Adafruit’s latest board is a Feather M0 with a microSD holder.
A few weeks ago, our friends at Adafruit revealed an all-in-one datalogger based on an ATmega32U4 clocked at 8MHz and at 3.3V logic, with 32K of Flash and 2K of RAM. Well as promised, the crew has unveiled yet another data reader, this time with an Cortex-M0+ core.
Similar to its AVR-powered sibling, the Feather M0 Adalogger is equipped with all the bells and whistles: built-in USB, battery charging and a microSD card holder. But instead of the ‘32U4, this board boasts an ATSAMD21G18 clocked at 48 MHz and at 3.3V logic. (If it sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the same MCU at the heart of the Arduino Zero!) It packs 256K of Flash (which is eight times more than the ‘328 or ‘32u4 if you were counting), 32K of RAM (16 times as much), and native USB support so it has USB-to-Serial program and debug capabilities already integrated with no need for an FTDI-like chip.
As Adafruit notes, they’ve gone ahed and added a connector for a 3.7V LiPo along with an integrated 100mA battery charger. However, the Adalogger can run just fine via microUSB.
“But, if you do have a battery, you can take it on the go, then plug in the USB to recharge. The Feather will automatically switch over to USB power when its available. We also tied the battery through a divider to an analog pin, so you can measure and monitor the battery voltage to detect when you need a recharge,” the team writes.
Measuring only 2.0″ x 0.9″ x 0.28” without headers soldered, the Feather weighs a bit over five grams. The board has plenty of pins (20 GPIO), with eight PWM and 10 analog inputs, four mounting holes, a power/enable pin and a reset button. Capitalizing on the little space that was left over, the Adalogger features a microSD slot for adding as much storage as desired and a green LED for your blinking pleasure.
The Feather M0 Adalogger comes fully assembled and tested, with a USB bootloader that lets you quickly use it with the Arduino IDE. Sound like the $21 Cortex-M0+ board for you? Head over to its official page. Meanwhile, stay tuned as Adafruit continues to reveal the newest members of the Feather family here.
Atmel | Bits & Pieces 