Seeeduino XIAO - 32-bit Arduino-compatible Microcontroller

[@taobaomaicai8592]

As a Chinese, let me tell you what Xiao means. Xiao can mean small. This board is so small, Xiao means small, I think my understanding should be correct.

[@JoseAntonio-jf5lz]

My english is awful and my electronics even more, but you, with your very clear explanations, make both very easy to understand for me. Thanks.

[@richard_wenner]

Well I can't detect it this end. Thank you.

[@BarackBananabama]

Several Chinese words that pronounced xiao: 小 : small 晓: know something 孝: be good to one's parents 笑: laugh 校: school 啸: shouting out loud 消: usually vanish, e.g. 消失 xiaoshi 宵: night time 硝: saltpeter 削: shave something with a knife 枭: usually an owl 哮: roaring

[@bsheldon2000]

I automatically thought it was probably small.

[@stephenthrower440]

you beat me to the meaning. I spent 7 years in China

[@bsheldon2000]

@@stephenthrower440 I am in the early stages of learning. 小 tiny, was one of the first ten words I learned, right after the easy to remember 大 big, person with arms wide.

[@kmark4163]

xiao=小=small

[@baganatube]

That's why Chinese characters exist. Romanized Chinese words all look the same. In addition to Barack's list, here are some more Xiao's for daily uses: 效: effectiveness 销: sell 肖: portrait 淆: to confuse 箫: the musical instrument mentioned in the video 霄: sky 嚣: noisy 骁: brave

[@whitneydesignlabs8738]

So informative, so thought out, so well articulated, so well documented, and so well produced. DroneBot Workshop is some of the BEST content on KZbin. (and anywhere) This XIAO video is as good as all of his others. Well done, Sir. THANK YOU.

[@NewAgeDIY]

Welcome back. It’s getting late, so I will finish this video tomorrow. Glad you were off building something and not hit by the bug!

[@hippopothomas1980]

nope, it's call xiao because the word “小” it means small..

[@RobertMcKenzie]

LOL I also headed here to see if anyone had corrected him on meaning of 'xiao'.

[@perchepourquoi508]

@@RobertMcKenzie yep me too

[@duncanwalduck7715]

Hmm, 'piccolo' would mean small flute, according to English Wikipedia, but 'small [Italian - detected]' according to Google translate. At least he got the pronunciation right: until now I've always been saying what I see - (ouch) 'Zhau' - despite the fact that a guy, Xiang, whom I knew is now Shane colloquially.

[@SeanAlcorn]

@@duncanwalduck7715 - yeah points for pronouncing the x correctly. I’ve lost count of the number of incorrect pronounciations of Xi Jing Ping that I have heard!

[@TechProbe]

Hello !, I appreciate your tech contents, I like your clear English pronunciation to comprehend easily as a foreigner. I am not a Chinese but Xiao (小), a Chinese character means small, tiny, mini,...such as in XiaoMi (pronounced Xiao also has many other characters having other meanings though) . So I guess Seeeduino XIAO was named from it.

[@TMS5100]

I love using xiao for projects. It's everything you need but nothing more. No silly bullshit features and no wasted space.

[@gordslater]

27:40 to tone down an LED output for photography / filming, three quick methods: Sharpie - dab a sharpie on the LED. The ink can be cleaned off later with alcohol on a swab. May require a couple of applications 20 seconds apart to build up a blob of dark ink over the emitter. Nail varnish/laquer - use an opaque neutral colour like (nonmetallic) grey. This is permanent. Works best if you place a drop on a hard surface and let it partly dry before transferring to the LED. Correction fluid (WhiteOut/Tippex) this is extremely messy and permanent.

[@ytfanlingeric]

Your video is very superb! Very well made with informative and clearly explained contents. Yes, the XIAO likely refers to small as other have mentioned.

[@peterthinks]

Now that's a confused search result! Tried to find them on Amazon and got the strangest mix of dried caterpillars, Asian flutes, herbs and seeds!

[@Frightline777]

If nobody has ever told you...I think you are just AWESOME!!!Just a foutain of information !!!BRAVA!!!

[@embedder6344]

Thanks, look forward to seeing more of the xiao. Very easy to understand, no accent diction.

[@vegeta920508]

Really wanted to learn about Seeeduino XIAO so was really glad this came out :)

[@LevyCarneiro]

That was the most easy to understand tutorial I found so far on any Arduino videos.

