Watchdog Timeout on SPIFFS.begin or SPIFFS.format

Question

I'm using an ESP-12E NodeMCU board from amazon with the Arduino IDE. It's been working without any problems but now I'm trying to use SPIFFS to store data and I'm getting a Watchdog Timeout after 8 seconds when I call either SPIFFS.begin or SPIFFS.format.

 ets Jan  8 2013,rst cause:4, boot mode:(1,7)

wdt reset

I've run the example CheckFlashConfig sketch and it reports a size mismatch. IDE size of 4M and real size of 1M. I'm using the Adruino IDE board definition for NodeMCU 1.0 (ESP-12E Module) with a flash setting of 4M (3M SPIFFS).

Flash real id:   001440C8
Flash real size: 1048576

Flash ide  size: 4194304
Flash ide speed: 40000000
Flash ide mode:  DIO
Flash Chip configuration wrong!

Here's the full code of the CheckFlashConfig sketch:

/* 
 ESP8266 CheckFlashConfig by Markus Sattler

 This sketch tests if the EEPROM settings of the IDE match to the Hardware

 */

    void setup(void) {
    Serial.begin(115200);
    }

void loop() {

    uint32_t realSize = ESP.getFlashChipRealSize();
    uint32_t ideSize = ESP.getFlashChipSize();
    FlashMode_t ideMode = ESP.getFlashChipMode();

    Serial.printf("Flash real id:   %08X\n", ESP.getFlashChipId());
    Serial.printf("Flash real size: %u\n\n", realSize);

    Serial.printf("Flash ide  size: %u\n", ideSize);
    Serial.printf("Flash ide speed: %u\n", ESP.getFlashChipSpeed());
    Serial.printf("Flash ide mode:  %s\n", (ideMode == FM_QIO ? "QIO" : ideMode == FM_QOUT ? "QOUT" : ideMode == FM_DIO ? "DIO" : ideMode == FM_DOUT ? "DOUT" : "UNKNOWN"));

    if(ideSize != realSize) {
        Serial.println("Flash Chip configuration wrong!\n");
    } else {
        Serial.println("Flash Chip configuration ok.\n");
    }

    delay(500000);
    }

I tried flashing with esptool.py and flashed 2.1.0 (was 1.5.3) but there's no change in the CheckFlashConfig results. — SeattleStephens
Please post your full code, otherwise we can't reproduce it. If you really bought a ESP-12E it should be 32 MBit/4Mbyte. Can you tell us the output of esptool.py flash_id? — Maximilian Gerhardt

SeattleStephens SeattleStephens · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-22T15:13:59

I bought a 2nd Amica NodeMCU unit from another vendor and had no problems. I'm chalking this up to bad hardware.

Watchdog Timeout on SPIFFS.begin or SPIFFS.format

2 Answers