Team8 Microcontroller

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Seeed Studio XIAO nRF52840

The Seeed Studio XIAO nRF52840 is a small and cheap microcontroller powered by the Nordic nRF52840 processor.

Due to its size, wireless connectivity benefits and low cost it is ideal for small wearable projects.

Technical Specifications

Processor Nordic nRF52840
Wireless Bluetooth 5.0/NFC/Zigbee
On-chip Memory 1 MB flash and 256 kB RAM
Onboard Memory 2 MB QSPI flash
Dimensions 21 x 17.5mm
Operating Voltage 3.3V

PINOUT

https://files.seeedstudio.com/wiki/XIAO-BLE/functional2a.jpg

Advantages & Disadvantages

+ Small size makes it perfect for wearables

+ Comes with Bluetooth and zigbee capabilities

+ Very low cost

+ Supports I2C

+ 14 GPIOs

- Not a lot of tutorials

How To Get It To Work

  • Download the firmware on https://micropython.org/download/SEEED_XIAO/
  • Enter boot-loader-mode by double pressing the reset-button (if there is no button just use a male-to-male wire and connect the two connectors like demonstrated in the video)
  • Once the board shows up in your file manager copy the downloaded firmware-file from step one onto it (highest hierarchy)
  • Open Thonny (or your preferred IDE) and go to Settings > Interpreter and choose the MicroPython (generic) interpreter. Make sure to choose the board as port (this may be different from system to system)
  • That’s it! You should now be ready to start coding :)

Instructional Video