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ESP8266 Thing - Connecting to

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ESP8266 Thing - Connecting to

By jmleczko
-  Sun Jan 21, 2018 7:45 pm #198000
Do I really need to buy FTDI basic board and a cable to connect to this? Is there a way to use the arduino ide like with a regular old 8266?

Thanks in advance,

-John

Re: ESP8266 Thing - Connecting to

By Valen
-  Wed Jan 24, 2018 12:25 pm #198036
Only the ESP8266 Thing Dev Board has a FTDI USB to Serial interface included. The USB connector only provides power to the ESP8266 Thing. So, without any USB-to-Serial interface plugged into the side pins it's not going to connect to the Arduino IDE via USB. It doesn't have to be the FTDI brand. There are other USB-to-Serial interfaces using different interface chips. Just make sure it also has a DTR pin as output, aside from Vcc,Tx,Rx,Gnd. Or you won't be able to automatically program it.
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