m5stack

In this article we look at the M5StickC Plus which is a very compact development module based on the ESP32-PICO.

This is very similar to the M5Stick C that we looked at but there are a couple of enhancements to the original which make this a better option.

In the image below you can see an overview of the front and back of the device and a nice overview of the features that are built in.

Lets look at some of the features

Features

As you can see in the image above this has a very similar feature set to the M5Stick with a couple of enhancements in that it has a larger display, a buzzer and the battery is a higher capacity

 

 

Development

The board supports UIFlow, Arduino and MicroPython development environments.

For Arduino development you need to add ESP32 support via the board manager by adding the following ESP32 Boards Manager url to the Additional Boards Manager URLs:

https://dl.espressif.com/dl/package_esp32_index.json

Once all of the required files are downloaded then you need to Navigate to Tools->Board:->Boards Manager and then Search ESP32 in the pop-up window, find it and click Install

Under T Tools->Board:-> ESP32 Arduino you will see M5Stick-C in the list

There are a couple of code samples available from https://github.com/m5stack/M5StickC-Plus

When you power the unit on the factory example will run, pressing the A button will cycle through the various example, here are some screenshots of the examples – there is a MPU-6886 , an IR transmitter , a microphone , an RTC and bluetooth example in the factory installed code.

You can also use UIFlow which is a nice and easy graphical development environment similar to the makecode one which is available for the Microbit.

This is what the gui of UIFlow looks like

You can see that there is an icon for the M5Stick and the com port which in my case was COM8. Once selected you can drag and drop blocks as desired, the tool can check for updates and also install the driver for the board

This allows you to drag and drop blocks on the screen to create your programs and there is also an option to switch to python code as well.

The M5StickC-Plus can use most of the same programs of M5StickC. Due to hardware differences such as the display which uses a different controller chip, you need to download the M5StickC-Plus library before compiling the program and modify the header file reference in the program as M5StickCPlus.h.

Expansion

There is a grove style connector and an 8 pin external connector. There are a few modules available for the 8 pin expansion connector.

In this picture you can see 3 of them – a PIR expansion board, a speaker and an environmental one which contains a BMM150, BMP280 and a DHT12

You can see the hat fitted to the M5Stick C plus.

You can develop your own and in fact there is a prototyping hat available. In the image at the top of this article you can see the pins that are available via the connector

Buying

I have  a couple of links, shipping will vary and prices as well depending where you buy them but I have put in rough prices when I checked out the sources

 

Summary

A very cost effective, robust little development board with a number of expansion options. This would make it ideal for IoT projects and with easy integration with the Arduino IDE, UiFlow and Micropython its easy to get started with.

The slightly larger screen than the m5Stick C is a real bonus and if you have a choice I would buy this one rather than that simply because of the screen, built in buzzer and improved battery performance

Another recommended product from M5Stack