Program ESP01 and keep it after reboot

Question

I am bit of a noob when it comes to ESP programming. I have an ESP01 and a USB programmer for it, but every time I unplug it, it resets, which makes me wonder how can I make it battery-powered since every reboot resets the program.

• Bra1n: What do you mean by 'reset the program'? The uploaded program should be retained on the esp01 and start running again after a reset/reboot.
• chrisl: Are you sure, that the program was correctly written to the ESP? How do you see, that the program is not working?
• Carlton Banks: I wrote a simple blink program which made it blink when it was programmed.. But once i remove the usb programmer with the esp on, the turns off due to loosing power and when i then plug it in. I start as it was reset.. I flash it using arduino
• Carlton Banks: It stops blinking in the intended frequency
• Juraj: if you have io 0 to ground it always goes into flashing mode. you have to pull-up io 0

Answer 1

The ESP-01 ... and all ESP8622 ... have two modes for operation.

1. Flash mode / Boot load mode - on bootup (at the time an electrical current is first applied, or after the reset pin is grounded), if the GPIO0 (GPIO Zero) pin {On the ESP-01 this is the 7th pin} is connected to ground, the chip goes into non-run, receive program mode. This is where you load the compiled program.

2. Normal - on bootup (as above), but GPIO0 is NOT ground, then the ESP-01 goes into run mode.

• Carlton Banks: I had it in flash mode all the time.