Originally shared by Boian Mitov
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2109711639/esp8266-programmer?ref=project_link
Es una pena que sólo se envíe a Estados Unidos…
Why is there a more expensive kick-starter for products which are already available for roughly half the price?
@Greg_Copeland I have not seen a good ESP-01 programmer actually 
. I had to make my own. Have you found a good one? This one looks like a good one from what I read. Will see…
Someone shows me a link the other day. They are really available on eBay for less than half of what this kick starter is asking.
So look on eBay and aliexpress.
Just remembered where I was shown alternatives. So here some are:
I still can’t find the ebay link I was provided. Regardless, you should be all set with $4, and, $6.50 alternatives.
@Greg_Copeland Well it is not my project, but those 2 alternatives are very useless IMHO. I would not use them even if they were free 
. I have made myself a much better programmer than those 2 craps there. I don’t understand why those people don’t spend the time do develop something that can actually be used and does not require rewiring the module every time you try to program it, and plugin unplugging for each programming. Especially since the NodeMCU folks have designed a solution. How so nobody makes any useful ESP-01 programmers in this world. I really am glad finally there can be a programmer that is useful.
I actually proposed to few different groups to design such programmer, but those people here seem to have done the job, and from what I read seem to have done it right.
Why are they useless? Provides a USB interface to program an esp01. Feedback I read says they worked well. So why is something that works well, “useless?” Or was that whole part sarcasm? Sarcasm is hard in text.
@Greg_Copeland It is not sarcasm. It is pain from bad experience. You have no idea how frustrated I have been about this for over a year… The programmers that I have seen and used required either jumpers or plugging unplugging the module each time you program it. It was not even possible to test a simple sketch without having to replug for the test. This means that I have to replug it on average at least 70-80 times a day - every time I change a line of code. This is hardly acceptable. Yes they are good if you have already developed code and want to replicate it, but for a development purposes you either have to hack them (doable in theory), or as I did develop your own solution on breadboard.
Again… I have nothing to do with these guys… I was just glad that somebody has started a project to solve a problem that I have had, and from what I have heard, I am not the only one. I wish them success…
We’re you not able to use OTA? Once I get the initial flash w/OTA included, I rarely ever need to serial flash.
@Greg_Copeland I program the module with the Arduino IDE. I use it as a stand alone controller… Not connected to anything else, just using its GPIO like here with the Node MCU :
For this the standard programmers are a disaster 
As you can see from the Instructable, you need to constantly switch between programming and serial debug mode .
Here is another instructable that I actually initially developed with one NodeMCU and one ESP-01 but had to use my own breadboad programmer for it:
Sounds like it’s a minor inconvenience. A pain is breadboarding as most of us wind up doing. These programmers are cheap, effective, and a nice step up from basic breadboarding.
Learning OTA updates and maybe even http://platform.io is a much better return than an overpriced kick starter. Honestly, for more complex builds you’re going to be breadboarding anyways, or moved on to something like a witty or nodemcu for development. Both of which are a cheaper and better solution than the kick starter.
@Greg_Copeland Well… I personally prefer to have more choices than less, don’t you So far I don’t have a good solution, and if these guys fail, I will root for the next one that tries to solve the problem ;-), and I have head from a lot of other people complaining about the same, so there is a problem for a lot of us. Be glad that you don’t have this problem :-), and feel some sorry for poor us
I’m indifferent. To me, it seems like a product looking for a problem to solve.
@Greg_Copeland Well… if you ask me, I am indifferent to Ferraris… but some people seem to buy them too 
For me Honda Accord is more than enough. Gets me from A to B, but that does not mean there is no market for Ferrari