[SOLVED] Not able to communicate (flash) an ESP8266 ESP12E

Hardware
1

Hi.

I’m trying something really simple which is uploading a sketch to one of my ESP12e.

I was able to do it without a problem until a few weeks ago. Now, I receive the following message:

esptool.py v2.8
Serial port COM3
Connecting........_____....._____....._____....._____....._____....._____.....____Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "\Arduino15\packages\esp8266\hardware\esp8266\2.6.2/tools/upload.py", line 65, in <module>
    esptool.main(cmdline)
  File "/Arduino15/packages/esp8266/hardware/esp8266/2.6.2/tools/esptool\esptool.py", line 2890, in main
    esp.connect(args.before)
  File "/Arduino15/packages/esp8266/hardware/esp8266/2.6.2/tools/esptool\esptool.py", line 483, in connect
    raise FatalError('Failed to connect to %s: %s' % (self.CHIP_NAME, last_error))
esptool.FatalError: Failed to connect to ESP8266: Timed out waiting for packet header
_
the selected serial port _
 does not exist or your board is not connected

The board is connected to a CH340 USB-Serial converter, similar to this https://www.electrodragon.com/product/usb-ttl-serial-ch340-board/

Connection schematics are shown below.

1228×593 60.5 KB

The board sends some basic info back through the serial port, so I assume serial communications work.

I tried with a PL-2303 but it does not work anymore on Win10 (v1909)

I also tried with ESP Flasher from ESPhome.io (https://github.com/esphome/esphome-flasher). Same results…

Any guidance/help will be much appreciated.

2

I see GND connected, VCC, RX, TX too. But you need to connect GPIO0 to GND to enter flash mode, and I don’t see that.

1 Like
3

Basically:

  • Make sure you solder joints are properly done
  • Check voltages and polarities
  • Ground GPIO0 when programming
  • Follow the connections diagram shown below

image