Below you’ll detect all necessary information to flash a NodeMCU firmware binary to ESP8266 or ESP8285. Notation that this is a reference documentation and not a tutorial with fancy screen shots. Plow to the corresponding tool documentation for those.

esptool.py¶

A Python-based, open source, platform independent, utility to communicate with the ROM bootloader in Espressif ESP8266.

Source:
https://github.com/espressif/esptool

Supported platforms: Bone X, Linux, Windows, anything that runs Python

Running esptool.py

Run the following command to flash an
aggregated
binary as is produced for example by the
cloud build service
or the
Docker image.

esptool.py --port <serial-port-of-ESP8266> write_flash -fm <flash-manner> 0x00000 <nodemcu-firmware>.bin

wink-mode

is
qio
for most ESP8266 ESP-01/07 (512 kByte modules) and
dio
for most ESP32 and ESP8266 ESP-12 (>=4 MByte modules). ESP8285 requires
dout.

Gotchas

• See
  below
  if you don’t know or are uncertain about the chapters of the flash scrap on your device. It might help to double check as e.thousand. some ESP-01 modules come up with 512kB while others are equipped with 1MB.
• esptool.py is nether heavy development. It’s brash yous run the latest version (check with
  esptool.py version). Since this documentation may non have been able to keep up refer to the
  esptool flash modes documentation
  for current options and parameters.
• The firmware epitome file contains default settings
  dio
  for flash way and
  40m
  for flash frequency.
• In some uncommon cases, the
  SDK init data
  may be invalid and NodeMCU may fail to boot. The easiest solution is to fully erase the chip before flashing:
  esptool.py --port <series-port-of-ESP8266> erase_flash

NodeMCU PyFlasher¶

Self-contained
NodeMCU
flasher with GUI based on
esptool.py
and
wxPython.

Source:
https://github.com/marcelstoer/nodemcu-pyflasher

Supported platforms: annihilation that runs Python, runnable
.exe
available for Windows and
.dmg
for macOS

Disclaimer: the availability of
NodeMCU PyFlasher was appear on the NodeMCU Facebook page
but information technology is not an official offering of the current NodeMCU firmware squad.

Putting Device Into Flash Fashion¶

To enable ESP8266 firmware flashing GPIO0 pin must be pulled low before the device is reset. Conversely, for a normal boot, GPIO0 must exist pulled high or floating.

If you lot have a
NodeMCU dev kit
then you don’t demand to do annihilation, as the USB connection tin pull GPIO0 depression by asserting DTR and reset your board by asserting RTS.

If you take an ESP-01 or other device without built-in USB, you lot will need to enable flashing yourself by pulling GPIO0 low or pressing a “flash” switch, while powering up or resetting the module.

Which Files To Wink¶

If you build your firmware with the
cloud architect or the Docker image, or any other method that produces a
combined binary, then y’all can flash that file directly to address 0x00000.

Otherwise, if you congenital your own firmware from source lawmaking:

• bin/0x00000.bin
  to 0x00000
• bin/0x10000.bin
  to 0x10000

Upgrading Firmware¶

There are three potential issues that arise from upgrading (or downgrading!) firmware from i NodeMCU version to another:

• Lua scripts written for i NodeMCU version (similar 0.nine.ten) may not work error-gratis on a more recent firmware. For example, Espressif inverse the
  socket:send
  performance to be asynchronous i.e. non-blocking. See
  API documentation
  for details.

• The NodeMCU flash file system may need to be reformatted, particularly if its address has changed because the new firmware is dissimilar in size from the old firmware. If information technology is not automatically formatted so it should exist valid and have the same contents as earlier the flash operation. You tin still run
  
  file.format()
  
  manually to re-format your wink file organisation. You lot will know if you need to exercise this if your flash files exist merely seem empty, or if data cannot be written to new files. However, this should exist an exceptional case. Formatting a file system on a large flash device (e.m. the 16MB parts) tin take some fourth dimension. Then, on the kickoff kick, you shouldn’t get worried if zero appears to happen for a minute. At that place’s a message printed to console to make you aware of this.

• The Espressif SDK Init Data may alter between each NodeMCU firmware version, and may need to exist erased or reflashed. See
  SDK Init Data
  for details. Fully erasing the module before upgrading firmware volition avoid this effect.

SDK Init Data¶

NodeMCU versions are compiled against specific versions of the Espressif SDK. The SDK reserves space in flash that is used to shop calibration and other data. Espressif refers to this area as “Organisation Param” and information technology occupies four 4 Kb sectors of flash. A fifth four Kb sector is also reserved for RF calibration. – With SDK version two.10 builds, these 5 sectors are located in the concluding pages at in the Flash memory. – With SDK version 3.ten builds, these 5 sectors are located in the otherwise unused pages at Flash start 0x0B000-0x0FFFF, between the
bin/0x00000.bin
segment at 0x00000 and the
bin/0x10000.bin
to 0x10000.

If this data gets corrupted or you are upgrading major SDK versions, then the firmware may not boot correctly. Symptoms include messages like
rf_cal[0] !=0x05,is 0xFF, or endless reboot loops and/or fast blinking module LEDs. If you are seeing one or several of the to a higher place symptoms, ensure that your fleck is fully erased earlier flashing, for case by using
esptool.py. The SDK version 3.x firmware builds discover if the RF calibration sector has been erased or corrupted, and will automatically initialise it with the correct content earlier restarting the processor. This works for all SDK supported wink sizes.

Determine flash size¶

The easiest fashion to determine the flash capacity is to load the firmware and and then
impress(node.info'hw'.flash_size)
which reports the wink size in Kb. Alternatively, if you want to determine the capacity of the flash fleck
earlier
a firmware is installed then you can run the following command. This volition return a 2 hex digit
Manufacturer
ID and a 4 digit
Device
ID and the detected flash size.

esptool.py --port <serial-port> flash_id
The scrap ID can so be looked upwardly in
https://review.coreboot.org/plugins/gitiles/flashrom/+/refs/heads/master/flashchips.h.