Charles Lohr

Running an ESP8266 without the SDK (Patreon)

Published:

2016-11-28 05:00:24

Imported:

2026-06

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Content

Please do not share the link until after the HaD article goes live.

After some fun with an ESP8266 USB bootloader (which is totally not complete)... I had part of a non-sdk of sorts. Then, Hackaday announced the 1kB challenge. This got me cookin! I decided to really strip things down and see what the ESP could do without the requirement of Wifi. The answer is nothing short of amazing.

Files

Previews only

ESP8266s without the big SDK "nosdk8266"

If you're thinking "no wifi? no problem!" then this hack is for you! nosdk8266 allows you to use your ESP8266 with very, very little overhead. This enables rapid development cycles, crazy high speeds and more I/D RAM than you've ever imagined. You'll still need the esp open sdk, but not a ton more!