The FLORA is extremely beginner-friendly-- it is difficult to destroy the FLORA by connecting a battery backwards due to polarized connector and protection diodes. The onboard regulator means that even connecting a 9V battery will not result in damage or tears.
This guide is the first step in using FLORA, plugging it in and programming it to blink its onboard LED! After that you can move on to our Flora RGB Smart Pixels tutorial and/or Flora GPS tutorial.
The FLORA is small (1.75" diameter). We wanted the smallest possible board for our wearable platform. It's based on our experiences shipping our own, shipping, customer-tested Atmega32u4 Breakout Board.
FLORA has a small but easy to use onboard reset button to reboot the system. The power supply is deigned to be flexible and easy to use. There is an onboard polarized 2 JST battery connector with protection schottky diode for use with external battery packs from 3.5v to 16v DC in. Can be used with LiIon/LiPoly, LiFe, alkaline or rechargeable NiMh/NiCad batteries of any size.
The FLORA does not have a LiPo charger included by design, this allows safe use with multiple battery types and reduces risk of fire as it is not recommended to charge these batteries on fabric.
FLORA has built-in USB support. Built in USB means you plug it in to program it, it just shows up. No additional purchases are needed! Works with Mac, Windows, Linux, any USB cable works great. Currently the PCB comes with a mini B connector but future versions may change to microUSB.
The FLORA has USB HID support, so it can act like a mouse, keyboard, MIDI, etc. to attach directly to cellphones.