Choosing a Board for CircuitPython A Few Important Considerations

Important considerations for beginners when choosing a CircuitPython board. We look at board size, headers, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, expandability, unravel STEMMA-QT vs. STEMMA & common newbie mistakes when confusing these standards, Feather wings, battery pass-through charging, and more. We'll look at a subset of boards that cover major consideration factors including the CircuitPlayground Bluefruit, Raspberry Pi Pico and Pico W, Adafruit QT Py boards including the ESP32-S3, Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect, the Adafruit Feather boards including the RP2040, and we discussion pros and cons of choosing a Raspberry Pi single board computers, with special notes for STEM Educators. Part of Prof. John Gallaugher's Physical Computing Course. Full playlist at bit.ly/circuit-python-tutorials

[@goahnary]

Amazing Wealth of Knowledge in this video! Thank you for sharing I would love to Meet you at a maker space some day. Listing Chapters Here (for when I come back to this): Intro: 0:00 CircuitPython: 0:30 CPBlueFruit: 2:15 Pi Pico: 3:00 QT Py: 6:05 QT Py BFF: 7:33 Feather: 8:00 StemmaQT: 9:20 Raspberry Pi: 14:15 Header Pins: 16:35 Outro: 17:35

[@profgallaugher]

Thanks, friend. If you’re ever in Boston the Boston College campus tour will take you to our new maker space. Although I’m on sabbatical next semester and will be at University of Technology Sydney if you’re on the other side of the world. Cheers!

[@DevonsWorkshop]

One pro of a QT Py is definitely the small form factor for wearables. Other notable small form factor boards are the Trinket M0 and Gemma M0, both are circuit Python capable and each has its own unique strengths and weakness. Right tool for the right job. The trinket comes with the neopixel goggle kit and Gemma is great for single LED projects like lighting a pumpkin with realistic candle flicker, that way you’re not wasting all the GPIO. Figuring out how many and type of IO pins you need is really the first criteria in finding the right board for a project.

[@profgallaugher]

Thx for sharing, Dev. Great advice!

[@CraftyOldGit]

I wish this video was around a couple of years ago when I got started with microcontrollers. I bought several before finding the right one for my purposes -- waster ££ on Feathers with too little memory, Pico with no WiFi etc. I settled on ESP32 as they're cheap and powerful, having 2 cores. They're a little more fiddly to set up with add on hardware, but they run Circuit Python nicely. ESP32 also has ultra low power modes useful for IoT.

[@profgallaugher]

Thanks for your comments. I’ve also been playing with the esp32. The Adafruit QT Py boards are great tiny Wi-Fi boards for IoT and I’ve used them in a few projects when I’ve wanted to keep things small. I’m sure folks appreciate your comments and experience. Great advice!