Circuit Playground Express not Showing up in Mu nor in Finde

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jkcrbn
 
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Circuit Playground Express not Showing up in Mu nor in Finde

Post by jkcrbn »

I am an educator who bought a 15 pack of Circuit Playground Express, and I am having trouble just getting the "blink" program to run.

I have an HP Pavilion laptop, running Windows 10. I installed Mu within the last two or three weeks. It is running Python 3.

After I plug in the drive, I can press the "reset" button, and it turns from the rainbow effect to green, and then Mu sees the playground. I copied the blink code into the mu editor, and pressed save, naming it code.py as instructed. The playground remains green, and the diode remains doing it's more triangle wave (rather than square wave "blink" style) action.

If I press the reset button again, it unmounts and remounts the board, but does not change the fact that the blink program doesn't run.

According to the tutorial, there was nothing about having to press the [reset button] to get Mu to see the drive, and it does not seem to just run, as it seems to imply in the tutorial.

the circuit playground is called CPLAYBOOT instead of CIRCUITPY, as it states in the tutorial, if that helps at all

On the back it says "Developer Edition ATSAMD21@48MHz adafruit Circuit Playground Express"

any idea what I am doing wrong?

Thanks in advance!
Jake

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V2man
 
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Re: Circuit Playground Express not Showing up in Mu nor in F

Post by V2man »

To use Circuit Python on Mu you need to press the CPX reset once or twice to put it into CPLAYBOOT.
Then copy adafruit-circuitpython-circuitplayground_express_crickit-3.1.2.uf2 to the CPLAYBOOT drive.
After it copies the uf2 file you will see the CIRCUITPY drive. I wrote a bat file to do this.
After using Makecode or Arduino IDE I do the above steps to get back to Circuit Python.

You also need to download adafruit-circuitpython-bundle-3.x-mpy-20190111.zip.
Unzip the file.
Then copy the lib directory and the README.txt and VERSIONS.txt to CIRCUITPY drive.
Have you done that?
If so then open up MU. Under the mode tab select Adafruit Circuit Python.
Select new and create a code.py file.
Run check to see if you have any errors, Mu will not allow you to run if you have not inserted the correct tab spaces.
Then save it to the your CIRCUITPY drive using the Save tab in MU.
Load tab in MU is for bringing in a file to work on.

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jkcrbn
 
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Re: Circuit Playground Express not Showing up in Mu nor in F

Post by jkcrbn »

Hi V2man,

** thanks for your help! **

I'll try this as soon as I can, but before I begin, I should do this to every CPX board before I give them to my students, or this has to be done on the machine which will be using it?

Also, you said you wrote a .bat file, where do I find this file?

Jake

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oesterle
 
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Re: Circuit Playground Express not Showing up in Mu nor in F

Post by oesterle »

Hi, Jake!

V2man gave a good summary of getting your CPX set up with CircuitPython!

There's a lot more step-by-step help in the CircuitPython Quickstart section of the product guide, including links to the firmware.

You can install CircuitPython and support files onto the CPX boards from your or any other PC.

You'll install the Mu Editor onto individual student PCs.


Cheers,

Eric

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V2man
 
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Re: Circuit Playground Express not Showing up in Mu nor in F

Post by V2man »

I have a CPX, Circuit Playground Express board + a Crickit board so I copy
adafruit-circuitpython-circuitplayground_express_crickit-3.1.2.uf2
to the CPLAYBOOT drive.

If you have only a CPX board you would copy
adafruit-circuitpython-circuitplayground_express-3.1.2.uf2
to the CPLAYBOOT drive.

Get one board setup first. If it works then you can setup the rest of the boards from one PC. It will give you a chance to make sure all your USB cables are also good.
Batch files list and execute all the steps you do manually. Are you familiar with the command prompt window? In this window you can use commands like dir to see what's in the directory, rem to make a comment, cd to change to a directory you want to work in. This is what we used in MSDOS before Windows OS came along. A batch file is created in Windows by right clicking your mouse in your desktop and creating a New Text Document. Then renaming the extension *.txt to *.bat. Then you right click on your new *.bat file and select edit. Here's is an example of a batch file that will copy the adafruit-circuitpython-circuitplayground_express-3.1.2.uf2 to the CPLAYBOOT Drive:

rem Restore Circuit Playground Express back to Python
rem Push reset button on CPX board once or twice to access CPLAYBOOT(I:)
cd C:\Users\UserName\Documents\Adafruit\CircuitPython_uf2files
copy adafruit-circuitpython-circuitplayground_express-3.1.2.uf2 I:\

The change directory command, cd is used to change to the directory where you have the uf2 file stored. Copy command copies the uf2 file to the CPLAYBOOT drive. The above bat example only works if you remember to push the reset to get into the CPLAYBOOT drive. Otherwise it will just copy the uf2 file to CIRCUITPY drive using some of the available memory on the CIRCUITPY drive. If you make that mistake then just delete the uf2 file from the CIRCUITPY drive to free up your memory space.

