New Product Ideas: Add-ons for Seeeduino XIAO

[elaine.wu]

Seeeduino XIAO was just released yesterday and we are glad that many of you guys love it! We made XIAO be this small for it to be used in your tiny IoT and wearable projects. However, at such a small size, its capabilities are limited. We feel that an expansion board for XIAO will be a good idea to solve that problem. What would you like to see in this expansion board? We would love to hear from you guys!



We are going to bring new add-ons to extend functionalities based on the community needs, so we are looking forward to any suggestions you guys have!



For example, for battery applications, the lithium battery charging circuit is an essential function. However, The lithium battery requires a lot of peripheral components, which makes it difficult for XIAO to accommodate. The VIN/GND of XIAO is connected to the internal linear regulator chip, Therefore, the external output voltage (such as USB 5V) can be converted into SAMD21 working voltage 3.3V. If you want to use a battery to power XIAO, you can use Lipo Rider whereby connecting a battery to LipoRider, and then the output of Lipo Rider to XIAO’s VIN, you can power the XIAO easily.



What do you think of this? If we can solve it with LipoRider customized for XIAO, will it be even cooler?



Any other ideas and suggestions for your next projects? Do let us know!

[fasanzaf]

Hi,

Really interesting new (mini)board. Given the small size of XIAO, if we want to imagine an add-on like the one in the photo, that is, by preserving the size, little will fit …



But for IoT use, I quickly come up with easily integrated communication elements in add-on format such as Wi-Fi or Lora whose chips could fit those dimensions:

• Wifi add-on based on ESP8266, ESP8285 or even ESP32
  
• Lora add-on with RFM95 module based on SX1276 LoRa (868 and 433MHz)
  
• Also Bluetooth, RF, NFC …
  
  
  
  On the other hand, of course a LipoRider customized for it would be great as energy suporting is another key value, although cannot imagine how-to in this size
  
  
  
  Looking forward to availability!
  
  
  
  kind regards,
  
  Fernando

[barajas_palomino.edu]

Can you share the Windows driver for this module?



I got 3 kits today and Windows does not recognize the serial port!!

[salman]

Hi, barajas palomino.eduardo.



First, you need to install the board manager in Arduino, after that the computer will recognize the device.



To add Seeeduino to your Arduino IDE



Click on File > Preference, and fill Additional Boards Manager URLs with below url:
</s>https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Seeed-Studio/Seeed_Platform/master/package_seeeduino_boards_index.json<e>

Click [b]Tools[/b]->[b] Board[/b]->[b] Boards Manager[/b]..., print keyword "Seeeduino XIAO" in the searching blank. Here comes the "Seeed SAMD Boards". Install it.

[img=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SeeedDocument/Seeeduino-XIAO/master/img/Seeeduino-XIAO-board.png][/img]

[b] Select your board and port[/b]
After installing the board, click [b]Tools-> Board[/b], find "[b]Seeeduino XIAO M0[/b]" and select it. Now you have already set up the board of Seeeduino XIAO for Arduino IDE.

[img=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SeeedDocument/Seeeduino-XIAO/master/img/board.png][/img]


Source :[url=http://wiki.seeedstudio.com/Seeeduino-XIAO/] http://wiki.seeedstudio.com/Seeeduino-XIAO/[/url]

[pje496]

Suggestion for add-ons for XIAO:

1. SPI/I2C Flash/FRAM to allow more storage for CircuitPython. (SPI probably needed for code storage)
   
2. I2C Oled Display + buttons (buttons performed by I2C expander to not use additional pins).
   
3. I2C Gyroscope/accelerometer - MPU6050 or similar.
   
4. I2C I/O Expander for applications which require additional signals (MCP23S17 or similar). It would be nice if the expander took the XIAO on the top, and gave two 2x7 connectors on both sides where the one row was the original signals, and the second would be 14 extra I/O.
   
5. RS232/RS485 interface (MAX3222 or similar for RS232).
   
6. Neopixel driver (5V buffer) to allow system to drive standard 5V LED strips.

[nicho810]

@fasanzaf post_id=57191 time=1578917682 user_id=52035

Hi,
Really interesting new (mini)board. Given the small size of XIAO, if we want to imagine an add-on like the one in the photo, that is, by preserving the size, little will fit ...

But for IoT use, I quickly come up with easily integrated communication elements in add-on format such as Wi-Fi or Lora whose chips could fit those dimensions:

- Wifi add-on based on ESP8266, ESP8285 or even ESP32
- Lora add-on with RFM95 module based on SX1276 LoRa (868 and 433MHz)
- Also Bluetooth, RF, NFC ...

On the other hand, of course a LipoRider customized for it would be great as energy suporting is another key value, although cannot imagine how-to in this size ;-)

Looking forward to availability!

kind regards,
Fernando

Agree, Battery management add-ons and wireless add-ons are really useful for IOT applications

[nicho810]

@pje496 post_id=57411 time=1580753203 user_id=3240

Suggestion for add-ons for XIAO:

1. SPI/I2C Flash/FRAM to allow more storage for CircuitPython. (SPI probably needed for code storage)
2. I2C Oled Display + buttons (buttons performed by I2C expander to not use additional pins).
3. I2C Gyroscope/accelerometer - MPU6050 or similar.
4. I2C I/O Expander for applications which require additional signals (MCP23S17 or similar). It would be nice if the expander took the XIAO on the top, and gave two 2x7 connectors on both sides where the one row was the original signals, and the second would be 14 extra I/O.
5. RS232/RS485 interface (MAX3222 or similar for RS232).
6. Neopixel driver (5V buffer) to allow system to drive standard 5V LED strips.

Niccccce idea~

and there is a way to use Grove module directly~
[attachment=0]aWayToUseGroveModuleDirectly.png[/attachment]

[Volker_B]

There are many people using Arduino Nanos to convert protocols; unfortunately SoftSerial does not work on a Xiao and 2 Serials are needed. Would be easy to do, and so many applications: Fix SoftSerial!

[Maker]

I would like a gps add-on with a simple coding library.