I ordered it because the pins were not soldered.
I have two applications for (1MB) ESP8266/ESP8285 boards, needing RX/TX connection for MicroPython only once:
- flash ESP8266 MicroPython on it, for wireless use via WebREPL (module is AP, 192.168.4.1 by default)
- flash Arduino WifiToSerial.ino onto the module (standard demo uses station mode to connect to Wifi)
- GPIO2 and GND need to be connected during all flash operations for ESP8285, only when powering for ESP8266
- ESP8285 needed dout flash mode for write_flash, ESP8266 not
Since I need to flash ESP-1 module only once, I wanted a solderless solution (to avoid having to desolder once flashed).
And I found one:
- use ESP-01 USB programmer, with switch below allowing to connect GPIO2 and GND when pressed
- insert the unsoldered 4x2 male headers into the programmer
- add ESP-1 onto the headers slanted
- do a little pressure from top with finger for good contact, while other finger presses switch below programmer
- connect programmer to USB port (keeping fingers as is)
- with the other hand, either compile+flash with Arduino IDE
- or do flash_id/erase_flash/write_flash for ESP8285 modules
esptool.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 --baud 460800 write_flash --flash_size=detect -fm dout 0 esp8266-1m-20210902-v1.17.bin
After flashing, for MicroPython WebREPL use only GND and 3V3 pins need to be soldered.
For WifiToSerial.ino in addition RX/TX pins need to be soldered to controlled device TX/RX pins (GP0/GP1 for Pico).
While the module is 24.7mm long (too long for "smallest robot"), it is only 3.1mm high:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaIC_d-ZLuw