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V2man
 
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Re: Circuit Playground Express not Showing up in Mu nor in F

Post by V2man »

I created a master directory from the contents of unzipping adafruit-circuitpython-bundle-3.x-mpy-20190111.zip
I then copied the contents of my master directory to the CIRCUITPY drive. But if you are short on memory you copy over only the *.mpy files and directories you are need.

Side Note: Since then I have removed the examples directory from the CIRCUITPY drive to free up more space because I am running into MemoryError: memory allocation failed, allocating 64 bytes with an IR project I was working on. Removing the examples directory did not solve the MemoryError.

This is what is on my CIRCUITPY directory on the I: drive
I:\>dir
Volume in drive I is CIRCUITPY
Volume Serial Number is 4921-8571

Directory of I:\

09/01/2016 04:43 PM <DIR> .fseventsd
09/01/2016 04:43 PM 0 .metadata_never_index
09/01/2016 04:43 PM 0 .Trashes
09/01/2016 04:43 PM 118 boot_out.txt
12/19/2018 07:47 PM 1,277 BubbleBlower.py
12/07/2018 05:14 PM 3,083 NeopixelOnBd.py
01/06/2019 12:49 PM 2,083 SayHiToBlinka.py
01/04/2019 11:37 PM 859 JBells.py
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 10,090 VERSIONS.txt
01/03/2019 09:28 PM <DIR> lib
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 117 README.txt
01/08/2019 10:10 PM 1,476 BOOTEX.LOG
01/15/2019 12:45 PM 3,540 code.py
11 File(s) 22,643 bytes
2 Dir(s) 1,268,736 bytes free

This is what is in the lib directory
I:\lib>dir
Volume in drive I is CIRCUITPY
Volume Serial Number is 4921-8571

