a silly question concerning the Gemma M0 and Flora Bluefruit

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arkane
 
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a silly question concerning the Gemma M0 and Flora Bluefruit

Post by arkane »

Hello all,

Apologies if this isn't the right place for this question. I'm a novice maker (emphasis on novice) looking to break into the microcomputing world for the first time in a long time. I have worked with Arduinos and specifically adafruit's neopixel strips and boards before, but it's been about 8 years since then. I had another idea recently that requires the use of the Gemma M0's small footprint (the Flora is too big for the purpose) but I'd also like to use the Flora Bluefruit board in conjunction with it.

Following a search for whether that was possible, I saw that this person here had been able to use the Bluefruit and the Gemma M0 together successfully, after some troubleshooting viewtopic.php?f=8&p=680364

My question is, is it possible to use a Neopixel ring light https://www.adafruit.com/product/1643#technical-details together with the Gemma M0 and the Flora Bluefruit? From the wiring diagrams, it looks like the Gemma has just enough digital terminals to make it work, as long as both modules can use the power and ground together as well. I'm trying to leverage the bluetooth board to send commands from a phone to the Gemma to change the colors + patterns that are displaying on the neopixel ring. I'm planning on using one of the micro lipos as well to power the unit.

Does this sound like it's feasible? To my layman eyes it seems possible, but I wanted to check with the pros before I pulled the trigger and pulled my hair out trying to figure it out lol.

Thanks for all your help!

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michaelmeissner
 
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Re: a silly question concerning the Gemma M0 and Flora Bluef

Post by michaelmeissner »

If you haven't seen then before, you might check out the QT PY boards.

The QT PY boards are 22.0mm x 17.9mm x 5.9mm (0.9" x 0.7" x 0.2") compared to the Gemma M0 which is 27.95mm round x 6.4mm high (1.1" round x 0.25" high). The QT PY boards have 11 data pins compared to 3 pins on the Gemma M0. While the QT PY does not have a JST connector for a lipo battery, you can solder on the QT PY BFF, which includes both a battery port and if you have plugged in the USB C connector, it will charge the battery (Gemma M0 can't do a recharge). It also has a QWIIC port for accessing I2C devices without having to hook up devices through the 11 data pins (though some QT PY's I2C pins are the same in the QWIIC header, while others have 2 separate I2C buses).

Since the Gemma M0 only has 3 data pins, this means after using the 2 pins for the bluefruit connection, and 1 pin for neopixels, you have no room for further expansion.

Now the holes on the QT PY are regular through hole pins, compared to the larger holes on the Gemma M0 that you can connect with alligator clips, or sewing in conductive wire. So you would need to do some basic through hole soldering.

There are several different QT PY's based on different underlying microprocessors. Some of these microprocessors support wifi and/or bluetooth directly, so you wouldn't need the bluefruit board. Since the bluetooth port is built-in, you don't have to do anything to connect it. Note at this point, I have not done anything with bluetooth, so I can't say how well it works:
  • QT PY ES32 Pico: https://www.adafruit.com/product/5395 which has wifi, bluetooth classic, and bluetooth BLE support. It does not support acting as a USB device like a keyboard or mouse. It has 8MB of flash and 2MB of PSRAM.
  • QT PY ESP32-S3: https://www.adafruit.com/product/5426 which has wifi, bluetooth BLE support, and it can act as a USB device. It does not have bluetooth classic support. It has 8MB of flash, but no PSRAM support.
  • QT PY ESP32-C3: https://www.adafruit.com/product/5405 which has wifi, bluetooth BLE support, and it can act as a USB device. It does not have bluetooth classic support. It has 8MB of flash, but no PSRAM support.
  • QT PY Li-po BFF: https://www.adafruit.com/product/5397 this is the interface to the li-po battery JST terminal and charger.
If you don't need the device to act as a USB device, then the QT PY ESP32 Pico would seem to be to be the QT PY to get. There are other QT PY's (one based on a similar chip in the Gemma M0, one based on the RP2040, and one based on the ESP32-S2 which supports wifi, but not bluetooth).

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arkane
 
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Re: a silly question concerning the Gemma M0 and Flora Bluef

Post by arkane »

michaelmeissner wrote:If you haven't seen then before, you might check out the QT PY boards.

The QT PY boards are 22.0mm x 17.9mm x 5.9mm (0.9" x 0.7" x 0.2") compared to the Gemma M0 which is 27.95mm round x 6.4mm high (1.1" round x 0.25" high). The QT PY boards have 11 data pins compared to 3 pins on the Gemma M0. While the QT PY does not have a JST connector for a lipo battery, you can solder on the QT PY BFF, which includes both a battery port and if you have plugged in the USB C connector, it will charge the battery (Gemma M0 can't do a recharge). It also has a QWIIC port for accessing I2C devices without having to hook up devices through the 11 data pins (though some QT PY's I2C pins are the same in the QWIIC header, while others have 2 separate I2C buses).

Since the Gemma M0 only has 3 data pins, this means after using the 2 pins for the bluefruit connection, and 1 pin for neopixels, you have no room for further expansion.

Now the holes on the QT PY are regular through hole pins, compared to the larger holes on the Gemma M0 that you can connect with alligator clips, or sewing in conductive wire. So you would need to do some basic through hole soldering.

There are several different QT PY's based on different underlying microprocessors. Some of these microprocessors support wifi and/or bluetooth directly, so you wouldn't need the bluefruit board. Since the bluetooth port is built-in, you don't have to do anything to connect it. Note at this point, I have not done anything with bluetooth, so I can't say how well it works:
  • QT PY ES32 Pico: https://www.adafruit.com/product/5395 which has wifi, bluetooth classic, and bluetooth BLE support. It does not support acting as a USB device like a keyboard or mouse. It has 8MB of flash and 2MB of PSRAM.
  • QT PY ESP32-S3: https://www.adafruit.com/product/5426 which has wifi, bluetooth BLE support, and it can act as a USB device. It does not have bluetooth classic support. It has 8MB of flash, but no PSRAM support.
  • QT PY ESP32-C3: https://www.adafruit.com/product/5405 which has wifi, bluetooth BLE support, and it can act as a USB device. It does not have bluetooth classic support. It has 8MB of flash, but no PSRAM support.
  • QT PY Li-po BFF: https://www.adafruit.com/product/5397 this is the interface to the li-po battery JST terminal and charger.
If you don't need the device to act as a USB device, then the QT PY ESP32 Pico would seem to be to be the QT PY to get. There are other QT PY's (one based on a similar chip in the Gemma M0, one based on the RP2040, and one based on the ESP32-S2 which supports wifi, but not bluetooth).
WOW, Mike. You're out here changing my life. Thanks so much for all this info. This sounds like the way to go for my project. I figured there might be a better solution out there, but my lack of knowledge in the space definitely wasn't helping lol. Going to go this route, for sure. Thanks again!

Looks like they still run arduino, which is great as well. Thanks Mike!

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michaelmeissner
 
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Re: a silly question concerning the Gemma M0 and Flora Bluef

Post by michaelmeissner »

Yep, I had used the Gemma M0 for smaller projects, and then I noticed the QT PY's. Be sure to check if Arduino support is present if it is a newer board. I think the ESP32-S3 initially shipped before the Arduino support was complete, but in general it is added shortly.

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