[@TRETT1956]

hello bill, I am Werner from southern Germany. I love to watch your video. These are very well done and very educational. Thank you keep it up - I'm always there. Greetings Werner

[@richard_wenner]

Delightful as usual. Welcome back! Thank you. May I ask - What program do you use to create your graphics (eg wire drawing) please?

[@lehnertak]

I also am curious about this. Bill's graphics are excellent. I want to copy his approach.

[@pierluigizattra2983]

Agree with you Richard! Hello Bill from a viewer in Melbourne AU. Do share your secret with us when convenient.

[@J4FChannel]

+1!!!!

[@captainpugwash4100]

Bill has mentioned elsewhere that he uses “Keynote” for graphics.

[@lehnertak]

@@captainpugwash4100 Can the wiring simulations be done in Keynote? I will have to figure that out.

[@CraftyOldGit]

I've been thinking about getting a XIAO so this video was very helpful -- thank you. Seeed Studio also offer a useful looking expansion board with socket for XIAO, Grove connectors, battery charge circuit and 0.96" OLED screen.

[@geoffd8127]

Xiao also means small in Chinese....that was my first thought as its a small micro controller.

[@typingcat]

Yeah, at first I had no idea, but when he kept saying "small", that popped up in my mind. 小. Its Korean pronunciation is "so", and the Japanese pronunciation is "shou".

[@AgentOffice]

Then what is Xiaomi

[@geoffd8127]

@@AgentOffice 小米?

[@jamesmillerjo]

@HollyT Previous one

[@bd4vow]

@@AgentOffice XIAOMI means Tiny Rice, Which is the primary daily food of most of Chinese people.

[@Richardj410]

No problem life gets in the way of some things we do. Glad to see you made this video. Thank you, always worth the wait.

[@JonathanDeWitt1988]

Bill, This is a very exciting microcontroller. It's capabilities in memory and processing speed versus the standard Arduino are impressive. And for a much cheaper price and size factor as well! My thought with any new microcontroller that outperforms the Arduino has always been that they don't have the documentation (educational material) out there like the Arduino Uno has. Your point in this video about a lot of the code from the Arduino being compatible with the XIAO makes the XIAO leaps and bounds above the rest of the microcontrollers that have been introduced lately. A XIAO tutorial series like Paul McWhorter's New Arduino Tutorials still wouldn't go amiss. It wouldn't even have to be as developed as that to launch the XIAO off. It could just be short videos showing differences between using the XIAO for that video versus the Arduino Uno if there are any differences at all. Thank you for introducing us to such a promising and interesting new microcontroller. As always I enjoyed your thorough explanation of everything you put up on the screen. I didn't feel rushed and like I had time to absorb what you were teaching us.

[@dougscott284]

So glad to see a new video and that you are well! Very good presentation, and great intro to the xieo! I wouldn’t be as nuts as I am now about mcu’s if I hadn’t started watching you a bit over a year ago - hope to share a little on the forum sometime. Thanks for your vMentorship sir!!

[@fvgoya]

Sir, this is the best video EVER about Seeeduino. Thank you very much for making this video.

[@MrKiwiKelly]

Your content is always A+, i thankyou for your contribution to knowledge .

[@Bonjour-World]

Thank thee ;-) This is the first reference I have seen of the 12 (vs 10) ADC. Good job

[@apbosh1]

First time i've heard of the xiao, Thank you. enjoyed. and learned a lot!

[@scottiusnevious5143]

Wow this thing is so beefy, i am excited to get mine. I am not suprised i didnt know about it, i dropped the hobby after highschool and just found some of my old stuff, its even smaller than the micro mega board! Insane!

[@jnorris8649]

Anyone else irked with the pliers situation? Lol Great vid

[@jim5148]

Good video, thanks! One note. You appear to have the anode and cathode reversed inside the LED body.

[@ahmedgaafar5369]

this one of the best channels on youtube, very practical and detailed learning, on behalf of myself and everybody here , i thank you very much sir on these great tutorial videos.

[@Tim_Small]

Recently I've been impressed with the "WeAct Studio" STM32F4x1 MiniF4. Not dissimilar to this, but with more io, and higher maximum clock rate. Works well with Arduino, and MicroPython, but I've been using them for embedded Rust. As a nice bonus, if you buy two, you can program one to be an (Arm CMSIS-DAP) in-circuit debug probe for the other one! Good build quality and design. They also have some very nice STM32H7 boards.

[@Tim_Small]

Btw, there are already lower quality pirate copies on the market, but I'd urge people to go for the originals, they're good quality, and cheap enough already!

[@ME-dg5np]

The best Duino advisor !