Directory of I:\lib

01/03/2019 09:40 PM <DIR> .
01/03/2019 09:40 PM <DIR> ..
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 2,448 adafruit_74hc595.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 5,774 adafruit_adxl34x.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 1,823 adafruit_am2320.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 2,205 adafruit_amg88xx.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 7,225 adafruit_as726x.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 5,998 adafruit_avrprog.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 4,381 adafruit_bluefruitspi.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 5,420 adafruit_bme280.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 8,253 adafruit_bme680.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 4,326 adafruit_bmp280.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 5,341 adafruit_bmp3xx.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 4,288 adafruit_bno055.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 3,439 adafruit_ccs811.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 6,229 adafruit_crickit.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 3,370 adafruit_dht.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 4,578 adafruit_dotstar.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 5,657 adafruit_drv2605.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 1,070 adafruit_ds1307.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 2,292 adafruit_ds18x20.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 2,907 adafruit_ds2413.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 1,611 adafruit_ds3231.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 13,217 adafruit_espatcontrol.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 3,553 adafruit_fingerprint.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 2,218 adafruit_focaltouch.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 5,773 adafruit_fram.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 6,396 adafruit_framebuf.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 2,584 adafruit_fxas21002c.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 3,174 adafruit_fxos8700.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 4,063 adafruit_gps.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 2,062 adafruit_hcsr04.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 1,842 adafruit_htu21d.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 2,353 adafruit_ina219.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 3,513 adafruit_irremote.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 4,942 adafruit_is31fl3731.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 3,639 adafruit_l3gd20.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 2,977 adafruit_lidarlite.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 6,324 adafruit_lis3dh.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 4,096 adafruit_lsm303.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 8,316 adafruit_lsm9ds0.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 8,454 adafruit_lsm9ds1.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 1,251 adafruit_matrixkeypad.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 1,290 adafruit_max31855.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 3,499 adafruit_max31856.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 3,154 adafruit_max31865.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 1,172 adafruit_max9744.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 7,277 adafruit_mcp230xx.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 1,926 adafruit_mcp4725.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 1,269 adafruit_mcp9808.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 9,024 adafruit_miniesptool.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 11,187 adafruit_miniqr.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 4,149 adafruit_mlx90393.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 1,188 adafruit_mlx90614.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 3,244 adafruit_mma8451.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 2,533 adafruit_motorkit.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 1,511 adafruit_mpl115a2.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 3,289 adafruit_mpl3115a2.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 4,854 adafruit_mpr121.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 1,704 adafruit_mprls.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 3,245 adafruit_pca9685.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 2,511 adafruit_pcd8544.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 1,724 adafruit_pcf8523.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 2,022 adafruit_pixie.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 10,473 adafruit_rfm69.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 6,861 adafruit_rfm9x.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 2,829 adafruit_rtttl.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 5,364 adafruit_sdcard.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 2,649 adafruit_servokit.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 2,523 adafruit_sgp30.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 1,572 adafruit_sharpmemorydisplay.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 2,426 adafruit_sht31d.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 7,954 adafruit_si4713.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 5,910 adafruit_si5351.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 2,078 adafruit_si7021.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 4,530 adafruit_slideshow.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 4,424 adafruit_ssd1306.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 4,253 adafruit_stmpe610.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 1,819 adafruit_tca9548a.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 6,214 adafruit_tcs34725.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 2,247 adafruit_tfmini.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 970 adafruit_thermistor.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 3,175 adafruit_tlc5947.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 4,215 adafruit_tlc59711.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 2,782 adafruit_tmp006.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 2,933 adafruit_tmp007.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 4,669 adafruit_trellis.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 3,209 adafruit_trellism4.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 3,699 adafruit_tsl2561.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 3,681 adafruit_tsl2591.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 828 adafruit_us100.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 3,520 adafruit_vc0706.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 2,914 adafruit_vcnl4010.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 3,689 adafruit_veml6070.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 2,863 adafruit_veml6075.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 7,440 adafruit_vl53l0x.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 3,471 adafruit_vl6180x.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 3,691 adafruit_vs1053.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 3,619 adafruit_ws2801.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 3,809 neopixel.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 2,548 simpleio.mpy
01/03/2019 09:28 PM <DIR> adafruit_ads1x15
01/03/2019 09:28 PM <DIR> adafruit_apds9960
01/03/2019 09:28 PM <DIR> adafruit_bus_device
01/03/2019 09:28 PM <DIR> adafruit_cap1188
01/03/2019 09:28 PM <DIR> adafruit_character_lcd
01/03/2019 09:28 PM <DIR> adafruit_circuitplayground
01/03/2019 09:28 PM <DIR> adafruit_epd
01/03/2019 09:28 PM <DIR> adafruit_fancyled
01/03/2019 09:28 PM <DIR> adafruit_featherwing
01/03/2019 09:28 PM <DIR> adafruit_hid
01/03/2019 09:28 PM <DIR> adafruit_ht16k33
01/03/2019 09:28 PM <DIR> adafruit_imageload
01/03/2019 09:28 PM <DIR> adafruit_max7219
01/03/2019 09:28 PM <DIR> adafruit_mcp3xxx
01/03/2019 09:28 PM <DIR> adafruit_motor
01/03/2019 09:28 PM <DIR> adafruit_neotrellis
01/03/2019 09:28 PM <DIR> adafruit_onewire
01/03/2019 09:28 PM <DIR> adafruit_pn532
01/03/2019 09:28 PM <DIR> adafruit_register
01/03/2019 09:28 PM <DIR> adafruit_rgb_display
01/03/2019 09:28 PM <DIR> adafruit_seesaw
01/03/2019 09:28 PM <DIR> adafruit_thermal_printer
01/03/2019 09:28 PM <DIR> adafruit_tinylora
01/03/2019 09:28 PM <DIR> adafruit_waveform
01/03/2019 09:28 PM <DIR> led_animation
01/03/2019 09:28 PM <DIR> tests
01/03/2019 09:28 PM <DIR> utils
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 1,988 adafruit_adt7410.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM 2,128 adafruit_debouncer.mpy
01/14/2019 06:38 PM <DIR> adafruit_boardtest
101 File(s) 397,121 bytes
30 Dir(s) 1,268,736 bytes free

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adafruit_support_carter
 
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Joined: Tue Nov 29, 2016 2:45 pm

Re: Circuit Playground Express not Showing up in Mu nor in F

Post by adafruit_support_carter »

What has been said above is generally correct. You need to install CircuitPython onto the Circuit Playground Express's. They do not ship with CircuitPython installed. (has to do with supporting code.org)

The first UF2 mentioned with "crickit" in the name is probably not what you want. Be sure to read the later posts that mention that. You want the one named "adafruit-circuitpython-circuitplayground_express-3.1.2.uf2" which you can download from here:
https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpyth ... ses/latest

This guide will help you get set up to run CircuitPython:
https://learn.adafruit.com/welcome-to-c ... n/overview
This guide will help you get a quick intro to using CircuitPython
https://learn.adafruit.com/circuitpytho ... essentials
And this guide is specific to the Circuit Playground Express:
https://learn.adafruit.com/circuitpytho ... ss-library

Also make sure to change the Mu editor to Adafruit mode.

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jkcrbn
 
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Re: Circuit Playground Express not Showing up in Mu nor in F

Post by jkcrbn »

Hurray!

Thanks to everyone of you I got it working!

I guess my problem was that I jumped ahead, and went straight to:

https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-cir ... iting-code

My problem I think, was that I read the instructions well before I had the actual circuit playgrounds in hand!

Thanks again!

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