HowTo: ESP8266 - flashing .bin files under Windows with the "Esptool"

The actual flashing of firmware files such as .bin files (also called "binaries") on the Wemos D1 Mini, the NodeMcu dev board or any other board based on the ESP8266 is done completely in the background in the Arduino IDE.

This is actually the "esptool" offered by Espressif - the manufacturer of the ESP8266. With the right parameters, you can easily transfer finished .bin files to the ESP8266.

An easier and a slightly more challenging way is described in this article.

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Safety instructions

I know the following notes are always kind of annoying and seem unnecessary. Unfortunately, many people who knew "better" have lost eyes, fingers or other things due to carelessness or injured themselves. Data loss is almost negligible in comparison, but even these can be really annoying. Therefore, please take five minutes to read the safety instructions. Because even the coolest project is not worth injury or other trouble.
https://www.nerdiy.de/sicherheitshinweise/

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Requirements

Required tool:
-no-

Required material:
-no-

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The esptool

The current version of the "esptool" mentioned above can always be found in the manufacturer's GitHub under:

https://github.com/espressif/esptool

The "problem" is that this tool is a Python script/application and therefore cannot be executed directly/easily under Windows.

Conveniently, Python scripts can also be "packed" into a compact .exe file. This also makes it easier to use under Windows.
How to do this is described in the article Python - Translate Esptool.py to Esptool.exe described.
Alternatively, you can also access (somewhat older) prepared releases at

https://github.com/igrr/esptool-ck/releases

fall back.

For the further course of this article you don't have to organize the esptool yourself but you can simply use the esptool.exe file in the following Git.

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Transfer an existing .bin file with the esptool and the ESPEasy Flasher

If you only want to transfer a .bin file to the ESP8266 "armed" with the esptool, this normally means that you have to call up the esptool via the command line and with the corresponding parameters.

This is often difficult especially for not so advanced users and apart from that simply impractical.

This has also been noticed by others and therefore they have worked on how to make the flash process of the ESP8266 as simple as possible.

One of these results can be found in the following Git repository at

https://github.com/BattloXX/ESPEasyFlasher

as always there is also a backup on the nerdiy git:

https://github.com/Nerdiyde/ESPEasyFlasher

In this Git repository there is a FlashESP8266.exe in addition to the mentioned esptool.exe. The latter works like a graphical user interface, which translates the mouse input into prameters and a command line call. What this means is explained in the next paragraph. The easy way starts right here 🙂

Now all you have to do is click on the "Flash" button and the selected binary will be transferred to your ESP.

One more important note: The list of available COM ports is only updated by restarting the application. So if you have connected your ESP when the program was already started, you have to close it again and open it again.

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Call Esptool via the command line

As mentioned before, you can also use the esptool directly to transfer an existing binary to your ESP.

To do this, use the command line to call the esptool with specified parameters as follows:

esptool.exe -vv -cd nodemcu -cb 921600 -cp COM32 -ca 0x00000 -cf C:ESPEasy.ino.bin

• The number "921600" corresponds to the baud rate with which your ESP is programmed. This can vary from model to model. Typical baud rates are "9600", "115200" or "921600". If one baud rate does not work, you can simply try a different one.
• The "COM32" part corresponds to the COM port under which your connected ESP can be reached.
• "0x00000" corresponds to the memory area from which the binary is to be written to the ESP memory. You should not usually change this value.
• The part "C:ESPEasy.ino.bin" is now important. The path to your binary must be specified here. If you have copied your binary to your C: drive and named it "ESPEasy.ino.bin", this value can remain as it is.

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Further information:

https://github.com/arendst/Sonoff-Tasmota/wiki/Esptool

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Have fun with the project

I hope everything worked as described for you. If not or you have questions or suggestions please let me know in the comments. I will then add this to the article if necessary.
Ideas for new projects are always welcome. 🙂

PS Many of these projects - especially the hardware projects - cost a lot of time and money. Of course I do this because I enjoy it, but if you think it's cool that I share the information with you, I would be happy about a small donation to the coffee fund. 🙂