MEGA destroys Sparkfun ESP8266 wIfI shield

Support Arduino
1

Hi Support
I have been trying to use ESP8266 wifi shield part number WRL 13287 with a Mega board.
First I tested it with a UNO board works fine, however when plugged into MEGA the MEGA controller fails to connect to the shield.
Then moving the shield back to the UNO board the UNO can no longer communicate the shield. It appears the MEGA is somehow destroying the ESP8266.

for testing I am using ESP8266_Shield_Demo sketch from Sparkfun website.
I have tested now with 3 shields and 3 different MEGA all produce the same result.
I purchased both MEGA and ESP8266 from you on Tue.

Regards
John

2

Hi John,

Thanks for dropping by! Which guide were you following to use this on the Mega?

1 Like
3

Hi Graham,

Thanks for your email. I still have not resolved my problem . I am using all the info from the documents tab from here https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13287

My program requires a Mega due to the number of I/O, currently I am successfully using an Ethernet shield but would like to convert to WiFi.

For testing I am using the examples provided from Sparkfun, If connected to a UNO the shield works fine, when moved to MAGA the Serial Monitor reports “Error talking to ESP8266.” Moving the shield back to UNO the shield fails to work reporting the same error on the MEGA. Therefore it appears that the MEGA is clearing the firmware in the shield.

My question is , Is should this shield work on MEGA.

regards

John Wybrow

4

I’m unsure - but it’s reasonably clear that it’s not compatible with Mega given your experiences. Perhaps it’s possible with some modification to the libraries, some manufacturers go to great lengths to describe the compatibility/possible issues with various boards. I am not aware of guides such as this for Sparkfun boards though.

Adafruit’s shield compatibility guide isn’t going to include info on the board you are using, however, it does have some useful tips for common issues to avoid/look for. Perhaps that would be worth a read first, along with a more cautious approach while testing (do not connect the shield to the Mega, instead, use wires one-by-one so you know exactly what is going where, and have full control of what is going on while testing).