[@khodrakkaoui1069]

it cannot be better , well done thank you

[@alanwood3597]

We have been struggling to make the XIAO talk to the Arduion IDE using Windows 7. Seeed has developed Teflon shoulders and refuse to support activity on Windows 7 as 'it is no longer supported' yet a significant number of experimenters will still be using old machines with Windows 7 and expecting it to work and getting very frustrated. I have found that by updating the USB driver to use the SmartEverything driver you get better connectivity.

[@jean-marczenhausern5928]

Another great video, that shows me news from the electronic world, that I would never know without your video. Many thanks for that!

[@chuckcrizer]

Why the down votes. This was quite useful. I've bought a set. Just what I was looking for to build a tacky Christmas sweater. 😆

[@brunof1734]

Because there are people that rather buy made in Europe that listening to propaganda to buy cheap plastic toys that are manufactured by children or slaves

[@n0madfernan257]

glad to see other microcontrollers being used. thanks for this.

[@rissole7229]

WOW! What an amazing little device. I can't wait to procure one to experiment with. Thanks for a great video as usual. Hope to see more projects using the Seeeduino Xiao

[@jbeard3390]

I want to build an adjustable desk with linear actuators with a arduino and a potentiometer as a height value based on the value. I know i can just use a double position switch but i won't learn what i want from that. So back to the ardiuno. I wrote all the code for it got out working as intended but never build the actual desk. But this bew seediuno will let me get a more accurate height adjustment. It was actually a really fun programming project for a beginniner like myself.

[@JLCPCB]

Very nice explanation and cool video! 😊

[@martinvernon4571]

Hiya, yes as some have mentioned, Xiao is also used for little / small. My Daughter (whose Mum is Chinese) has a Cousin called Xiao Xin Yue 'Xin Yue' being her name and she was a little baby... My Daughter's name came from Wales (where I grew up).

[@ender77769]

Next time you want to film the little LED effect, I think a thin transparent piece of green or blue plastic or saran wrap would filter out the blue/green LED and accentuate the red/yellow LED more. Thank you for the informational videos!!!

[@jeffro.]

It seems to be a versatile board, but obviously your have to make some decisions before using it, since the pins are double or triple-duty.

[@taylorshin]

This is just soooo small!! I guess I can even make a product with this board!

[@a_commenter]

1:35 Xiao is also the Mandarin word for "small", which probably sheds some light on why they called it that.

[@WillHartley]

You're videos are always a big help. Thanks 🙏

[@PJElliot]

I love using the XIAO. I just wish they did a XIAO Pro with a couple of extra pins on each side.

[@OsoPolarClone]

Glad to see you back. I enjoy and learn a lot from your videos.

[@chrisengland5523]

You're not being very fair to the Arduino. The comparison table at 8.36 in the video lists 11 digital and 11 analog I/O ports for the Xiao as compared to 14 digital and 6 analog inputs for the Uno. The unfairness comes from the fact that on the Xiao you can have EITHER 11 digital OR 11 analog inputs (or any combination thereof) whereas on the Arduino you can have BOTH 14 digital AND 6 analog inputs simultaneously. You do in fact point out verbally that the 6 analog inputs on the Uno can be used as digital I/O pins, but if you count the Xiao pins in the way you have done, then the Uno pins should be counted the same way, i.e. it has 20 digital I/O pins and 6 analog inputs. Nevertheless, I always enjoy your videos, so keep up the good work.

[@agsystems8220]

You should probably point out that the major difference between this and arduino stuff is that small circuits can be driven directly by the arduino. I highly doubt you could pull 40mA out of one of those pins safely. For many purposes you will need to have drivers for everything anyway, and this would be ideal, but for small scale tinkering arduino is a more self contained solution. It is possible that these are relatively fragile too. The lightweight board may lack protections, making frying it while playing about more likely. For playing around I'll stick to arduino, and for production a custom board is probably warranted. A nice product, but not a competitor to the arduino. It does something slightly different. The potentiometer not going down to 0 is not a bug. Maintaining linearity all the way to 0 ohms would be extremely difficult, so the voltage will never reach ground.

[@acestudioscouk-Ace-G0ACE]

Another great video, well explained and so relaxed in style. I watch them to chill as well as learn.

[@StephenHung2274]

XIAO has multiple meanings in chinese. Chinese has prononciation and tone, different tones are different meanings. Even you have the same tone and prononciation, there are different words(symbols), for example ㄒㄧㄠˇ XIAO in the third tone, has 小、曉、筱、簫、謏 just to name a few. I believe that in this place XIAO is for 小 which means small, tiny and compact.

