I'm having trouble getting the ESP8266 EX to work as expected. At the moment all I am trying to do is Turn on > scan for networks > Turn off.
I have got this to work but only just, and in a very weird way. In order to get a list of visible APs, I need to:
- Apply power to the CHIP_EN pin -> turn the module on
- Reset using AT+RST, wait for "ready" (tried with an without this, makes not difference)
- wait 1 second
- Put device in softAp + station mode (CWMODE = 3. CWMODE = 1 DOES NOT WORK - more details below)
- Wait 10 seconds
- Send AT+CWLAP every 10 seconds for X number of times. Sometimes this returns nothing until the 3rd time (so after 30 seconds).
- Turn off (disconnect CHIP_EN)
- Repeat.
The module is running off 2.8V, connected to a microcontroller on the same power supply. The SPI flash is a 4Mbit winbond chip with DIO. Here is the circuit

I have tried firmware versions 0.20, 0.25, 0.50, 0.51 (noboot versions). Setting CWMODE=3 makes it work but only with the 0.51 firmware. The other firmwares seemed to return nothing, no matter what I try.
1- Am I missing something?
2- Is there a problem with the circuit?
3- It seems strange to me that I can't just do: AT+CWMODE=1 followed by AT+CWLAP. Why do I need to wait so long before a scan returns something?
4- Why does dual softAP / station mode need to be on?
The antenna is not very good, I know this (-3dB gain) , but it clearly can work when I set it to softAp + Station mode, so I don't know what is wrong.
One last thing
If I create a softAP on my PC, using windows netsh wlan start hostednetwork, the ESP8266 returns this network immediately, it even works in station mode! (AT+CWMODE=1). Is there a problem with non softAps??Statistics: Posted by cguest — Sun Jan 03, 2016 12:00 am
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