Modifing CP2102 to program an ESP8266

I bought a few ESP-01’s a while ago and now that I know how to flash and program an ESP8266 using NodeMCU firmware, I wanted to program my ESP-01 easily.

One issue is that the CP2102 3.3V output is said not to have enough current to suppy an ESP8266 but I found you can buy small 5 – 3.3V regulators that can easily be soldered onto a CP2102 to give the current needed

I used one of these .

To attach it to my CP2102 (yours might be different) I cut the track going to my CTS pin and then soldered it to the 5V, the old CTS pin and GND.

Once this was done I just connected it up to an ESP-01 mounted on a breadboard and used ESPFlasher.exe to upload the NodeMCU firmware (I use 9600 baud – its slow but works for me always)

I then detached GPIO 0 from gnd and I was up and running with Lua on my ESP-01

I tested it out by connecting a WS2812B Neopixel and uploaded my ScratchLua script – powered the whole lot off 3 AA and voila – wifi neopixel controlled from Scratch for <£5 🙂

Simon