I finished soldering the BE a few days ago, and since then I've been trying to get the firmware installed. I have a FT232RL dupont wires, a multimeter and two working USB cables.
The FT232RL (set to 3.3v) comes up fine in Linux as /dev/ttyUSB0. I have permission to write to it. Here is how I have things connected:
BE <--> FTDI
gnd <--> gnd
RX <--> TX
TX <--> RX
RTS <--> RTS
DTR <--|
GND <--| (i.e., I have the DTR pin on the BE connected to a GND pin to pull it down so it goes into flash mode)
I've checked many connections with the multimeter, including RX, TX, GPIO0<->DTR, ground, 3.3v, CH_PD, and CTS<->RTS (from the esp to the pin header).
My command to upload the firmware (using the esptool from ttbasic git repository):
python esptool.py -c esp8266 -b 921600 -p /dev/ttyUSB0 write_flash 0x00000000 ttbasic-0.88-alpha.bin
The result is always:
Connecting........__.............................................__
A fatal error occurred: Failed to connect to ESP8266: Timed out waiting for packet header
The blue led blinks a couple times every few seconds on the ESP, and the LED on the adapter closest to the USB port blinks in time. The other LED on the adapter (closer to the voltage jumper) blinks I think 4 times after the others blink twice.
Any help would be most welcome.