Installing

Boards Manager

This is the suggested installation method for end users.

Prerequisites

• Arduino 1.6.8, get it from Arduino website.
• Internet connection
• Python 3 interpreter (Mac/Linux only, Windows installation supplies its own)

Instructions

• Start Arduino and open Preferences window.
• Enter https://arduino.esp8266.com/stable/package_esp8266com_index.json into Additional Board Manager URLs field. You can add multiple URLs, separating them with commas.
• Open Boards Manager from Tools > Board menu and find esp8266 platform.
• Select the version you need from a drop-down box.
• Click install button.
• Don't forget to select your ESP8266 board from Tools > Board menu after installation.

For more information on the Arduino Board Manager, see:

• https://www.arduino.cc/en/guide/cores

Using git version

This is the suggested installation method for contributors and library developers.

Prerequisites

• Arduino 1.6.8 (or newer, current working version is 1.8.5)
• git
• Python 3.x (https://python.org)
• terminal, console, or command prompt (depending on your OS)
• Internet connection
• Uninstalling any core version installed via Board Manager

Instructions - Windows 10

• First, make sure you don't already have an ESP8266 core version installed using the Board Manager (see above). If you do, uninstall it from the Board Manager before proceeding. It is also advisable to erase the Arduino15 contents.

• Install git for Windows (if not already; see https://git-scm.com/download/win)

• Open a command prompt (cmd) and go to Arduino default directory. This is typically the sketchbook directory (usually C:\users\{username}\Documents\Arduino where the environment variable %USERPROFILE% usually contains C:\users\{username})

• Clone this repository into hardware/esp8266com/esp8266 directory.

  cd %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Arduino\
  if not exist hardware mkdir hardware
  cd hardware
  if not exist esp8266com mkdir esp8266com
  cd esp8266com
  git clone https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino.git esp8266
  

  You should end up with the following directory structure in

  C:\Users\{your username}\Documents\

  Arduino
  |
  --- libraries
  --- hardware
      |
      --- esp8266com
          |
          --- esp8266
              |
              --- bootloaders
              --- cores
              --- doc
              --- libraries
              --- package
              --- tests
              --- tools
              --- variants
              --- platform.txt
              --- programmers.txt
              --- README.md
              --- boards.txt
              --- LICENSE
  

• Initialize the submodules

  cd %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Arduino\hardware\esp8266com\esp8266
  git submodule update --init
  

If error messages about missing files related to SoftwareSerial are encountered during the build process, it should be because this step was missed and is required.

• Download binary tools

  cd tools
  python3 get.py
  

• Restart Arduino

• If using the Arduino IDE for Visual Studio (https://www.visualmicro.com/), be sure to click Tools - Visual Micro - Rescan Toolchains and Libraries

• When later updating your local library, goto the esp8266 directory and do a git pull

  cd %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Arduino\hardware\esp8266com\esp8266
  git status
  git pull
  

Note that you could, in theory install in C:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino\hardware however this has security implications, not to mention the directory often gets blown away when re-installing Arduino IDE. It does have the benefit (or drawback, depending on your perspective) - of being available to all users on your PC that use Arduino.

Instructions - Other OS

• First, make sure you don't already have an ESP8266 core version installed using the Board Manager (see above). If you do, uninstall it from the Board Manager before proceeding. It is also advisable to erase the .arduino15 (Linux) or Arduino15 (MacOS) contents.

• Open the console and go to Arduino directory. This can be either your sketchbook directory (usually <Documents>/Arduino), or the directory of Arduino application itself, the choice is up to you.

• Clone this repository into hardware/esp8266com/esp8266 directory. Alternatively, clone it elsewhere and create a symlink, if your OS supports them.

  cd hardware
  mkdir esp8266com
  cd esp8266com
  git clone https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino.git esp8266
  

  You should end up with the following directory structure:

  Arduino
  |
  --- hardware
      |
      --- esp8266com
          |
          --- esp8266
              |
              --- bootloaders
              --- cores
              --- doc
              --- libraries
              --- package
              --- tests
              --- tools
              --- variants
              --- platform.txt
              --- programmers.txt
              --- README.md
              --- boards.txt
              --- LICENSE
  

• Initialize the submodules

  cd esp8266
  git submodule update --init
  

If error messages about missing files related to SoftwareSerial are encountered during the build process, it should be because this step was missed and is required.

• Download binary tools

  cd tools
  python3 get.py
  

  If you get an error message stating that python3 is not found, you will need to install it (most modern UNIX-like OSes provide Python 3 as part of the default install). To install you will need to use sudo yum install python3, sudo apt install python3, or brew install python3 as appropriate. On the Mac you may get an error message like:

     python3 get.py
     Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin
     Downloading python3-macosx-placeholder.tar.gz
     Traceback (most recent call last):
       File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/urllib/request.py", line 1317, in do_open
         encode_chunked=req.has_header('Transfer-encoding'))
       ...
       File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/ssl.py", line 1117, in do_handshake
         self._sslobj.do_handshake()
     ssl.SSLCertVerificationError: [SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED] certificate verify failed: unable to get local issuer certificate (_ssl.c:1056)
  
  This is because Homebrew on the Mac does not always install the required SSL certificates by default.  Install them manually (adjust the Python 3.7 as needed) with:
  
  .. code:: bash
  
      cd "/Applications/Python 3.7/" && sudo "./Install Certificates.command"
  

• Restart Arduino

• When later updating your local library, goto the esp8266 directory and do a git pull

  cd hardware\esp8266com\esp8266
  git status
  git pull
  

Using PlatformIO

PlatformIO is an open source ecosystem for IoT development with a cross-platform build system, a library manager, and full support for Espressif (ESP8266) development. It works on the following popular host operating systems: macOS, Windows, Linux 32/64, and Linux ARM (like Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone, CubieBoard).

• What is PlatformIO?
• PlatformIO IDE
• PlatformIO Core (command line tool)
• Advanced usage - custom settings, uploading to LittleFS, Over-the-Air (OTA), staging version
• Integration with Cloud and Standalone IDEs - Cloud9, Codeanywhere, Eclipse Che (Codenvy), Atom, CLion, Eclipse, Emacs, NetBeans, Qt Creator, Sublime Text, VIM, Visual Studio, and VSCode
• Project Examples