How to determine flash size of NodeMCU?

Question

Just bought a couple of NodeMCU from vendor on AliExpress. They were advertised as "v2" and having 4M flash.

How can I verify the flash size? The board says "Ver 0.1", but don't know if that means anything.

"NodeMCU" as a term normally refers to the NodeMCU firmware. Do you mean you bought the NodeMCU devkits V2/1.0? See [my comparison](http://frightanic.com/iot/comparison-of-esp8266-nodemcu-development-boards/) if you're not sure. — Marcel Stör, Sep 22 '16 at 07:32

Marcel Stör · Accepted Answer · 2022-11-29T15:19:33.907

22

You have basically two options: install a firmware (NodeMCU, Arduino, etc.) and use their functions or extract the flash ID and look it up.

Install NodeMCU

Chip ID

install esptool.py
run esptool.py -p <serial-port> flash_id (gives you a hex manufacturer & chip ID)
look up the chip in https://review.coreboot.org/plugins/gitiles/flashrom/+/refs/heads/master/include/flashchips.h

edited Nov 29 '22 at 15:19

answered Sep 22 '16 at 07:43

Marcel Stör

Before flashing you need to know flash memory size, so this is not an option. – jumpjack Jan 15 '17 at 09:02
@jumpjack that's why I gave two options, one works w/o flashing a firmware. I don't understand your comment. Besides, esptool.py can auto-detect flash size since v1.2. So, you don't have to know the flash size to install the firmware. – Marcel Stör Jan 15 '17 at 13:13
The Chip ID method outputs the size of the flash too without having to look up the chip specs: e.g. Detected flash size: 4MB – Ed Plese Jul 03 '17 at 23:43
@EdPlese, that's correct, recent versions of esptool.py (2.x) do that. – Marcel Stör Jul 04 '17 at 13:15
1

The link to coreboot is broken @MarcelStör – Victor Schröder Jan 06 '19 at 02:23

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 01 '21 at 12:03

3

As Marcel Stor said before in this comment, the esptool.py may be used to find the flash size.

Output sample

answered Apr 01 '21 at 12:03

Dorin

2 Answers2