Circuit Playground Express + Crickit
by Adafruit
Crickit is a Creative Robotics & Interactive Construction Kit. It’s an add-on for the popular Circuit Playground Express that lets you #MakeRobotFriend using CircuitPython (and more).
Bolt on a Circuit Playground using the included stand-off bolts and start controlling motors, servos, solenoids. With CRICKIT you also get signal pins, capacitive touch sensors, a NeoPixel driver and amplified speaker output. It complements & extends the Circuit Playground so you can still use all the goodies on the CPX, but now you have a robotics playground as well.
The Crickit is powered by seesaw, a I2C-to-whatever bridge firmware. So you only need to use two data pins to control the huge number of inputs and outputs on the Crickit. All those timers, PWMs, sensors are offloaded to the co-processor.
Technical details
- 4x Analog or Digital Servo control, with precision 16-bit timers
- 2x Bi-directional brushed DC motor control, 1 A current limited each, with 8-bit PWM speed control (or one stepper)
- 4x High current “Darlington” 500mA drive outputs with kick-back diode protection. For solenoids, relays, large LEDs, or one uni-polar stepper
- 4x Capacitive touch sensors with alligator-pads
- 8x Signal pins, digital in/out or analog inputs
- 1x NeoPixel driver with 5 V level shifter
- 1x Class D, 4-8 ohm speaker, 3 W-max audio amplifier
All are powered via 5 V DC, so you can use any 5V-powered servos, DC motors, steppers, solenoids, relays etc. To keep things simple and safe, CRIKIT does not support mixing voltages, use only 5 V - not for use with 9 V or 12 V robotic components.
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CircuitPython 9.0.4
This is the latest stable release of CircuitPython that will work with the Circuit Playground Express + Crickit.
Use this release if you are new to CircuitPython.
Built-in modules available: adafruit_bus_device, adafruit_pixelbuf, analogio, array, audiobusio, audiocore, audioio, board, builtins, busio, busio.SPI, busio.UART, codeop, collections, digitalio, errno, locale, math, microcontroller, neopixel_write, nvm, onewireio, os, pulseio, pwmio, rainbowio, random, rotaryio, rtc, storage, struct, supervisor, sys, time, touchio, usb_cdc, usb_hid, usb_midi, warnings
Included frozen(?) modules: adafruit_circuitplayground, adafruit_crickit, adafruit_lis3dh, adafruit_motor, adafruit_seesaw, adafruit_thermistor, neopixel
CircuitPython 9.1.0-beta.1
This is the latest development release of CircuitPython that will work with the Circuit Playground Express + Crickit.
Alpha development releases are early releases. They are unfinished, are likely to have bugs, and the features they provide may change. Beta releases may have some bugs and unfinished features, but should be suitable for many uses. A Release Candidate (rc) release is considered done and will become the next stable release, assuming no further issues are found.
Please try alpha, beta, and rc releases if you are able. Your testing is invaluable: it helps us uncover and find issues quickly.
Release Notes for 9.1.0-beta.1
Built-in modules available: adafruit_bus_device, adafruit_pixelbuf, analogio, array, audiobusio, audiocore, audioio, board, builtins, busio, busio.SPI, busio.UART, codeop, collections, digitalio, errno, locale, math, microcontroller, neopixel_write, nvm, onewireio, os, pulseio, pwmio, rainbowio, random, rotaryio, rtc, storage, struct, supervisor, sys, time, touchio, usb_cdc, usb_hid, usb_midi, warnings
Included frozen(?) modules: adafruit_circuitplayground, adafruit_crickit, adafruit_lis3dh, adafruit_motor, adafruit_seesaw, adafruit_thermistor, neopixel
Absolute Newest
Every time we commit new code to CircuitPython we automatically build binaries for each board and language. The binaries are stored on Amazon S3, organized by board, and then by language. These releases are even newer than the development release listed above. Try them if you want the absolute latest and are feeling daring or want to see if a problem has been fixed.
Previous Versions of CircuitPython
All previous releases of CircuitPython are available for download from Amazon S3 through the button below. For very old releases, look in the OLD/ folder for each board. Release notes for each release are available at GitHub button below.
Older releases are useful for testing if you something appears to be broken in a newer release but used to work, or if you have older code that depends on features only available in an older release. Otherwise we recommend using the latest stable release.
Update UF2 Bootloader
Latest version: v3.15.0
The bootloader allows you to load CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino programs. The bootloader is not CircuitPython. You can check the current version of your bootloader by looking in the INFO_UF2.TXT file when the BOOT drive is visible (FEATHERBOOT, CPLAYBOOT, etc.).
It is not necessary to update your bootloader if it is working fine. Read the release notes on GitHub to see what has been changed. In general, we recommend you not update the bootloader unless you know there is a problem with it or a support person has asked you to try updating it.
To update, first save the contents of CIRCUITPY, just in case. Then double-click the reset button to show the BOOT drive. Drag the update-bootloader .uf2 file to the BOOT drive. Wait a few tens of seconds for the bootloader to update; the BOOT drive will reappear. After you update, check INFO_UF2.TXT to verify that the bootloader version has been updated. Then you will need to reload CircuitPython.