Adafruit Circiuit Playground Express¶

Basics¶

VS Code Plugin¶

Projects¶

UF2 Bootloader Details¶

To install a new bootloader, double click reset button and drag and drop the appropriate .uf2 bootloader file.

Makecode¶

Setup¶

Download latest MakeCode bootloader from here After flashing the MakeCode bootloader, the Circuit Playground will appear as a drive named CPLAYBOOT

CircuitPlayground¶

Setup¶

Download latest CircuitPython bootloader from here After flashing the CircuitPython bootloader, the Circuit Playground will appear as a drive named CIRCUITPY.

Download the latest CircuitPython 2.0.0 libraries from here. Expand the .zip file and copy the lib folder to the CIRCUITPY drive.

To test the CircuitPython bootloader, create a file named code.py on the Circuit Playground drive with these statements:

import digitalio
import board
import time

led = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.D13)
led.direction = digitalio.Direction.OUTPUT
while True:
    led.value = not led.value
    time.sleep(0.5)

REPL¶

To connect to the REPL, use:

screen /dev/tty.usbmodem1451 115200

Note: /dev/tty.usbmodem1451 might not be correct. To determine the correct tty name, use: ls /dev/*usbmodem*.

You might have to hit Ctrl-C to get the >>> prompt.

Type help() to get version information.

To exit the REPL type Ctrl-a k y and then type reset to fix the terminal.

Ampy Utility¶

The ampy utility simplifies running and debugging python code on the Circuit Playground. One big advantage is it allows you to see the stdout from python print statements. In order to use it, remove the code.py file from the Circuit Playground.

Python Packages¶

The CircuitPython Neopixel driver is here.

Code examples are here.