ENG-CANSAT-CONTENT

Feather M0 Express in few words

The CanSat kit it build around the Adafruit Industries Feather M0 Express plateform.

• Feather is a new emerging standard -Arduino compatible plaform- for embedded projet.
• Feather is small, light and already brings lot useful features.
• Feather M0 is compatible with Arduino M0, so compatible with Arduino IDE.
• Feather M0 Express also embed FLASH memory that can act like SD Card (Arduino IDE) or USB Stick (CircuitPython)

As Feather M0 is compatible Arduino IDE, everything learned for Arduino Uno can be applied to Feather M0. Just care about voltage, the UNO is 5V Logic and the Feather 3.3V logic.

Feather M0 Features

20 GPIOs

6 Analog inputs 12bits value from 0 to 4095.

1 Analog output 10 bits value from 0 to 1023.

PWM on all pins

Hardware I2C et SPI buses

UART

Feather are:

* Small (5c2xm)

* Light (4.7Gr)

* Powerful

* Versatile

* Polyvalent

* Available with complete ecosystem

Kit content

	Description	Quantité
Feather M0 Express	New Arduino M0 compatible on a standard platform for embedded project. Also compatible with CircuitPython. disponible ici chez MCHobby	1
USB A/microB 1m cable	Can be used to plug your feather on a computer to program it or to reload the Lipo. disponible ici chez MCHobby	1
Half Size Breadboard	Solderless breadboard are used for fast prototyping. disponible ici chez MCHobby	1
Multi-functional breadboard wires	Set of wires with plug that can be modified from female to male. disponible ici chez MCHobby	1
Feather Stacking Headers	Plug your feather or prototype wing on breadboard and still having a female connector under the hand. disponible ici chez MCHobby	1
Feather Prototyping Wing	Prototyping board for feather platform. Create your own extension board (wing) by soldering connectors and components. disponible ici chez MCHobby	1
Lithium Polymer Battery	Transform the Feather into an autonomous plateform with this 800mAh Lipo. disponible ici chez MCHobby	1
BMP280 – Barometric pressure sensor	Easily evaluate pressure, altitude and temperature. disponible ici chez MCHobby	1
TMP36 – analog temperature sensor	Transform the sensor voltage read on analog input into an easy-to-read temperature. disponible ici chez MCHobby	1
RFM69HCW Transceiver Radio	Transport data over long distance with packet radio. One breakout act as emitter, the second one as receiver. disponible ici chez MCHobby	2

Feather M0 Express in details

The Feather M0 use the ATSAMD21G18 ARM Cortex M0+ processor with 3.3V logic and 48 MHz. This chip embed 256K of FLASH (8x more than the Atmega328/Uno) and has 32K RAM (16x more than UNO)!

This ATSAMD21G18 has USB built-in which offers USB-to-Serial and debug feature (so no need for FTDI-like chip).

The feather has the following specs:

• Size: 51mm x 23mm x 8mm
• Weight: 5 grams
• ATSAMD21G18 @ 48MHz
• 3.3V logic/power
• 256KB of FLASH
• 32KB of RAM
• No EEPROM
• RTC & Clock based on 32.768 KHz crystal
• 3.3V regulator (500mA peak current) with Power/enable pin
• USB native support (has USB bootloader)
• 20 GPIO pins (PWM on all pins)
• Hardware Serial + Hardware I2C + Hardware SPI support
• 6 x 12-bit analog inputs (from 0 to 4095)
• 1 x DAC 10-bit analog ouput (from 0 to 1024)
• Lipo Charger included: 100mA charging with status LED
• Red LED attached on pin #13 (like Arduino UNO)
• Reset button
• Mini NeoPixel
• 2 MB SPI additional Flash storage.

The Feather M0 Express can be be programmed with Arduino IDE -OR- with CircuitPython (a flavor of MicroPython). This tutorial focus on Arduino IDE development. Check the Adafruit Tutorial if you are interested in CircuitPython Programming.

About the additionnal Flash:
The SPI Flash storage act like a tiny hard drive.

• Under CircuitPython, the 2 MB Flash is used to the Python scripts, libraries and other files.
• With Arduino, the 2 MB Flash is used to read/write files to it (like a SD card). Adafruit has helper program to access those files over USB.

The UF2 bootloader:
The Feather M0 is pre-loaded with an UF2 bootloader which looks like a USB Flash Drive. Simply drag an UF2 firmware on the USB Flash drive to completely reprogram de board firmware (No special tools, No special drivers needed)! The UF2 bootloader can be used to load up CircuitPython, MakeCode PXT file or Arduino IDE (bossa-compatible).

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Written by Meurisse D. from MC Hobby - License: CC-SA-BY.