micro python pyboard general review

[MarkHaysHarris777]

Greetings, I have had my own pyboard now for just under two weeks. I have put it through most of its paces over the past week, and I must say that I am both impressed and excited; I am sure that the pyboard is going to change the face of micro controller IoT and a host of other things in the very near future. In many ways this little board is an Arduino on steroids but with an easier and more flexible interface-- just brilliant!

For future versions of the board-- development models need to be available that do not require soldering. To differentiate the board from Arduino boards-- mount male header pins (rather than female headers). I did two things to my board almost immediately: 1) removed the two small mounting rings from the side edges of the board, and 2) mounted male header pins across the whole board. I use female-to-male jumper wires out to my bread boards (project development boards). Also, I pushed all of the pins down slightly (makes them a skosh shorter) before soldering them... with the rings removed and the shorter pins the board still fits into its anti-static case.

I have been through the entire tutorial (doc files) and have tried most of what the board is able to accomplish. I should say (to put perspective on this) that I am an Arduino fanatic! The micro python pyboard is better... way better. Its a better package, is better functionally, is better from an interface standpoint (one micro usb for all power, terminal prompt, OTG flash drive) and the micro python control and REPL is just BETTER. I don't mean this in a disparaging way, but the pyboard and micro python have surpassed my expectations and on a scale of 1-10 (as an Arduino fanatic) I place Arduino at (5) and the pyboard and micro python at (9). (nobody gets a 10) The only reason pyboard does not get a ten is because I had to solder the header the pins!

I am really pumped about the arrangement and organization of the gpio, timers, channels, skins; absolutely brilliant! My micro ES 08A servos just plugged in and worked; with just a handful of lines of coding I had full gpio, pwm, adc, servos, timers, &etc running on my bench in just minutes! I have better control, an easier programming interface, and a wider range of options with micro python and the pyboard than I have with Arduino (and I love Arduino). The pyboard is simply better. Nice job Damien (and team, backers).

I am planning to combine the pyboard with my RPi and Edison projects, initially as a science station peripheral controller and instrument interface. The pyboard has an excellent primary position for all projects robotic, and even has some significant power for general computation applications. I am working on a science platform (station) arbitrary precision calculator and integrator using the Intel Edison for primary analytics; I will be blending the pyboard for instrument interface and peripheral control and secondary calculation.

At first I thought the price was a bit too high; well, its the same price as the Edison. Having experimented with it for the better part of a week now I'm less grouchy about the price, although I am hoping as the pyboard catches on the price will come down. Just for info sake, I obtained my own pyboard through adafruit. This is a perfect interface board for the Raspberry PI projects and perhaps you folks might consider a super pyboard (similar to Gert van Loo's Gert Board) that could be used as an RPi HAT with the python super control on the RPi and the fine timing and hardware control on the super board. At any rate, I am planning to integrate the pyboard with the RPi in some interesting ways (and I thank you for the journey!).

Kind regards,
Mark H Harris

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