Adafruit CPX (Circuit Playground Express)

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.
fpp
Posts: 64
Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2016 12:08 pm

Re: Adafruit CPX (Circuit Playground Express)

Post by fpp » Mon Oct 23, 2017 5:23 pm

deshipu wrote:
Sun Oct 22, 2017 8:45 pm
fpp wrote:
Sun Oct 22, 2017 7:52 pm
So it's a toy, yes, but it already does the same thing my pyboard's been doing for over a year, and is capable of a lot more the pyboard alone couldn't.
It's really no surprise at all. While the MicroPython team is busy developing the platform, making it stable, fixing the bugs and preparing for new features, CircuitPython can just take all that and build on top of it. That's the power of open source — the work doesn't have to be repeated, it can be done once and then expanded upon. Of course it's not like CircuitPython didn't do anything — porting to the SAMD platform was and still is a lot of work. But of course it does all that MicroPython does — it's built on top of it, after all.
That's quite true, but my ambiguous sentence above was intended with a different meaning: it was related to the "underpowered" remark.
I did have to compact the mpyton code a bit to fit inside the RAM (comments, whitespace etc.), but otherwise it runs just as fast as on the pyboard, maybe even snappier.

I should also have mentioned that the library for the CPX comes with a ready-made USB HID module for keyboard and mouse.
At the moment it only supports the QWERTY layout (with this comment in the code: "# we're americans :-)").
I was too lazy to grok the layout definition logic, so I just reused my old code :-)

Turbinenreiter
Posts: 288
Joined: Sun May 04, 2014 8:54 am

Re: Adafruit CPX (Circuit Playground Express)

Post by Turbinenreiter » Tue Oct 24, 2017 8:51 am

If you ever go to China, visit Shenzhen and buy a liftetime supply of crappy SD cards for a cup of coffe :D

fpp
Posts: 64
Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2016 12:08 pm

Re: Adafruit CPX (Circuit Playground Express)

Post by fpp » Tue Oct 24, 2017 5:23 pm

Not in my immediate plans, unfortunately... or maybe fortunately: knowing myself, I'd have to hire a 747 Jumbo to bring back all the stuff :-)

User avatar
deshipu
Posts: 1388
Joined: Thu May 28, 2015 5:54 pm

Re: Adafruit CPX (Circuit Playground Express)

Post by deshipu » Thu Oct 26, 2017 12:28 pm

fpp wrote:
Sun Oct 22, 2017 7:52 pm
With the CPX and its switch, it's trivial to use it for two unrelated functions, instantly and without any fuss.
But actually you could make it more like a Swiss knife :
* in the default mode it runs the currently active app
* in the secondary mode it runs a special "switcher" app:
this one lets you choose among up to 9 different apps (7 tactile pads + 2 buttons), makes the necessary changes to file names or config file or whatever, a soft reset, and there you go...
Can't you just make a simple shield for the pyboard with one of those dip switch arrays on it? If you used the pins on the bottom, you wouldn't even conflict with any other shield. And you could have even more switches.

fpp
Posts: 64
Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2016 12:08 pm

Re: Adafruit CPX (Circuit Playground Express)

Post by fpp » Thu Oct 26, 2017 4:54 pm

Well yes, I certainly could, just like I painstakingly soldered a 2x4 keypad on the one I'm using now...
The beauty of the CPX is that I don't have to add anything to it for the same result :-)

Post Reply