Any ATSAMD51 news?

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plutonic
 
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Any ATSAMD51 news?

Post by plutonic »

https://www.adafruit.com/product/3382 in case anyone has forgotten.

I'm looking forward to some Feathers with this part, and it would be awesome to have Trinkets as well (a little bit bigger than the M0 Trinket if necessary, since the '51 has more pins).

Alternatively should we just use the ESP32 instead? Any idea how the performance compares to the '51? Among other things I'd like to run a Neopixel string, so having that second cpu core handle the precisely timed Neopixel protocol could be handy.

Thanks!

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Any ATSAMD51 news?

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

We're still working on that one, but we don't do ETAs.

There are too many design issues and sources of delay in the supply chain that we can't control, and *way* too many people with internet access who think 'estimated' means 'guaranteed'.

Choosing a microcontroller is always a project-by-project thing, so use whatever fits your requirements best.. 'actually available for sale' usually being a big one.

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gertvb
 
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Re: Any ATSAMD51 news?

Post by gertvb »

Hallo Mike!

Whilst you are at it, may I make 2 suggestions or rather requests for the samd51 feather please?

1. Use the chip with the biggest flash and ram available, even if it costs a $ or 2 more.
2. Try to bring out an equal number of input pins for each of the ADC's on the samd51, and not only pins for only one of the ADC's
3. Like on the Teensy 3.6, how about bringing out some of the unused pins to pads on the bottom of the feather?

Regards

Gert

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Any ATSAMD51 news?

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

I'll pass those along to the products team. Thanks!

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plutonic
 
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Re: Any ATSAMD51 news?

Post by plutonic »

Woo Hoo! I just saw the Metro board announcement:

https://www.adafruit.com/product/3382

It looks great and of course I'm eagerly awaiting the Feather and Itsy and (please?) Trinket versions. It's of course understandable that the Metro is the first, since it's easier to develop the larger board. A few comments:

1. I'd rather that the board included a dotstar instead of a neopixel, since the dotstar is easier to program and also because the trinket/gemma m0 has a dotstar, so they'd be more compatible if they used the same led. I hope the Feather etc will have a dotstar.

2. The 2MB SPI flash is nice and worth including on the Metro but I think it can be omitted on smaller boards if you want to manage the board size or cost. 512k is a lot of on-chip flash if you're just slightly selective about what libraries to include.

3. I'd be interested in a head-to-head comparison with the ESP32 boards (Feather and Wipy) for use with micropython/circuitpython. Speed, power consumption, etc.

4. The blurb doesn't mention an xtal oscillator on the board and I don't see an obvious one in the picture. The Feather M0 has one and I think it's important, so I hope these M4 boards will get them too. A connector or pads for an RTC backup battery would also be nice.

5. Added: why not the ATSAMD51J20 which has 2x the flash, 256k of ram instead of 192k, and costs just 50 cents or so more? The 1024K of on-chip flash would really have allowed eliminating the QSPI flash, probably making the board even cheaper. I had forgotten about the ATSAMD51J20 when I first posted this, but I see it exists and they are available (digikey etc).

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Re: Any ATSAMD51 news?

Post by westfw »

You realize that a 2MB (16Mb) QSPI flash is only like a $1.50 part? That's pretty good "bang for the buck."

I'm a little nonplussed at using a 64pin chip to get 25 board-level IOs, but it'll be nice to have those on-board extras (QSPI, USB, LEDs, neopixel) that don't conflict with any of the "pins."

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plutonic
 
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Re: Any ATSAMD51 news?

Post by plutonic »

Well the $1.50 has to be multiplied by at least 3 to get the end user price, so removing the part would drop the board retail price by maybe $5, which is significant since the Metro is currently quite expensive (I could imagine buying one but would be reluctant to use it in a permanent project if I was running off 10 copies). Also it frees up board space, not important for the Metro but the Adafruit dev board that I like the most is the Trinket, which is tiny and affordable. An M4 Trinket (hopefully under $12, same increment as the Metro M4 over the M0) would be great.

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Re: Any ATSAMD51 news?

Post by westfw »

the Metro is currently quite expensive
It's about the same price that "Genuine" Arduinos have always been ($25-$30)
That's FANTASTIC, IMO. (although a bit painful for including as a part in a project or product. permanently.)

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plutonic
 
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Re: Any ATSAMD51 news?

Post by plutonic »

Sure, as a learning or experimentation board the Metro or Arduino are affordable, though I have to admit that I never bought an Arduino (I do have a Beaglebone). Another way to look at it is that the Metro M4 costs the same as a Pocket Beagle (=shrunken down Beaglebone) or 5x a Raspberry Pi Zero. Both of those are orders of magnitude more computationally powerful than the M4. The main thing that would stop me from using a Pi0 or Pocketbeagle is power consumption, which probably means I'm making a battery powered device, which is likely to be a wearable, so I want a tiny board like a Trinket rather than a big one like a Metro. The Trinket M0 and Gemma M0 were both under $10 so much easier to impulse buy, and I don't mind putting them into permanent projects, though maybe only in single-digit quantities. So the board I really want is a Trinket M4 priced a few $ above the M0 version.

I have a possible upcoming project that involves Neopixels and I'm thinking of trying an ESP32 (that would allow controlling the gadget from a phone by wireless, not needed but potentially cool). The ESP32 Feather is around $20 and also has much more stuff on it than the Metro M4 board, but I think its software environment is still a bit shaky. It was an unbelievable joy to connect the Gemma M0 to a computer and immediately be able to type Python commands at it. If the ESP32 gets to work comparably well and doesn't use too much power, it sounds unbeatable unless the wireless's presence is a problem (it sometimes is).

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