Adafruit
Assembled Adafruit Feather M0 WiFi with Stacking Headers
Feather is the new development board from Adafruit, and like its namesake it is thin, light, and lets you fly! We designed Feather to be a new standard...
Feather is the new development board from Adafruit, and like its namesake it is thin, light, and lets you fly! We designed Feather to be a new standard for portable microcontroller cores. This is the Adafruit Feather M0 WiFi w/ATWINC1500 - our take on an 'all-in-one' Arduino-compatible + high speed, reliable WiFi with built in USB and battery charging. Its an Adafruit Feather M0 with a WiFi module, ready to rock! We have other boards in the Feather family, check'em out here.
Connect your Feather to the Internet with this fine new FCC-certified WiFi module from Atmel. This 802.11bgn-capable WiFi module is the best new thing for networking your devices, with built-in low-power management capabilites, Soft-AP, SSL support and rock solid performance. We were running our adafruit.io MQTT demo for a full weekend straight with no hiccups (it would have run longer but we had to go to work, so we unplugged it). This module is very fast & easy to use in comparison to other WiFi modules we've used in the past.
This module works with 802.11b, g, or n networks & supports WEP, WPA and WPA2 encryption. You can connect to your own WiFi networks or create your own with "Soft AP" mode, where it becomes its own access point (we have an example of it creating a webserver that you can then control the Arduino's pins). You can clock it as fast as 12MHz for speedy, reliable packet streaming. And scanning/connecting to networks is very fast, just a second or two.
You might be wondering why use this when you can get a HUZZAH Feather? Well, you get:
- A highly-capable Cortex M0+ processor with ton more I/O pins, lots of 12-bit ADCs, a 10-bit DAC, 6 total SERCOMs that can each do SPI, I2C or UART (3 are used by the existing interfaces, leaving you 3), plenty of timers, PWMs, DMA, native USB, and more (check out the Datasheet)
- The ATWINC has much lower power usage, about 12mA for the WINC & 10mA for the ATSAMD21 with auto-powermanagement on for the WiFi and no power management for the ARM. With manual power management, you can get the WiFi module to down to ~2mA by putting it to sleep.
- This is compared to the ESP's ~70mA average current draw, and whose deep sleep mode requires a WDT reset.
- We also found that we could stream more reliably (less 'bursty') with the ATWINC, although altogether the ESP has higher throughput.
- You also dont have to 'yield' all the time to the WiFi core, since its a separate chip. You get full reign of the processor and timing
Of course, both WiFi-capable Feathers have their strengths and tradeoffs, & we love both equally!
At the Feather M0's heart is an ATSAMD21G18 ARM Cortex M0 processor, clocked at 48 MHz and at 3.3V logic, the same one used in the Arduino Zero. This chip has a whopping 256K of FLASH (8x more than the Atmega328 or 32u4) and 32K of RAM (16x as much)! This chip comes with built in USB so it has USB-to-Serial program & debug capability built in with no need for an FTDI-like chip. For advanced users who are comfortable with ASF, the SWDIO/SWCLK pins are available on the bottom, and when connected to a CMSIS-DAP debugger can be used to use Atmel Studio for debugging.
To make it easy to use for portable projects, we added a connector for any of our 3.7V Lithium polymer batteries and built in battery charging. You don't need to use a battery, it will run just fine straight from the micro USB connector. 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 it's 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.
Here are some handy specs! Like all Feather M0's you get:
- Measures 2.1" x 0.9" x 0.3" (53.65mm x 23mm x 8mm) without headers soldered in. Note it is 0.1" longer than most Feathers
- Light as a (large?) feather - 6.1 grams
- ATSAMD21G18 @ 48MHz with 3.3V logic/power
- 256KB FLASH, 32KB SRAM, No EEPROM
- 3.3V regulator (AP2112K-3.3) with 600mA peak current output, WiFi can draw 300mA peak during xmit
- USB native support, comes with USB bootloader and serial port debugging
- You also get tons of pins - 20 GPIO pins
- Hardware Serial, hardware I2C, hardware SPI support
- 8 x PWM pins
- 10 x analog inputs
- 1 x analog output
- Built in 200mA lipoly charger with charging status indicator LED
- Pin #13 red LED for general purpose blinking
- Power/enable pin
- 4 mounting holes
- Reset button
Comes fully assembled and tested, with a USB bootloader that lets you quickly use it with the Arduino IDE. Lipoly battery and MicroUSB cable not included (but we do have lots of options in the shop if you'd like!)
