I am trying to communicate with my ESP8266 module through Arduino Mega with the ESP's Rx pin connected to Mega's Pin 7 the ESP's Tx pin connected to Mega's Pin 6. I tried to run the following test code:
#include <SoftwareSerial.h>
SoftwareSerial esp8266(6, 7);
void setup() {
// Open serial communications and wait for port to open:
Serial.begin(115200);
while (!Serial) {
; // wait for serial port to connect. Needed for native USB port only
}
Serial.println("Started");
// set the data rate for the SoftwareSerial port
esp8266.begin(9600);
esp8266.write("AT\r\n");
}
void loop() {
if (esp8266.available()) {
Serial.write(esp8266.read());
}
if (Serial.available()) {
esp8266.write(Serial.read());
}
}
I get no response from the ESP8266 module. I then tried to use the Mega's dedicated Tx and Rx pins (1 and 0 respectively). I can send commands using the serial monitor and it replies. First I sent AT+CIOBAUD=9600 under a 115200 baud to change the baud rate of my ESP module to 9600. Then under 9600 baud I sent AT+UART_DEF=9600,8,1,0,0. It replied OK for both as expected. I tried again to run this program but I'm still getting no response from the ESP 8266 module. I also tried simply switching the Rx and Tx pins just to be safe. Still doesn't work. Any ideas on what I might be doing incorrectly?
As you've mentioned in comments, SoftwareSerial esp(6,7) works on UNO but not on Mega. That should be hint big enough to google the Arduino SoftwareSerial reference page, particularly the Limitation section.
In short, unlike UNO the Mega doesn't have Pin Change Interrupt capability on all pins. So you can't have Rx pin on pin 6.