How to get the NodeMCU up and running

Get need software installed

On the Macbook

• Driver for the serial-to-usb connection. Found it here: https://www.silabs.com/products/development-tools/software/usb-to-uart-bridge-vcp-drivers.

• Install esptool:

sudo pip3 install esptool

• Install rshell:

sudo pip3 install rshell

Flash the ESP8266 on the NodeMCU board

• Erase flash (Replace cu.SLAB_USBtoUART when using another driver).

esptool.py --port /dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART --baud 230400 read_flash 0 2097152 orig_fw.bin`
esptool.py --port /dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART --baud 115200 erase_flash

• Flash with the new firmware: In <halloween>/esp8266/firmware run

esptool.py --port /dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART -b 115200 write_flash 0 ./firmware-v1.9.4-683-gd94aa57.bin

Setup ESP8266

• Start the terminal by

screen /dev/tty.SLAB_USBtoUART 115200

• In the terminal, set up the wifi connection by following the help() suggestion:

import network
sta_if = network.WLAN(network.STA_IF); sta_if.active(True)
sta_if.scan()
sta_if.connect("<AP_name>", "<password>")
sta_if.isconnected()

• Enable webrepl:

import webrepl_setup

• I've used the WebREPL to connect via Wifi and sent the Python files from <halloween>/esp8266 to the ESP8266

• In the shell, run import pumpkin and Flask comes up.

• Start scaring via the web interface (port 8081)