The CH340 chip is used by a number of Arduino compatible boards to provide USB connectivity, you may need to install a driver, don’t panic, it’s easier than falling off a log, and much less painful.
Windows
ESP8266 NodeMCU Mac installation port issue??? Update oct 11!!!!! I have installed the driver from the link below that was left. But still nothing. The objective of this short post is to explain how to get the MAC address of the ESP8266. Explaining in detail what is a MAC address is outside of the scope of this post. But, just as a quick explanation, the MAC address is a unique value associated with a network adapter 1. NodeMCU v1.0 Driver. The first step on the mac is to install drivers. These are a driver that can communicate to that little square chip (CP210x USB to UART Bridge VCP) we mentioned before: Download it to your Downloads folder. Double click on SiLabsUSBDriverDisk.dmg. Double click on Silicon Labs VCP Driver Install Disk.pkg. If you notice in the ESP8266 Firmware Flash Tool, the moment you click on START, you will get two MAC Address as AP and STA and also information about the Module in the DETECTED INFO section. If everything goes well, the ESP8266 Module must be updated with new firmware. Installing NodeMCU driver on MAC. The NodeMCU is using USB 2 Serial Communication called CH340, you can download the driver at the link below, you have to install the driver package as you used the NodeMCU on Mac. After you install the CH340 driver you need to test the serial communication by filtering using a bash command see it below.
(Manufacturer’s Chinese Info Link)
- Download the Windows CH340 Driver
- Unzip the file
- Run the installer which you unzipped
- In the Arduino IDE when the CH340 is connected you will see a COM Port in the Tools > Serial Port menu, the COM number for your device may vary depending on your system.
Older Windows Driver Version and Instructions
Download the Windows CH340 DriverUnzip the folder.If you are running a 64Bit Windows: – run the SETUP_64.EXE installer.If you are running a 32Bit Windows: – run the SETUP_32.EXE installer.If you don’t know, try the 64 bit and if it doesn’t work, the 32 bit.In the Arduino IDE when the CH340 is connected you will see a COM Port in the Tools > Serial Port menu, the COM number for your device may vary depending on your system.
Macintosh
(Manufacturer’s Chinese Info Link)
The following github has up to day pkg files for 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5 at time of writing, thanks to Joshua Wallis for bringing this to my attention…
Direct Download Links (from the github repo above):
See the github link above for installation instructions if you need them.
Previous macinstosh downloads if the above doesn’t work for you…
(V1.3) Download the CH340 Macintosh Signed Driver for Mavericks (10.9), Yosemite (10.10) and El Capitan (10.11) and Sierra (10.12)
Inside the zip file you will find a PDF and a “pkg” file, short version, double click the pkg file, the PDF has some extra information.
OSX Sierra (10.12) Note
A kindly user, Maarten Segers reports
FYI, the driver documented here WILL crash on OSX Sierra.
I can personally not test on MacOS and can not vouch for the above drivers at github, but there you go.
See uninstalling information at the bottom of the page if the driver causes problems for you.
Here is an older version of the Mac driver, NOT FOR 10.12 Sierra
(V1.0) Download the CH340 Macintosh Signed Driver for Mavericks (10.9), Yosemite (10.10) and El Capitan (10.11)
Linux
(Manufacturer’s Chinese Info Link)
Drivers are almost certainly built into your Linux kernel already and it will probably just work as soon as you plug it in. If not you can download the Linux CH340 Driver (but I’d recommend just upgrading your Linux install so that you get the “built in” one).
Uninstalling From Macinstosh
A couple of Mac users have said “the driver crashes my mac Sierra how do I uninstall”.
Firstly regards the crash make sure you installed the 1.3 version of the driver, not the old one. You could download it directly from the Manufacturers Website in case they have issued an update since I wrote this page.
Secondly a quick google search reveals that this is how you uninstall:
- Open a terminal and type:
cd /Library/Extensions/
- Verify that the .kext file is present:
ls | grep usbserial.kext
- Output should be:
usbserial.kext
- Then type:
sudo rm -R usbserial.kext
- Verify that the .kext file has been removed:
ls | grep usbserial.kext
- Output should be empty.
- After you should remove the files stored in receipts folder:
cd /private/var/db/receipts/
- Find the enties:
ls | grep usbserial*
- Output should be:
codebender.cc.ch34xinstaller.usbserial.pkg.bom codebender.cc.ch34xinstaller.usbserial.pkg.plist
- Remove each one of the files of the above list:
sudo rm -r
filename
`
The NodeMCU V1.0 (picture from here) |
On paper it has some nice advantages compared to the old V0.9 version or also to other ESP8266 dev boards: you can directly connect it to your computer for programming and you won’t need an additional USB-to-Serial programmer or an external power supply. The USB connector does the job. The only problem: they must have changed something on the interface. Flashing doesn’t work out of the box anymore:
I’m programming on a Mac, so all the fancy Windows based flashing tools won’t work for me directly. I usually use the adapted Arduino IDE or the esptool.py to upload new images to the device. This posts describes how you can flash the new hardware despite the problems with the esptool. Basically it shows how you can use the original Windows tool from Espressif from your Mac OS X system, even if it is made for Windows.
- Download and install driver for the CP2102 from here: https://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/Software/Mac_OSX_VCP_Driver.zip
- If you don’t already have it install homebrew: http://brew.sh/
- Install wine:
I had to work around some issues with brew and wine. Write a comment if you want to know how I resolved them…
- Download the latest Flashing tool from Espressif:
http://bbs.espressif.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=433 - Install unrar (if you don’t already have it):
- Unpack the flash tool:
- Install unrar (if you don’t already have it):
- Enter the directory and start the Flashing Tool:
- Now that the wine directory has created enter the dosdevices folder and create a symlink to your NodeMCUs tty device:
- Select your image and adjust the settings according to this screenshot:
ESP Flash Tool started from wine: adjust the settings accordingly - Now connect the NodeMCU module using USB and press the RST button while you keep pressing the FLASH button. This will put the module into the right state for flashing
- Now click START in the flasher tool and wait until it is finished. Click RST again and have fun.
Esp8266 Driver Mac Os
I hope that the esptool gets fixed quickly to work with the new hardware. I’m also not sure whether the problems comes from the USB-to-Serial converter or rather from the ESP-12E module. I suspect it is the later, but I couldn’t find anyone complaining about problems with the ESP-12E in general.
Shopping Links:
- From SeeedStudio: http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/NodeMCU-v2-Lua-based-ESP8266-development-kit-p-2415.html
- From AliExpress: Wireless module NodeMcu Lua Nodemcu WIFI Network Development Board Based ESP8266 FZ1390