I have ESP-01, ESP8266, 8Mb I'm able to flash the nodemcu_float_0.9.5 ok, and then use ESPlorer on baud 9600. Responds ok, I'm able to connect and load innit files.
I tried to use the custom nodemcu firmware builder with the latest flasher tool, repeating the same flashing process as for the step above, the flash is successful but ESPlorer cannot establish the connection - acts like the baud rate is not correct.(random symbols populating the window) At this point I have tried all the baud rates and all the firmware types (master, dev and frozen).
Any advice?
Here are some things you can try.
Completely erase the flash e.g.
esptool.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 erase_flash
Then flash your custom firmware again e.g.
esptool.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 \
write_flash -fm dio 0x00000 nodemcu-master-18-modules-2017-03-27-08-03-59-float.bin
Try a different flash mode. For instance dio, qio...
esptool.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 \
write_flash -fm qio 0x00000 nodemcu-master-18-modules-2017-03-27-08-03-59-float.bin
Try different baud rates e.g. 115200
I can't remember ever having used a baud rate of 9600 on NodeMCU.
For my ESP8266 modules a baud rate of 115200 always worked.
Some people have reported that if you were using the float firmware, flashing the integer version of the firmware helped getting rid of a corrupt init.lua file.
esptool.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 \
write_flash -fm dio 0x00000 nodemcu-master-18-modules-2017-03-27-08-03-59-integer.bin
Note: make sure to replace /dev/ttyUSB0 with your com port