Teensy 4.0 & 4.1

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.
alphaFred
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Re: Teensy 4.0 & 4.1

Post by alphaFred » Tue Oct 26, 2021 4:48 am

For me that is totally fine. You can work with a Teensy if you like. The only disadvantage that I see is the lack of a proper debugger.
Roberthh and myself have most of the other boards which we support with the mimxrt port. So once you are finished we can aid you with testing.

If you need any help just let us know.

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Roberthh
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Re: Teensy 4.0 & 4.1

Post by Roberthh » Tue Oct 26, 2021 7:31 am

The Teensy works fine. For development the lack of debugging may be a problem. I started with Teensy, which I had already, and then I procured a MIMXRT1020_EVK board plus a Segger Edu J-Link adapter for better debugging. You can also get a MIMXRT1010_EVK and a Segger Edu mini. All MIMXRT port also support Open-SDA, so you may not need the external J-Link adapter. All MIMXRT10xx_EVK boards have an additional WM8960 audio interface, microphones and audio socket assembled, which makes it easier in your case. The MIMXRT1010 board is also prepared for SPDIF, only that the TTWB1010L transformer and RCA sockets are not assembled. But these come at 4$ in total.
If you are willing to spend the money, I would recommend the MIMXRT1020_EVK board. Then we all have the same board for comparison. And you will have the audio support chips on board, plenty of python heap and an built-in Ethernet socket. They are available at e.g. Mouser, Digikey, Farnell, ...
You can also look at the Seed ARCH MIX board. It has an J-Link interface as well, but no on-board support for Audio. Just the i.MX RT 1052 MCU + 32MB SDRAM + 8 MB Flash + SD-card socket. You can get Ethernet by adding a LAN8720 breakout. Price in the range of a Teensy 4.1.

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Mike Teachman
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Re: Teensy 4.0 & 4.1

Post by Mike Teachman » Tue Oct 26, 2021 5:12 pm

Thanks for all the dev board information. That helped a lot to understand development options.

I took a look at the MIMXRT1020_EVK board schematic and BOM. This is a great development platform but it may not be the best choice for I2S development. I noticed that I2S capable pins are not brought out to connectors. I think this would make it impractical to test with the I2S DAC and I2S microphone breakout boards that are popular with the MicroPython community.

Do have any thoughts on the differences in code download times between the MIMXRT1020_EVK board (with and without JTAG) and the Teensy 4.1?
e.g. the time delay from compile/link complete to running the code.

The Seed ARCH MIX board might be an option: it brings out the pins for one of the I2S peripherals and has JTAG.

alphaFred
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Re: Teensy 4.0 & 4.1

Post by alphaFred » Tue Oct 26, 2021 5:48 pm

Hi Mike,

I can not tell you the time with debugger from the top of my head but with my bootloader it is around 6s.

With debugger and just downloading the firmware it is faster. I would say around 3-4s.

I hope that is fast enough for you ☺️

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Mike Teachman
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Re: Teensy 4.0 & 4.1

Post by Mike Teachman » Tue Oct 26, 2021 6:02 pm

alphaFred wrote:
Tue Oct 26, 2021 5:48 pm
I hope that is fast enough for you
Definitely. These short code download times are similar to what I see with the RP2 port, which really helps to shorten the development time.

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Roberthh
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Re: Teensy 4.0 & 4.1

Post by Roberthh » Tue Oct 26, 2021 6:35 pm

The MIMXRT10xx_EVK boards are indded not great in the number of pins that are brought out.
The ARCH MIX is a little bit uncomfortable with respect to firmware upload. Until we find the right settings, I use JFlashLite instead of the Ozone debugger. JFlashLite is license free, but you have to enter the settings manually on each loader start, which is selection of the file and setting the flash target address 0x60000000.
The bootloader @alphafred is coding at the moment makes that more comfortable, since then dfu-util can be used.

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Mike Teachman
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Re: Teensy 4.0 & 4.1

Post by Mike Teachman » Wed Oct 27, 2021 1:59 pm

I decided to order a Teensy 4.1. I'll keep the forum updated on progress.

manitou
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Re: Teensy 4.0 & 4.1

Post by manitou » Sat Oct 30, 2021 3:41 pm

back in Feb 2020 i got an early micropython running on Teensy 4.0 using https://github.com/jimmo/micropython.git. I only had a simple REPL interface over /dev/ttyACM0 (ubuntu linux). I just built the latest micropython for TEENSY40 from https://github.com/micropython/micropython.git, but I can't seem to get any response from /dev/ttyACM0. I've used teensy_loader_cli to upload the .hex file, and a /dev/ttyAM0 shows up, but i can't get response from /dev/ttyACM0 (115200 baud)??? I can upload the latest circuitpython to the Teensy4 and it works , and, of course, teensy IDE sketches work.

i even tried uploading the hex file from 2020, sadly that no longer works. I've successfully uploaded latest micropython to RP2 pico, pyboard, and adafruit stm32f405.

what am i missing?

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Roberthh
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Re: Teensy 4.0 & 4.1

Post by Roberthh » Sat Oct 30, 2021 4:06 pm

I just built that again, and it worked. Did you try the daily build from the Download web site at https://micropython.org/download/TEENSY40/ as well? That one worked for me as well.

manitou
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Re: Teensy 4.0 & 4.1

Post by manitou » Sat Oct 30, 2021 7:09 pm

I had same results with daily build. Here are some more data points: no REPL response on two ubuntu 18.04 and one 20.04 box, but REPL does work (ldev/ttyACM0 115200) on older 16.04 system, but on that system i can't get mpremote, so still can't upload .py files ... REPL works if i plug the teensy4 into windows 10 and MAC OS -- but i don't know how to install mpremote

would be nice if i had pop-up USB drive like circuitpython

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