See photo.

As i can see from the photos you're using an ESP-01, not an ESP-01S (misstyped that on first run, sorry).
All boards i've seen on the marked use ESP-01S.

So I need to get some.esp01s WiFi boards to use my relays?

If you have a multimeter or voltmeter at hand try to check out the voltage on the four "middle" pins, GPIO 0 & 2, CH-PD (enable) and reset when the ESP-01 is plugged into the board.
I suspice the voltage on some pins is too low to boot up correctly due to the missing resistors.

The easiest way to get it working is getting ESP-01s, yes.
If you can check which pins have too low voltage it should be possible to use some 10KOhm resistors and pull the voltage up.

Regards
Shardan

I'll test it tomorrow. I might just grab some esp01s units. However most sellers.are not in the UK.

cbirchy87 wrote: ↑03 Dec 2017, 23:04 I'll test it tomorrow. I might just grab some esp01s units. However most sellers.are not in the UK.

Sadly they are not in Germany either..... and those which are sold here are not really affordable.

Will get an esp01s WiFi module from the UK. If it works I'll bulk buy for the project. Can't thank you enough for the help. I'll test the voltage tomorrow

You're welcome.

Hey

So I've replaced the esp01 for esp01s and it works flawlessly. Thanks for your help. Just need to find a use for the old units now.

Great!

i have connected VCC to CH_PD and put a 10K ohm resistor on VCC and GPO0 on the esp01.
The board seems to start up now and GPO0 can operate the onboard relais.
So don't throw away your old esp's yet.

BTW the shematic of this relay baby is there:
https://github.com/IOT-MCU/ESP-01S-Rela ... ematic.pdf

as well as some others documents (look like the manufacturer repo)

HTH