How to revive an unresponsive D1mini (ESP8266)?

ESPHome
1

Hi,

I have tried to read the tacho from a 4-pin fan with a D1mini. 4-pin fan with d1mini and esphome: how to read current rpm of the fan?

From what I have learned, this should not have broken my D1mini - but it did somehow. It got unresponsive. I am not sure, if there is something wrong with my code, something went wrong during the flashing of the device or if I really fried my D1mini.

If I connect it via USB to my laptop and try to flash it via ESPhome, I get this error message in the browser:

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If I try to flash Tasmota, tasmotizer gives me this error:
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(“… a connected device does not work…”)

A quick look into device manager shows this:

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(-> device working as expected)

Is there a way to know for sure, if this D1mini is terminally broken or if it is just a hiccup in the firmware? Is there a way to force flash it?

Any insight is very much appreciated.

Chris

p.s.: if someone knows, how my D1mini got unresponsive, please let me know in my other thread.

EDIT: a couple of weeks ago, I had an issue with the CH340-driver version and had to downgrade. Currently installed version is 3.8.2023.2. Any experiences on this version?

2

Can you try using a serial port tool like Putty to open the COM port.

If the device is not completely dead, it should output a little bit of information at 115200 baud when it powers on / comes out of reset.

3

Hi @agk1190,

Thank you very much for your input. I didn’t know, you could use putty to access a serial connection.

Well, I downgraded my CH340 driver to version 3.5.2019.1 and voilà, there seems to be some sort of connection between Web - ESPHome and the D1mini.

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Unfortunately, I cannot install anything.

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Tasmotizer throws this error:
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If I try to connect with Putty, the window just stays black.
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(I compared it with a working D1mini and there is some constant output there.)

Then, I took my multimeter and measured some pins:
5V to ground is still there, but 3.3V is dead and all the other digital and analog pins are dead as well.

So, I guess, I did something, that killed it?

4

Try a different USB cable

5

Hi @pepe59,

I did try different cables. The current cable worked on another D1mini. Should not be the issue.

Chris