MicroPython All the Things!

September 15, 2017

We ♥ MicroPython at Elmwood! And who wouldn't? It gives you the simple syntax of Python 3 right in your micro-controller! It runs on lots of different hardware platforms and could well become the successor to the Arduino language.

We sell a whole lot of different boards that can run MicroPython. Here are just a few:

• On the really tiny end of the scale, the Adafruit Trinket M0 and Gemma M0 are the smallest MicroPython-capable boards we carry. They both run CircuitPython, Adafruit's fork of MicroPython. While these tiny boards (some might call 'em adorable) don't have networking or built-in sensors, they do have a super-blinky RGBW LED for added sparkle.
  
  
• Slightly larger are the Feather M0 Express boards. They're part of the Feather ecosystem from Adafruit, so they include LiPo charging and power. They also have a NeoPixel built in and 2 MB of Flash storage for data.
  
  
• Packed with sensors and Bluetooth are the micro:bit offerings. Designed for education, they're fun to program in MicroPython.
  
  
• If you need wireless, the ESP8266 boards have it, and they're officially supported in the MicroPython ESP8266 port. I'd recommend starting with a board like the ESP8266 Thing Dev Board or the Feather HUZZAH, as both of those include USB support and battery connections.
  
  
• If the ESP8266 doesn't quite give you enough power, ESP32 boards like the ESP32 Thing and the HUZZAH32 bring more storage and more processing power. The MicroPython support for ESP32 isn't quite as polished as for the ESP8266, but it's still very solid.
  
  
• Top of the line are the WiPy boards from Pycom. These ESP32 boards are pre-programmed with MicroPython, and are available with powerful radio technologies such as LoRa and SigFox.
  
  

If you create something cool using MicroPython, don't forget to let us know about it!

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