SparkFun ESP8266 Thing - No Serial Port appearing in Arduino IDE

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Hi - I have been trying to use the SparkFun ESP8266 Thing, but it is not giving me a Serial Port in Arduino IDE. If I connect my other SparkFun boards (Redboard, SAMD51 Thing Plus), there is no issue, the board and port are immediately recognized.

I think I understand but just wanted to confirm - so I have to use a separate FTDI board to establish the serial port connection? Is it correct that the Micro USB connection on the ESP8266 Thing is only providing power to the board, but no data connection? ESP8266 Thing Hookup Guide - SparkFun Learn

Thank you. Jason

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Hi Jason,

That’s right, that board doesn’t have a USB-to-serial converter on-board from what I can see by poring over the schematic. Later boards like the ESP32 things had them on-board from memory.

We have the exact part shown in the hookup guide here:

But if you have another USB-to-serial converter lying around, or even one on an Arduino board, you should be able to use that just fine.

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Do I need to connect to the adapter myself in this situation?

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As James has has already answered, you need an FTDI module. I think this hookup guide has all the steps that you have to follow:
https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/esp8266-thing-hookup-guide?_ga=2.185580459.30944413.1686153780-1999845355.1680393734

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