A few days ago I posted my fail with the ESP8266 model ESP-03. I never got it working (as of now), so I moved to the ESP-01 model. It worked like a champ.
I upgraded the firmware on the module as recommended on the web and connected to my wifi network without problems what so ever. At first I didn't pull up the rest pin and it kept rebooting, but after pulling reset up it worked consistently good. Left it overnight connected and it was responding to ping on the morning, I am pretty happy. Like a dog with to tails ("como un perro con dos rabos") as they say here in PR.
Here is a picture of my success in my working table (that doubles as a dining table or vice-verse all depends who you talk to).
Here is a reference link for firmware upgrade:
Posts from this guy helped me a lot, he also has a youtube video:
ESP8266 Woes… a Ray of Light | My Tech Weblog
I have plans to use this module for some Christmas decorations and also, would like to build a general purpose IO WiFi board. The idea is to have a micro controller with one or more Relays, a WiFi module and an SDCard.
The idea is to have one or multiple relays connected to home WiFi for ease of controlling devices on the house without the need of programming each micro controller iindividuallyif you change the SSID or password. To change the configured SSID, password you just remove the SDCard and update settings from a PC then put it back again and that's it. The re-programming may change to be USB or even for a WiFi direct. But that is the main concept, just one or more relays with WiFi without extra programming. Just a firmware based device. Here is an image of the concept. It should be very straight forward to make and easily move into a dedicated board, it is only getting the time to do it.
This is just an idea, that may or not be made. I think eventually it will be made. But life sometimes don't give you enough time to take on big projects. For now, I only have a few moments to build but it will be made.
For now future projects will be projects that somehow I can share with my family, it should be fun times ahead. Share with fellow nerds is one thing, but see a non technical family member using what you build and liking it is amazing.
About ESP8266 model ESP-03, I have not given up but now I will actually do something with the one that is working and get back to it latter on. Love the form factor and the amount of GPIOs that is has so it would be great to use.
Tip:
These days I have a little secret. I have an Arduino in my work desk and during lunch hour I try to run some quick tests to maximize time. Eat in a few minutes, then after a few minutes to test code. For this I need to have all organized and clean, no wires hanging around just coding and it is working for me. Every now and the, if I get a code to quick test instead or reading the news at lunch I am trying to code something cool (or update my blog...).
Note:
I while back I did a project with a PSoC4 and wanted to connect it to a WiFi network but could not find a cheap solution. Thinking about it, this should work perfectly for that using just UART for WiFi opens a world of possibilities.