ESP-01/ESP-01s programming stick

Recently I got a dedicated ESP-01/ESP-01s programmer from AliExpress.

 

As usual with chinese products, the real engineering part is missing. In this case the RESET and BOOT/PROGRAM buttons are missing, and without the BOOT button you will have a hard time to program it. Before you start fiddling around shortening some pins on the ESP while plugging the module into your USB port and certainly kill either your FTDI/UART programmer, or the ESP, or your port, or all together, take your soldering iron and fix it with 3 simple connections.

You need:

• the programming board
• 2 buttons
• less than 1 cm of cables
• a soldering iron
• ~ ten minutes

Our goal is to connect GPIO0 (BOOT) and the RESET buttons to GND with their individual switch. I used a very flat switch for BOOT on the bottom and the larger one on the side for RESET:

 

To make it more stable I filled empty parts between the buttons and the module with some hot clue.

Now, while connecting your module to the USB port you can press the BOOT button just by pressing the module carefully to the bottom. Or you connect it, press and hold BOOT, press RESET and release BOOT as soon as the connection to the ESP is established. Happy flashing...

BTW, while writing this blog I realized I was not the first one to come to the bottom press idea: cmheong's blog: Using the CH340 USB dongle as ESP-01S Programmer