How to communicate with ESP8266 ESP01 by sending data through softwareserial on Arduino Uno?

Question

I am able to send AT commands when connecting to the software through the TX/RX pins (1, 0) and the ESP01 communicates perfectly. However, as soon as I start doing that same thing with code I can't get the ESP01 to respond whatsoever. All I'm trying to do is get an OK back from the serial monitor. I changed the baudrate on the ESP01 as well as my serial monitor from 115200 to 9600, 19200 using this command:

AT+UART_DEF=9600,8,1,0,0

Troubleshooting steps taken:

1. Tried upping the voltage in case it wasn't getting enough current.
2. Tried different ESP01s.
3. Tried switching TX and RX pins.
4. Tried using different pins on the Uno (2 and 3, 10 and 11, 7 and 8).
5. tried changing myESP.println("AT"); to myESP.write("AT\n\r");.

Nothing works. I've done a ton of research and I haven't found anything wrong with what I'm doing, do you guys have any ideas?

#define TX 3
#define RX 2
String ssid = "*****";
String password = "******";

#include "SoftwareSerial.h"

SoftwareSerial myESP(RX,TX);

void setup() {
  pinMode(RX, INPUT);
  pinMode(TX, OUTPUT);
  myESP.begin(19200);
  Serial.begin(19200);
}

void loop() {
  myESP.println("AT");
  delay(5000);
}

Schematic is as follows: TX -> pin 3 RX -> pin 2 Vcc -> 3.3v GND -> Ground CH_PD -> Vcc

Answer 1

How about this:

void loop() {
  while(Serial.available() > 0) {
     myESP.write(Serial.read());
  }
  while(myESP.available() > 0) {
     Serial.write(myESP.read());
  }
}

That code will continue to load data to and from the software serial not just one byte. You can also use string concatenation:

String data = "";
while(Serial.available() > 0) {
   data += Serial.read();
}

Or arrays:

int data_max = 4096;
int data_size = 0;
char data[data_max];
while(Serial.available() > 0) {
   if(data_size < data_max) data[data_size++] = Serial.read();
}

Answer 2

Alright so I figured out my issue. Here's the answer for anyone with this problem in the future.

1. Remove pinMode(RX, INPUT); and pinMode(TX, OUTPUT);.
2. SoftwareSerial isn't going to relay the response back, so you have to program a response in, that's why sending "AT" by itself to the serial port is pointless.

Answer 3

RX from Arduino goes to TX on EXP, and TX from Arduino goes to RX on ESP, BUT

Why not just put ESP01 in program mode and upload adruino code directly to it doing away with the AT commands