Getting started with NodeMCU
Introduction
The ESP8266 is a low-cost Wi-Fi chip developed by Espressif Systems with TCP/IP protocol.
For more information about ESP8266, you can refer ESP8266 WiFi Module.
NodeMCU is a LUA based firmware which we need to download on ESP8266 chip.
To Download NodeMCU firmware, go to https://nodemcu-build.com/
- Enter your email.
- Select branch to Build
- Select the modules that you want to install.
E.g. If you want to use analog sensor with NodeMCU then select ADC model which will provides access to in-built ADC.
- We can select miscellaneous option for TLS/SSL support, debug as well as FatFS support as shown below
- Click on Start your Build.
- After build is completed you will receive an email with link to download your custom firmware. Click on the link to Download it.
- Note that you will get two links of Custom firmware, one is NodeMCU with floating support and second is NodeMCU without floating support i.e. integer.
- Download the integer support firmware bin file if floating support is not needed, else, download the floating support firmware bin file.
We need to flash above downloaded custom firmware on ESP8266 chip. There is a tool called ESP8266Flasher which is used to flash ESP8266 chip.
- Download ESP8266Flasher.exe from
32bit : https://github.com/nodemcu/nodemcu-flasher/tree/master/Win32/Release
64bit : https://github.com/nodemcu/nodemcu-flasher/tree/master/Win64/Release
- Open ESP8266Flasher.exe and click on Config.
- Click on the Setting icon and then select the firmware which was downloaded in the first step
- Select the COM port (In my case it is COM 7)
- Connect the USB cable to the NodeMCU module as shown in below image
and then click on Flash
- A green tick will appear after the firmware is installed
- HOLA! Your setup of ESP8266 with Node-MCU firmware is completed!
After setting up ESP with Node-MCU firmware, let’s see the IDE (Integrated Development Environment) required for development of NodeMCU.
