smallest, basic devices

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devnull
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smallest, basic devices

Post by devnull » Fri Oct 19, 2018 2:30 pm

Been using PIC micros for probably 20 years and sometimes all I need is a simple 12F device with just 8 pins and 6 I/Os with maybe one ADC and the rest I/Os.

What is the known, smallest device that micropython will run on, I don't need wifi or usb or any other bells & whistles, just a handfull of I/Os that does not have onboard voltage regulators LEDs and other devices that consume unnecessary power in a user-friendly package.

:-)
Last edited by devnull on Fri Oct 19, 2018 3:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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deshipu
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Re: smallest, basic devices

Post by deshipu » Fri Oct 19, 2018 3:20 pm

That would probably be the espruino pico.

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devnull
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Re: smallest, basic devices

Post by devnull » Fri Oct 19, 2018 3:42 pm

Thanks so much, but that has wifi and 22 pins and is VERY expensive.

What I am looking for is no wifi, low pin count and a much lower price.

:-)

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Roberthh
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Re: smallest, basic devices

Post by Roberthh » Fri Oct 19, 2018 3:56 pm

No, the espruino pico has no wifi, just an STM32F401 CPU (http://www.espruino.com/Pico)
You could also look at the teensy 3.2 or one of the PIC16bit CPU's, for which a bujild of MicroPython exists.

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Re: smallest, basic devices

Post by HermannSW » Fri Oct 19, 2018 4:15 pm

devnull wrote:
Fri Oct 19, 2018 2:30 pm
What is the known, smallest device that micropython will run on,
An ESP8266 model ESP-01s has 8 pins, 4 of which are GPIO. No ADC, but because it has 1MB flash the full MicroPython images fit:
http://micropython.org/download#esp8266

Does cost 1.50$/pc, a simple USB programming adapter is availabe for 1$. It has Wifi which allows to run screen session once after flashing MicroPython in order to enable WebREPL. I then use webrepl_cli.py for scp like copying of files to/from module and webrepl_client.py as console shell to use it. The whole module weight is 1.5g only.
Pico-W Access Point static file webserver:
https://github.com/Hermann-SW/pico-w

Tiny MicroPython robots (the PCB IS the robot platform)
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11454

webrepl_client.py
https://github.com/Hermann-SW/webrepl#webrepl-shell

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deshipu
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Re: smallest, basic devices

Post by deshipu » Fri Oct 19, 2018 5:57 pm

Well, if you want to use ESP8266, then ESP-03 (and ESP-07) are pretty small, and have more pins than ESP-01. Also, cheap.

If you don't care about the flavor of MicroPython, you can use Adafruit's Trinket M0, which runs CircuitPython, or do what I do, and just use the SAMD21 chip directly, it only needs two capacitors as extra components.

OutoftheBOTS_
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Re: smallest, basic devices

Post by OutoftheBOTS_ » Fri Oct 19, 2018 8:01 pm

The Arduino community has designed their own STM32F405 dev board it's form factor and pin out is based on the super popular blue pill (STM32F103). They have 1 of the manufactures of the blue pill that is going to manufacture it for them and the selling price will be under $10US

here's the discussion thread http://www.stm32duino.com/viewtopic.php ... &start=850

see here for a mock up and there is some pics of prototypes around too https://ibb.co/m512be

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WhiteHare
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Re: smallest, basic devices

Post by WhiteHare » Fri Oct 19, 2018 8:09 pm

devnull wrote:
Fri Oct 19, 2018 2:30 pm
Been using PIC micros for probably 20 years and sometimes all I need is a simple 12F device with just 8 pins and 6 I/Os with maybe one ADC and the rest I/Os.

What is the known, smallest device that micropython will run on, I don't need wifi or usb or any other bells & whistles, just a handfull of I/Os that does not have onboard voltage regulators LEDs and other devices that consume unnecessary power in a user-friendly package.

:-)
Maybe this? https://www.aliexpress.com/item/NRF5182 ... lsrc=aw.ds

Well, at least it's small: 1cmx2cm in size You could run more or less the same firmware as is used by the BBC micro:bit.

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roland_vs
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Re: smallest, basic devices

Post by roland_vs » Fri Oct 19, 2018 10:03 pm

STM32F091RC port is small

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devnull
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Re: smallest, basic devices

Post by devnull » Mon Oct 22, 2018 12:46 am

Actually, the ESP8266 Wroom-02/ wroom-07 is a perfect candidate and meets all of the criteria except 1.

You cannot completely disable the wifi radio and reduce power consumption down to less than 70ma.

The device I am looking for could equally be used for development as well as small production runs, and anything with onboard usb, leds, switches and other devices which could consume valuable power when running in autonomous battery mode would not be any good.

I have googled trying to find out whether or not the wifi radio can be completely disabled and have yet to find a definitive answer.

As a compromise I have tried setting:

Code: Select all

esp.sleep_type(esp.SLEEP_MODEM)
And then calling sleep on it, but it appears that it is not implemented:

Code: Select all

>>> mc.sleep()
Warning: not yet implemented
So it looks like it's not possible to run the esp8266 with wireless off ??

Would it be possible to disable WIFI radio through the esp build configurations settings and build with wifi permanently off ?

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