[@rich1051414]

Xiao supports HID mode as well. That's huge.

[@NLGeebee]

Why is readTemperature() recognized (in orange) but readHumidity() not?

[@4473021]

Actually bought one of these lil guys the other day, thanks as always for the excellent video and tutorials!

[@nutsnproud6932]

You can check what Linux finds on the USB by typing lsusb it will list everything it finds.

[@vindigo52]

xiao also means 'small' depending on the tone; with another tone (and Chinese character) it is a flute.

[@iuhere]

Please use chapters(timestamps) for any video longer than 10 minutes. Some legends use chapters even for watchtime less that but not everyone is a ninja on youtube. Nice content, keep it organised. Good Luck 👍 for the next one

[@nethostinc.1670]

Hoping you would give a tour of your extended workshop. Great learning channel. Excellent job!

[@ianbertenshaw4350]

Packs a lot into such a small board !

[@emmanuelacquah4059]

I have been waiting for your videos

[@Bigal62]

So impressed with your presentations. Keep up the fantastic workmate!

[@message2prateek]

You should cover this with Circuit python as well. That is what makes it better than an Arduino

[@tokagehideto]

What about the speed with circuit python?

[@message2prateek]

@@tokagehideto if you find circuitpython slow you can write a module in C and use that in your python code. Search "extending circuitpython"

[@noweare1]

C 's faster and perfect for microcontrollers why change to python ?

[@message2prateek]

@@noweare1 The reason that C/C++ have dominated microcontroller scene was because other options were bulkier and slow. This is changing fast as hardware is becoming faster and cheaper. We are able to buy a esp32 board for $3 shipped. Look at Teensy 4.0 for speed, even esp32 does not come close. While C/C++ will be relevant in professional scene for a foreseeable future, a lot of hobbyist will be happy with Python/JavaScript for thier user-friendlyness and speed of prototyping. Micropython/Espruino provide a REPL which provided instant feedback and makes debugging a breeze. Exciting times!

[@noweare1]

@@message2prateek Hardware becoming faster is means c programs will run even faster the speed difference btween python can C remains. But I see what you are saying the programs only have to be fast enough to do what want done.

[@arthurh.b.atkinson1660]

Thank you. This is great

[@eefunhuang6958]

Just FYI. Xiao also means small in Chinese. I think that name clarify the feature of this microcontroller pretty clear.

[@stylesoftware]

Preserving i2c for a screen, and keeping the usb tx/rx unused for debugging, I wonder if it's possible to set it up with 4x sercom uart TTL tx/rx pins.

[@vevhus]

Thank god, finally someone explains what you can do on a forum.

[@zeffster2]

great video. I see the have expanded their lineup now, and its actually a little confusing which model to pick.

[@isidronilsson5804]

Love having you back. You must spend countless hours rehearsing for these videos. They are so well thought out and perfectly executed. OK, enough for the accolades. Now my question. I am trying to measure and monitor a voltage between 0.1mv and 5mv. The arduino uno does not seem to be able to measure less than 4.9mv and not sure how to use the internal ref that would let me measure lower voltages. Is there a simple way to measure 0.1 to 5mv range? Perhaps the seeeduino xiao?

[@connerblah]

If you need a high resolution reading of that range, you'll probably need an amplifier circuit. For something that low I'd do it anyway. Then you can use whatever microcontroller you want!

[@N1ghtR1der666]

NOTE: if you have trouble uploading to the board with an errors like UPLOAD failed error code 1, then try a different USB port as the XIAO has some usb compatibility issues, also once the IDE is already running unplug the usb from the XIAO and plug it back in again and this will also sometimes fix it

[@H0t.5tuff]

Brilliant. Thank you for the simplicity. I'd like to learn how to use relays with this 3.3v logic

[@sugarbooty]

You can buy relay boards that have the circuitry built in to switch them with 3.3v, you just connect them to 5v and can have a 3.3v signal wire that switches them

[@superliegebeest544]

Samething I run into I have a uno en have it working so far. But everything is on 5v. I want to use a nano board but how I get it.from 3.3 to 5v

[@bitschips]

Really educative! Thanks for time. Best regards.

[@shahrozKhan4u]

Beauty unleashed

[@ericbraithwaite8497]

Got some of these for Christmas. Looks like a very useful board - but... Using Arduino IDE they all powered up and ran the preloaded blink as expected. When I tried to load a simple 'Hello' sketch it compiled OK but failed to load. Investigation shows that on IDE the COM 3 port had disappeared. Device Manager lists it as 'unknown USB device' Attempting to reload bootloader by blipping the RST pads has no effect. Tried a second XIAO with the same reults - switch on is OK, blink works and COM3 recognied by IDE. Load a sketch and COM3 is killed. Non of the usual tricks to restore a USB connection within Windows works. If anyone else has seen, and sorted, this problem I would love to know. Keep up the good work.

