Also got one just recently. Probably about 2 weeks ago. When I bought it from micro robotics, I didnt know which one to buy. So I bought an ESP-1 and ESP12-E both has an ESP8266 Chip on it. The ESP-1 only has 1 GPIO where as the ESP12-E has a few.
Have you managed to program it ? At first it kept me up until 3:00AM on a Friday
Couldn't get it to program it started to think i bought 2 duds. It was mostly because I tried to use an old Arduino UNO board's as an FTDI programmer by removing the UNO's chip. On that Saturday I bought a proper FTDI programmer from communica and managed to program and using an external 3.3V source.
Whilst I was at communica I also picked up a SONOFF. I asked nicely to have the one in their display because they were out of stock apparently they sell like sweet cake.
Made a how to video to show how it must be programmed with the Arduino IDE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQqxaBEZjcs
The trick is to also reset the FTDI , put it into programming mode, reset FTDI again then hit the programming. If that doesn't work. Disconnect the USB and external power and try again. Been working fine for me.
1. If I can make some recommendations. The NodeMCU comes with USB on board so its much easier to program. Once you have what you want , you can transfer that over to a permanent project. A bare ESP8266 is designed using a different spacing standard so the holes don't match that of a vero board so its a bit hard to work with. I had to re-solder them onto a small piece of veroboard to make it easier to work with.
2. If your project involves turning AC power on and off via Wifi. Dont bother making your own board. Just buy a Sonoff. The Sonoff is an ESP 8266 with 2 or 3 GPIOs dirt cheap and comes with an integrated AC-DC power supply and can be placed inline of any AC device using less than 10A. And The beauty is it can also be re-programmed with the Arduino IDE just like you can program any other ESP8266 or Arduino board. You simply have to buy some header strips and solder 4 header pins onto it and you have an ESP8266 with an AC Relay shield all in one package.
Picture of my modified sonoff
View attachment 427690
And theESP12-E
View attachment 427692
Not shown in the picture the FDTI board's GND must obviously be common with the ESP8266's GND
(VERY IMPORTANT)
Also the reason for the external 3.3V is apparently USB cant deliver enough power to power both the ESP and FTDI. The nodeMCU does not seem to have that problem. But it certainly made a difference when I tried to program it without the external power.