Jargon buster
Plain-language definitions for the technical terms used above.
- 3.3V regulator
- A 3.3V regulator is a power circuit that provides a steady 3.3 volts for parts that need that supply voltage. On a breakout board, it can let the sensor run safely even when the connected microcontroller or power source uses a higher voltage.
- AP2112K
- AP2112K is a small voltage regulator chip that provides a stable 3.3V supply for electronics on the board. The regulator rating matters when checking input voltage range and how much current the board can supply or use.
- Bootloader
- Small starter software on a microcontroller that lets new code be uploaded before the main program runs. Knowing how to enter bootloader mode matters when you need to program the board or recover it after a faulty sketch.
- DAC
- A digital-to-analogue converter turns numbers from the microcontroller into a real analogue voltage. It matters if you want to generate simple waveforms, audio-style signals, or variable control voltages rather than just on/off outputs.
- deep sleep
- Deep sleep is a low-power mode where the microcontroller turns off most functions while keeping just enough circuitry active to wake up later. It is important for battery-powered projects because it can greatly extend how long the device runs between charges.
- EEPROM
- A type of non-volatile memory that keeps stored data even when power is turned off. In a sensor module, it can be used to store settings or calibration data so they do not need to be re-entered every time.
- GPIO
- General-purpose input/output pins are microcontroller pins you can set in software to read signals, switch devices on and off, or connect to peripherals. The number of GPIO pins matters because it limits how many buttons, LEDs, sensors, and other parts you can wire directly to the board.
- Headers
- Rows of metal pins used to plug a module into a breadboard or connect it with jumper wires. Pre-soldered headers make the module easier to use straight away without needing to solder the pins yourself.
- I2C
- I2C is a two-wire communication bus used by many sensors and small modules. It matters because several I2C devices can share the same two wires, but each device needs a compatible address and your controller must support I2C.
- IDE
- Short for Integrated Development Environment, a program used to write, run and manage code. It matters because some learners prefer a traditional coding workspace instead of a guided notebook-style lesson.
- LED
- A light-emitting diode is a small electronic component that lights up when current flows through it in the correct direction. In this kit, LEDs create the flashing effect, so polarity and correct soldering matter for the project to work.
- microcontroller
- A microcontroller is a small computer on a chip that runs your program and controls connected inputs and outputs. For this product, it is the part that reads buttons and sensors, drives the display and speaker, and communicates over Bluetooth.
- MQTT
- A lightweight messaging protocol often used for IoT devices to publish and receive data through a server called a broker. It matters for home automation and sensor networks because it is simple, efficient, and widely supported.
- native USB
- Native USB means the microcontroller itself handles USB communication, rather than using a separate USB-to-serial chip. This matters for programming, debugging, and projects that need the board to act directly as a USB device.
- PWM
- Pulse Width Modulation is a way for a digital pin to simulate variable output power by switching on and off very quickly. It matters for controlling things like LED brightness, motor speed, or servo-style signals from a microcontroller pin.
- RAM
- RAM is temporary memory used while a device is running, and its contents are lost when power is removed. A “Run in RAM” mode is useful for testing settings without permanently programming the module, but it may not support every feature.
- SPI
- A fast serial communication bus often used for displays, memory cards, and sensors. It matters because SPI devices need specific pins for clock and data, plus a separate chip-select line for each device.
- SRAM
- Fast temporary memory used by a processor while a program is running. More SRAM helps with projects that handle larger data buffers, networking, displays, or more complex code.
- UART
- UART is a simple serial connection that sends data over separate transmit and receive wires, often labelled TX and RX. It matters because this module is designed to replace a wired UART cable with a wireless link while keeping the same serial data format.
Find this product in
Brands
Connectivity
Microcontrollers
Related Tutorials
Free guides on learn.littlebird.com.au