[@hebrewhammer1000]

Thanks for sharing! Great video. The perfect level of detail.

[@marcdraco2189]

BILL! I've been worried about you - I thought you might have got the dreaded Covid. I've been using the Xiao for a while now and it's beautiful for small projects and stuff that needs USB work.

[@qnaman]

The best thing for me it has 10 analog inputs. Perfect for my robot with 5 axis limbs

[@marc6003]

Glad to see you again! Thanks for the video.

[@InvertLogic]

happy to see your new video

[@SpottedEagleOwls]

Thank you for explaining so simple

[@lucvanhove9639]

As usual, always very clear 👍👍👍👍👍

[@poepflater]

DIGIKEY already stocking some parts from them, recognised it from a real time clock module I ordered yesterday.

[@jamesabernathy9744]

I just ordered a 3 pack of the Xiao. This should be fun.

[@KAYAPOGAN]

Tnx a million, fantastic videos... I don't remember when my jaw has dropped! It's incredible.

[@Ouchie]

I think Xiao is not named after the flute, but xiao can be translate to "small" in Chinese and this is seeeduino smallest microcontroller

[@timothyjackson8845]

Thank you for all of your work. Is there a sensor or project for PI or Arduino to sort different types of plastic.... PETE or PET HDPE , PP. We need more projects to save the planet.

[@Paul_VK3HN]

What are the options with this MCU for non volatile storage ie EEPROM. It appears there are several libraries that simulate Arduino EEPROM but they come with loud warnings about keeping writes well under 10k cycles. Has anyone used these libs? How is the 10k limit any different to the warnings we get on the Arduino boards?

[@SailorSSayan]

I want to just take the to acknolagr you took the effort of researching what Xiao was

[@adamsmith2719]

When was Arduino designed and compare the technology then and technology now.

[@johnsun2416]

No EEPROM, is there a way to save data before power down on this controller ?

[@MrCzarnm]

XIAO in terms of computing power is overengineered. For small and medium projects 8 bit fits very well. My rc jet turbine test stand is powered by 8-bit arduino and bottleneck is number of ports rather than computer power.

[@mattkojetin8198]

The Adafruit Qtpy can use the same programs. Just a few enhancements.

[@123masteryoda123]

At some point I'm going to operate the Xiao without the USB C connection. How do you hook up an external battery to run the Xiao? What is the max voltage of that battery?

[@Ed19601]

Interesting but "11 i/o pins and 11 analog pins" is more "or" than "and"

[@stevewalker9994]

Thanks for this. I've tried to transfer these projects to an ESP32 using MicroPython but have only got LCD1602 displays and can't find the drivers (sad). This is a brilliant channel, please keep this up I'm learning so much.

[@noweare1]

I like this. Don't think I will be using those tiny85 boards anymore. Thanks for this video, very useful.

[@bipolarchemist]

The Xiao is a great board and should be pin compatible with the Adafruit QT Py. The QT Py replaces the built-in LED with a neopixel(or dotstar) but aside from that, they are practically the same board with the RGB Led adding a bit over a dollar to the total cost of the board. And since one is an official Adafruit project, support for the Xiao should be pretty good going forward.

[@stmohir]

Thank you for this video, In the first sketch, why is A0 connected to A4? and why is the need for the pullup resistors on the temperature sketch?

[@phwualoha1]

Every Chinese word has multiple meanings depending on where you use it and how you say it. Xian here can mean a "flute" or the word for "little". In this case, Xiao means "little".

[@Enigma758]

5:47 Can't a single interrupt routine be used for both pins if the first thing the interrupt does is to check both pin states to determine which transition caused the interrupt and then branch to the appropriate handler code?

[@NicoDsSBCs]

I love your videos. Enjoying to watch. Well paced. Now I want this seeeduino xiao too. Mighty little microcontroller. I'd love to play with it. I review ARM Single Board Computers and servers on YT. So little time for Arduino like boards. I've got loads of microcontrollers, but my viewers are not interested in them. Well, they seem not to be interested in much anymore lately. Sometimes I wonder if I wouldn't better do something else I like. But then I find something else to make a video about and stay working with SBCs. A human can only do so much, even when in lock-down I've got a shortage of time. Greetings.