Arber - Thanks again for writing this, I'd be 100% lost without your instructions.
As is, I'm only about 50% lost *with* your instructions :p
I think I was fine up until this point:
arber333 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 27, 2019 8:09 am
5. Download Johannes Web interface code here:
https://github.com/jsphuebner/esp8266-web-interface
- put the code in the same dir as the ino file, default FSBrowser
- make another dir Data inside first and copy everything here again (i am not sure which files are correct, so i just copy them again) this are the SPIFS
Questions:
- Which of those files in Johannes' directory are you calling the "code"? A specific file or the whole thing? I can download a zip of all of it, so, all of it? Johannes' read-me file is empty except for a title, nothing's described.
- "put the code in the same dir as the ino file, default FSBrowser". I don't know what this means. I downloaded a file (or all the files) from the directory, where do I put them? What is the "same directory as the ino file"? When I downloaded the whole directory, it has an "FSBrowser.ino" file, but what then what does "the code" refer to?
- "make another dir Data inside first", what was the first directory? I didn't know where to put them, so the files are still in my downloads folder. Does it matter where? Also, I'm not sure what this is describing. Suppose I have a folder called "Johu Web Interface", filled with everything in the folder linked above. Now I create a child folder inside "Johu Web Interface" called Data, and I copy... what into it? All the same files? So there's 16 files in the first directory, and then the same 16 more in the Data directory?
6. Connect board to USB and select correct COM port and rest of settings
I plug it in, it does it's little beep and wiggle for new device found.
... Where am I selecting COM port and rest of settings? It doesn't popup and I can't see anywhere that I set COM Ports (never did find it).
- if you used a new board you have to select "erase flash: sketch + wifi settings" so the board will erase its password
I wasn't sure what this was referring to. But I finally found it. You're referring to the Arduino IDE, under the Tools Menu, down near the bottom is "Erase Flash: Only Sketch", you have to click that, go to the submenu, and change from "Only Sketch" to "Sketch + Wifi Settings". Unintuitively, the Arduino interface menu options change what they're named to reflect what they're currently set to. So you can't find that setting. I.E. If at MacDonalds the menu said "Burger: Chicken" and you were told to select the "Burger: Beef". You scan but you can't see it. Beef isn't an option, you have to know that you're selecting "Chicken" and then turning that into "Beef" and then the name for that option is now "Beef" instead of "Chicken". Every little thing that isn't quite what you expect it to be makes it harder for someone who doesn't already know what they're doing.
- click upload and wait for interface to reset the board
I found 3 different upload buttons:
- In the "Sketch" menu there is an "Upload" option.
- In the "Sketch" menu there is an "Upload with Programmer" option.
- In the "Tools" menu there is an "ESP8266 Sketch Data Upload" option.
If I select the 3rd option, it spits out SPIFF and COM port errors.
If I select the 1st option, it chokes on COM1 and asks me to reselect, then for the first time lets me pick (only 2 options, COM1 and COM13). I picked the other COM option and it appears to have worked. I still don't know how to select a COM port other than through this error screen, I imagine if I was connected to multiple devices I could easily ruin some of them by not getting to pick a COM port unless the connection fails. Hrmph.
- select tools/ESP8266 sketch data upload and wait for the board to reset
Errors out. "SPIFFS Create: No files have been found in your data folder! Are you sure you want to create an empty SPIFFS image? Y/N"
Okay, so, what's my data folder? I gave it my data folder. WHY U NO WORK?
... much time passes...
AHA. ... of all the assinine...
So, if you have a fresh Arduino IDE install, and you've never saved a sketch before, your Sketch directory is an untitled garbled random numerical folder in your AppData/Local/Temp/ directory among thousands of other temp garbage files Windows and programs use. Mine was a folder called "untitled307404713.tmp" (yes a folder with an extension), which then has a date-code child folder ("sketch_jan03a" for me). And it was in that /AppData/Local/Temp/untitled307404713.tmp/sketch_jan03a folder that it was expecting me to put my data files, without giving me the option of where to look for them.
"But what if you went into Preferences and doubled-checked the default 'Sketchbook Location' or tried to change it?" I did both (default and changed to a different one, but the IDE wouldn't would use it's own preferences and this didn't have any effect until you do one thing to trigger a change. The trigger is to save a sketch somewhere first.
As soon as you save a sketch (File --> Save As), even a blank one, it THEN tells itself (without you saying so) to switch over from that random Temp folder to you Documents/Arduino/ folder. It doesn't use its own preferences until that point.
I only discovered this by going to "Sketch --> Show sketch folder" and it transporting me off into alphanumeric land in my Temp folder.
For anyone curious, if you dump your files into that random Temp folder and tell it to ESP8266 Sketch Data Upload, it does actually work (proving it does insist files be there until you've saved your first sketch).
If you did manage to hunt down that directory though, since it's a Temp folder, it will stop working as soon as you save your first sketch, because then it's reading the Sketchbook location in the Preferences. So you had to guess that it changed on you from a state of not following your directions to following your directions.
Goddamnit. That's an hour of my life I won't get back and I was lucky in stumbling across that solution. As much as I love Open Source, I hate Open Source. Everything always seems to be "it's so easy, once you already know". WHY WOULD YOU USE A RANDOM TEMP FOLDER NOT EVEN YOUR OWN DEFAULT FOLDER AND THEN NOT EVEN LOAD YOUR OWN PREFERENCES WHEN YOU CHANGE THEM AND THEN ALSO NOT TELL THE USER YOU WON'T AND THEN ALSO NOT TELL THE USER WHAT RANDOM TEMP FOLDER YOU WERE EXPECTING TO FIND THEM IN? WHY ARDUINO? WHY? MILLIONS OF PEOPLE USE THIS AND IT WAS DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY TO EDUCATE AND CATER TO BEGINNERS! I ALREADY KNOW THAT FRUSTRATION EXISTS YOU DON'T HAVE TO TEACH ME!
- connect to the board and go to
http://192.168.4.1/ to set your wifi settings inside interface
This could be less vague, you could be talking about USB still or who knows what. I presume what you mean is to use a device that has wifi, scan for an SSID/Network Name that starts with ESP and followed by a few numbers (ESP-####), then connect to it like you would any other wifi network.
...
Also it didn't work. There's a missing step of going to File-->Open and loading the FSBrowser.ino sketch file.
But, that seems to have done it.
connect your board to Johannes board...
Well, it's 5am for me, so I'm throwing in the towel for the night. But, since I'm using the WEMOS D1 Mini instead of the Olimex... I can no longer just clip it onto Damien's Prius G2 Control Board. I have to create a cable to wire it up. Is there a handy list of what pins are what and where they get used? The Control Board doesn't have silkscreen on the pinouts (and fair enough, I'm not doing things the prescribed way). I'm moderately confident I could figure this out, but if anyone has a list that'd save me some time.
Ehn, maybe I've got this... Looks like we got 3.3v off the Blue Pill (D1 mini has a spot for 5v too, will run off either?), GND, and the Blue Pill's B11 and B10 pins (I presume RX and TX?). All clustered as the 4 pins on the right? Which connect to the corresponding pins on the D1 Mini? Anything more magical to it than just wiring up some jumpers to those 4 spots? (I.E. Does RX on the Blue Pill go to RX on the Mini, or is the RX of one the TX of the other?).
...
Thanks again Arber and others. There's precisely zero chance of me having figured this out on my own. I'm sure I would've gotten stuck and hundred times and problem could've been software, hardware, fuckin' tupperware for all I knew.