LoPy useful links

Discussion and questions about boards that can run MicroPython but don't have a dedicated forum.
Target audience: Everyone interested in running MicroPython on other hardware.
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rcolistete
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LoPy useful links

Post by rcolistete » Tue Oct 18, 2016 11:31 am

Some LoPy useful links :

LoPy Getting Started :
https://www.pycom.io/gettingstarted/

Official documentation :
https://docs.pycom.io/lopy/

Firmware Updates and other support files :
https://www.pycom.io/support/supportdownloads/

More support files (pin out, etc) :
https://github.com/pycom/LoPy

Pycom forum :
https://forum.pycom.io/
https://forum.pycom.io/category/6/the-lopy

LoPy Kickstarter updates :
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/17 ... -p/updates
My "MicroPython Samples". My "MicroPython Firmwares" with many options (double precision, ulab, etc).

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kfricke
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Joined: Mon May 05, 2014 9:13 am
Location: Germany

Re: LoPy useful links

Post by kfricke » Wed Oct 19, 2016 3:21 pm

Let's call this "LoPy links" without the "useful", please.

Yes, i know the following should better be placed on the Pycom forum to place (sadly nod constructive) feedback where appropriate...

The "Getting Started" is misleading and mostly wrong.
Let me first pick up the first sentence in the guide: "Connect VIN (3.6-5.5V) and GND, or if you have an expansion board connect the LoPy and plug the board into your computer via the USB port."
Shall i really connect VIN and GND to get started with the LoPy, when i had no Expansion board?!? This formulation is misleading and possibly dangerous for beginners.
Neither the Pymakr IDE did try to upgrade my two LoPys, nor did the use of the provided WLAN make sense and help in this matter. Anyways I had to use the manual firmware upgrade tool to flash the latest firmware via a serial line. During this process there have been even more wrong and intricate descriptions to set the board into safeboot mode. The font used to describe Pin "G28" is barely readable and could be mean "G20".

The link to the support files are a sad joke. Pick up your LoPy (turn it upside down) or Expansion board and you spot the exact same details. They simple need this as assets for their Sphinx based documentation, but do add near to nothing to owners of the LoPy.

Mentioning the Kickstarter campaign is absurd. Try to find a reference on it on the Pycom website... good luck! They fail to link to their origin and public supporters. This is very sad and as a backer of their crowdfunding history i feel kidded by Pycom.

Is this just my own early-moronic stupidity, or do others also notice such a bad level of support and poor quality of documentation?

Thanks a lot to all the MicroPython contributors for the good work on the really official ports!

photoacoustic
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2015 8:25 am

Re: LoPy useful links

Post by photoacoustic » Wed Oct 26, 2016 4:43 pm

Hi kfricke,
I just keep my two Lopy in the original package. Saddly...
I am waiting for good documentation to start...
Best regards

torwag
Posts: 220
Joined: Fri Dec 13, 2013 9:25 am

Re: LoPy useful links

Post by torwag » Fri Oct 28, 2016 10:12 am

Hi,
I started to play with my lopys yesterday evening. You are right there are a lot of glitches. Starting from (again) an easy way to attach the lopy the wrong way to the expansion board, without clear marks. That killed already many wipys and I thought that this would have been solved by now. There are many usual ways to avoid this problem.
The update did not work for me at all.
Pymakr does not run on my machine (see below), the update bash file, which then starts an update python file which in turn starts the usual esp flash tool did not work as well. The error message in the dialog box is not helpful at all.
Most problematic is the fact that I use arch Linux which uses python3 as standard. The esp flash tool as well as the update python script are both written for python2. Even after I fixed this, the bash script did not work. I called the update python script directly, which did the job.
Another small glitch in the starting page... I guess to ask first to download Pymakr and then to connect to the lopy wifi makes much more sense. People with a wifi connection only would appreciate this order.
Then, I ended up in the docs, and it took me a while before I noticed that this are not the micropython but the pycom docs. They look almost identically. However, trying to switch to e.g. the pyboard, fails with some wrong url.
I almost started to reach out to Damien claiming a wrong URL, before I noticed that I'm on the pycom and not the micropython page. Here we need really some changes. Esp. since it seems now we have two docs for the wipy board at two different locations.

However, all of that I considering to be "start-up" glitches.

What makes me more concerned, I wrote a post here about a non function of Pymakr. I added 4 issues on github with my findings after digging into the problems. Until now, I did not get any answer. That is really something they should take care of. You can easily ignore 100 rants and questions but if people take time to fill in tickets in the issue tracker, already 1/3-1/2 of the problem is solved (problem spotted and problem identified) . That should be appreciated.

Other than this, I believe they are simply deadly busy. Operating a start up is not the easy way to go. I hope they manage to get again more time to solve those glitches and increase customer support.

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