FLORA is Adafruit's wearable electronics platform. We designed it from the ground up to provide the best experience for Adafruit's community of makers, hackers, crafters, artists, designers and engineers. It's built around the Atmega32u4 chip, which has built-in USB support. No pesky special cables or extra parts for programming, just plug it in and get started making the wearables project of your dreams! Works on Windows and Mac.

New! As of May 12th, 2015, we're now selling the Flora v2! The Flora v2 now comes with a micro-USB port instead of a mini-USB port and a programmable NeoPixel installed (it's connected to Digital 8, ready for your blinky commands)

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.

Adafruit created the FLORA from scratch after many months of research and we really think we came up with something that will empower some amazing wearable projects.

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 9v DC in (It can run on 3V but 3.5V-5V or higher is ideal). 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 or keyboard, etc.

This guide was first published on Nov 08, 2012. It was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

This page (Overview) was last updated on Nov 08, 2012.

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