Circuit Playground Express

The Circuit Playground Express is Adafruit’s flagship educational board designed for CircuitPython. It brings the “batteries included” approach of Python to hardware by including an assortment of functionality built-in. It is one of the best beginner boards available. If you are new to hardware, then this is a great board to start with.

Here’s some of the great goodies baked in to each Circuit Playground Express:

• 10 x mini NeoPixels, each one can display any color
• 1 x Motion sensor (LIS3DH triple-axis accelerometer with tap detection, free-fall detection)
• 1 x Temperature sensor (thermistor)
• 1 x Light sensor (phototransistor). Can also act as a color sensor and pulse sensor.
• 1 x Sound sensor (MEMS microphone)
• 1 x Mini speaker with class D amplifier (7.5mm magnetic speaker/buzzer)
• 2 x Push buttons, labeled A and B
• 1 x Slide switch
• Infrared receiver and transmitter - can receive and transmit any remote control codes, as well as send messages between Circuit Playground Expresses. Can also act as a proximity sensor.
• 8 x alligator-clip friendly input/output pins
• Includes I2C, UART, 8 pins that can do analog inputs, multiple PWM output
• 7 pads can act as capacitive touch inputs and the 1 remaining is a true analog output
• Green “ON” LED so you know its powered
• Red board.D13 LED for basic blinking
• Reset button
• ATSAMD21 ARM Cortex M0 Processor, running at 3.3V and 48MHz
• 2 MB of SPI Flash storage, used to store code and libraries.
• MicroUSB port for programming and debugging
• USB port can act like serial port, keyboard, mouse, joystick or MIDI!

Tutorials

• Circuit Playground Express Overview

Purchase

• Adafruit
• Digi-Key
• Pimoroni