The Pyboard Lite is a compact and powerful electronics development board that runs MicroPython. It connects to your PC over USB, giving you a USB flash drive to save your Python scripts and a serial Python prompt (a REPL) for instant programming. Requires a micro USB cable (not included). Works with Windows, Mac, and Linux.
MicroPython is a complete rewrite of the Python (version 3.4) programming language so that it fits and runs on a microcontroller. It includes many optimizations so that it runs efficiently and uses very little RAM.
MicroPython runs bare-metal on the pyboard and essentially gives you a Python operating system. The built-in pyb module contains functions and classes to control the peripherals available on the board, such as UART, I2C, SPI, ADC, and DAC. Peep this video for an overview of the pyboard.
Board Control
There are 3 main ways to control the pyboard:
REPL: Connecting to your PC via USB, the board appears as a USB virtual comms port (CDC VCP) and you can use any serial program to connect and get a Python REPL prompt. This allows you to instantly type and execute Python commands, just like you would when running Python on your PC. You can also redirect the REPL to any of the UARTs on the pyboard.
Remote script: You can change from REPL to raw REPL mode by sending ctrl-A, and then in raw REPL mode you can send an arbitrary Python script to the board for it to execute immediately. A Python script is available which makes using this mode very simple: you just run python pyboard.py script_to_run.py and this will execute script_to_run.py on the pyboard, returning any output.
From file: The pyboard has a small, built-in filesystem, which lives in part of the flash memory of the microcontroller. It also has an SD card slot if you want to extend the available storage. When you connect the pyboard to your PC, it appears as a USB flash storage device and you can access (mount) the internal filesystem and the SD card this way. If you copy a Python script to the filesystem and call it main.py then the board will execute this script when it starts up. This way you can run scripts without being connected to a PC.
Hardware features
STM32F411RE microcontroller
96 MHz Cortex M4 CPU with hardware floating point
512KiB flash ROM and 128KiB RAM
Micro USB connector for power and serial communication
Micro SD card slot, supporting standard and high capacity SD cards
24 GPIO on left and right edges and 5 GPIO on the bottom row, plus LED and switch GPIO available on the bottom row
1x 12-bit analog to digital converter, available on 16 pins, 4 with analog ground shielding
4 LEDs (red, green, yellow, and blue)
1 reset and 1 user switch
On-board 3.3V LDO voltage regulator, capable of supplying up to 250mA, input voltage range 3.6V to 16V
DFU bootloader in ROM for easy upgrading of firmware
The two mounting tabs on the pyboard have perforations so that you can snap them off cleanly if needed.
Specifications
There is an active MicroPython community, and you can join in at: