CircuitPython is a programming language based on Python, and it is designed to work with low-cost microcontroller boards to make learning and tinkering easier. The Microchip ATSAMD21 is an inexpensive chip with the power to run CircuitPython.

Some SAMD21-based boards, like the Circuit Playground Express, METRO M0 Express, and Feather M0 Express, are designed to work with CircuitPython out of the box. Others, like the Arduino MKRZero, require a little more work.

This guide will show you how to install CircuitPython on a variety of SAMD21-based boards!

The easiest method for installing CircuitPython is through the UF2 bootloader. UF2 is a slick piece of code that runs on your microcontroller, and it allows the board to appear as a drive on your computer. From there, you can simply drag-and-drop the CircuitPython installer! We will need to take the following steps to install CircuitPython on a SAMD21 board:

• Install Arduino and the appropriate board definition
• Download the UF2 bootloader Arduino code for your board
• Upload the UF2 bootloader code to your board from Arduino
• Download the CircuitPython installer for your board
• Copy the CircuitPython installer to your board
• Test it!

Note that you only need to perform these steps once. Once you have installed CircuitPython on your board, you write CircuitPython code for it over and over again!

There are a couple of ways to install UF2 onto your board. The easiest method is to download the pre-generated Arduino code and upload it to your board from the Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE). 

If you cannot upload Arduino code to your board (for example, you designed your own board with a factory-fresh SAMD21 chip), then you will need to install the UF2 .bin file. This will require an Atmel ICE or other JTAG programmer.

Install Arduino

If you have not already done so, head to arduino.cc, download, and install the latest Arduino IDE. Note that this guide was written and tested with Arduino version 1.8.7. If you run into issues uploading code, you might want to try this specific version.

This guide will show you how to install the Arduino software, if you need some assistance.

Add Board Manager URL

Some SAMD21 boards will require additional definition files to be installed. If your board is not found in the Board Manager, you will need to tell Arduino where to find more definition files from the Internet.

Open Arduino, and click File > Preferences. To the right of the Additional Boards Manager URLs, click on the Additional URLs window button.

Take a look at the Board Definition Packages table at the end of this page, and locate your board. If you see a Package URL listed, copy it into a new line in this window. If you do not see a Package URL listed next to your board, you can skip this step.

You are welcome to have multiple board manager URLs listed here. Just note that each one needs to be on a separate line.

Click OK to close the Additional Boards Manager URLs window, and click OK once more to close the Preferences window.

Install Board Definition

A board definition tells the Arduino IDE how to upload code to your particular board, which pins to use, etc. Arduino comes with a number of board definitions installed by default, including the Arduino Uno, Arduino Mega, and Arduino Nano. However, many SAMD21 boards are not supported by default in Arduino, which means we need to add them.

Click Tools > Board > Boards Manager... This will bring up the Boards Manager window.

From the Board Definition Packages table below, find your board, and copy the Package Name. Search for this name, and click on the Install button that appears when you hover your mouse over the package's box.

Once the installation process has completed, click Close to exit the Board Manager.

Board Definition Packages

Originally developed by Microsoft, the USB Flashing Format (UF2) is a way of programming microcontrollers. With UF2, a microcontroller will enumerate as a mass storage device over USB (i.e. a USB drive). You can then drag-and-drop code onto the drive, and UF2 will re-program the microcontroller with your code. This process makes it easier to program microcontrollers, as you no longer need a special programming device (like a JTAG programmer) or a special program (such as Arduino).

Adafruit has forked the UF2 code and added support for specific SAMD21 and SAMD51 boards, making it even easier to load UF2 onto your board!

Windows 7 Drivers

If you're using Windows 7, use the link below visit the Adafruit drivers page. You will not need to install drivers on Mac, Linux or Windows 10.

Download the UF2 Arduino Installer

Navigate to the Adafruit uf2-samdx1 GitHub repository and click on Releases. Alternatively, you can just click on this link to go directly there:

 

Newer releases of the UF2 bootloader are found at the top of the page. Find the .ino file with your board's name and with the newest version number. The file will have the following naming scheme (with [your board's name] replaced by the name of your board and vx.x.x-adafruit.x replaced by the newest release number):

update-bootloader-[your board's name]-vx.x.x-adafruit.x.ino

For example, if you wanted to download the UF2 installer for the Arduino MKRZero, you would look for a filename like update-bootloader-mkrzero-vx.x.x-adafruit.x.ino. Click on that name to download the .ino file.

Note that in the screenshot, the newest file is v2.0.0-adafruit.7. The particular version number might be different for you; just download whatever is newest!

Upload UF2 with Arduino

In Arduino, click on File > Open..., and locate your downloaded .ino file. Select it, and click Open. If you get a pop-up window stating that the file "needs to be inside a sketch folder" with the same name, click OK.

Feel free to take a look at the code. Most of it should be a series of unreadable raw bytes in hexadecimal format. This is the bootloader in bytecode! The rest of the program simply uploads this code to the correct spot in memory on your microcontroller.

Make sure your board is connected to your computer. In Arduino, go to Tools > Board, and select your board (I'll use MKRZero in this example). Go to Tools > Port, and select the serial port associated with your board (e.g. COM3 on Windows or /dev/tty.usbmodemfd1441 on macOS).

Click the Upload button.

You should see a message at the bottom of the Arduino IDE that says Done uploading if your code has been successfully compiled and flashed to your board.

Most Arduino-compatible boards have an onboard LED. If UF2 was flashed successfully, you should see this LED slowly pulsing on and off.

With or without the LED, you should see a new drive appear on your computer. Open your file explorer/finder and look at your list of available drives. The UF2 drive should be called [board name]BOOT in all capital letters. Click on it, and you should see the files CURRENT.UF2, INDEX.HTM, and INFO_UF2.TXT.

If you see this, then the UF2 bootloader was installed successfully. Hooray!

Learning More About UF2

If you would like to understand more about how UF2 works and the contents of the files on your UF2 drive, check out the UF2 Bootloader Details page on this tutorial.

Once you have UF2 installed on your board, you will need to download and install the latest version of CircuitPython for your particular board. Note that the steps are the same for installing and updating CircuitPython.

Caveats for CircuitPython on Non-Express Boards

On one hand, its pretty cool we can install CircuitPython on any SAMD21 processor. But there's a few gotchas:

• Boards that don't have SPI flash on them need to put the filesystem in flash, that means you only get about 48 KB of filesystem space
• That extra filesystem allocation means less CircuitPython firmware space
• So some things like long-ints and audio playback, are not supported on these builds!

You will have plain digital IO, I2C, SPI, UART, analog inputs, basic DAC output, capacitive touch.

Download the Latest Version of CircuitPython

Navigate to the CircuitPython GitHub repository, and click on the Releases tab. Alternatively, this link will take you there:

Up until March, 2019, CircuitPython releases were downloaded from the Adafruit CircuitPython GitHub repository. 

Starting April, 2019, Adafruit encourages developers to download CircuitPython from the CircuitPython.org website. The site is arranged by board and it makes finding code easier. The board must have a pull request in by a developer to add CircuitPython capability and have it accepted by the CircuitPython team to be listed in the CircuitPython.org repository. Both Adafruit and non-Adafruit boards are on that site.

For now, the releases will also be on GitHub under the Adafruit umbrella, but this may change as the migration continues to CircuitPython.org.

Scroll down, and look for the latest release for your particular board. Specifically, you will want the .uf2 file for your board.

Note that the most recent releases are located at the top of the page. The file will have the following naming scheme (with [your board's name] replaced by the name of your board and x.x.x replaced by the newest release number):

adafruit-circuitpython-[your board's name]-x.x.x.uf2

For example, if you wanted to download the CircuitPython installation file for the Arduino MKRZero, you look for the filename adafruit-circuitpython-arduino_mkrzero-x.x.x.uf2. Click on the name to download the .uf2 file.

Plug in your board using a USB cable.

Start the UF2 Bootloader

If you just uploaded UF2 to your board, it should run the UF2 bootloader by default.

If, at any point, you need to access the UF2 bootloader, you can tap the RESET button on your board twice in quick succession.

Almost all microcontroller boards will have a Reset button. Note that it might be labeled RESET or RST. For example, the MKR Zero has a Reset button located next to the battery connector.

With UF2, you need to tap this button twice. If it does not work on the first try, give it another shot! It might take a few tries to get the rhythm correct.

If your board has an onboard LED, it should begin to fade on and off slowly. Additionally, you should see a new drive appear on your computer with the name [your board's name]BOOT. For example, a MKR Zero will appear as MKRZEROBOOT.

If you see the -BOOT drive, it means that you are in bootloader mode. We can now install or update CircuitPython.

Locate the .uf2 file that you downloaded and copy it to the -BOOT drive.

Wait a moment, and the -BOOT drive should disappear. Your board will reset, and a CIRCUITPY drive will show up on your computer. If you see this, you know that you've installed CircuitPython correctly!

Most CircuitPython boards have an LED built into the board, which makes testing very easy! Create a blank document named code.py in the CIRCUITPY drive.

Open the file with your editor of choice (e.g. Notepad on Windows, TextEdit on macOS), and enter the following code:

import board
import digitalio
import time

pin_name = board.L

led = digitalio.DigitalInOut(pin_name)
led.direction = digitalio.Direction.OUTPUT
while True:
    led.value = True
    time.sleep(0.1)
    led.value = False
    time.sleep(0.1)

Note! You might have to change board.L to another value. Find your board in the list below to see which value you should use.

• Adafruit Feather M0 Basic Proto: board.D13
• Arduino MKR Zero: board.L
• SparkFun SAMD21 Dev Breakout: board.LED
• SparkFun SAMD21 Mini Breakout: board.LED

Save the program. Your board should reset automatically, and the onboard LED should begin blinking rapidly.

If you see the LED flashing, you know that CircuitPython is up and running on your board!

If you are ready to dive into CircuitPython, we recommend this guide to get started:

There are several other guides that are good references as you continue working and playing with CircuitPython:

• CircuitPython Essentials
• CircuitPython API Reference
• CircuitPython 101: Functions

Looking for some fun project ideas? Check out these tutorials for some inspiration:

• Infrared Hand Gesture Robot Control Glove
• Data Logging
• Hacking Ikea Lamps with Circuit Playground Express
• CircuitPython-Powered 3-minute Nightlight
• Matrix Keypad (with CircuitPython)

If you want to port CircuitPython to your own Microchip ATSAMD21 board, there are several steps you will need to take.

1. Create a UF2 Port

Before you can get CircuitPython onto your board, you will need to create a UF2 bootloader unique to your board.

Clone the Adafruit uf2-samdx1 repository. If you have already cloned the repository, you will need to update your forked copy with the following commands. First, check to see if you have the upstream repository added with:

git remote -v

If you do not see upstream locations, add the Adafruit repository:

git remote add upstream https://github.com/adafruit/uf2-samdx1.git

Update your repository with any new additions to the upstream repository:

git fetch upstream

git checkout master

git rebase upstream/master

Create a new folder in boards/ with your particular board name. Create the following files in your new folder:

• board.mk
• board_config.h

Use other board files as examples for how to fill out your files.

You will need to reference the schematic for your board to find which SAMD21 pin maps to the onboard LED (or other important peripherals for UF2). Additionally, you will need to assign a unique and legitimate USB VID and PID to your board for the UF2 bootloader drive.

Look at the README in the uf2-samdx1 repository for instructions on how to build the UF2 files for your board (including the Arduino .ino program that will automatically upload the bootloader).

2. Create a CircuitPython Port

Clone the Adafruit CircuitPython repository. If you have already cloned the repository, you will need to update your forked copy with the following commands. First, check to see if you have the upstream repository added with:

git remote -v

If you do not see upstream locations, add the Adafruit repository:

git remote add upstream https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython.git

Update your repository with any new additions to the upstream repository:

git fetch upstream

git checkout master

git rebase upstream/master

You will then need to synchronize the submodules in the repository:

git submodule sync

git submodule update --init --recursive

Create a new folder in ports/atmel-samd/boards with your board name. Create the following files in your new folder:

• board.c
• mpconfigboard.h
• mpconfigboard.mk
• pins.c

Refer to other board files in the atmel-samd/boards folder as examples for what should go in each of those files. You will need to look at the schematic for your board to see which pins map to which headers and peripherals.

Once again, you will need a unique and legitimate USB VID and PID for the CIRCUITPY drive (assigned in mpconfigboard.mk). The PID (and possibly the VID) should be different from the value used for UF2.

Add your board's name to the TRAVIS_BOARDS list in .travis.yml (found in the top level directory of the repository). This will tell Travis CI to automatically build CircuitPython with support for your board.

To build CircuitPython for your board, follow the instructions in the Building CircuitPython tutorial.

3. Test Your Board

Use the modules found in the Adafruit_CircuitPython_BoardTest repository to test the various pins and features of your board. Note that you will need some hardware (e.g. LEDs, resistors, EEPROM) for the tests. Refer to the README in the repository for more detailed instructions.

4. Create Pull Requests

Feel free to fork any of the repositories, make your changes, and submit a pull request. We recommend reading Contribute to CircuitPython with Git and GitHub to get a better understanding of how to contribute to the CircuitPython project. We would love to have your board port as part of CircuitPython!

5. Update Mu (Optional)

The Mu editor is quickly becoming a fan favorite for writing CircuitPython programs. If you would like to have your board supported in Mu, you will need to fork the Mu repository, make a few changes, and submit a pull request.

The documentation for building Mu can be found here: https://mu.readthedocs.io/en/latest/setup.html. However, I've outlined a brief overview for modifying and building Mu below.

First, fork the Mu repository to your own GitHub account. Next, clone it on your computer:

git clone https://github.com/[YOUR GITHUB USERNAME]/mu

Install the necessary dependencies (these were tested on Ubuntu 16.04):

sudo apt install libffi6 libffi-dev libssl-dev

sudo pip3 install virtualenv

Create a virtual environment:

virtualenv -p /usr/bin/python3 --system-site-packages ~/mu-venv

Activate the virtual environment:

source ~/mu-venv/bin/activate

In the Mu repository directory, install necessary packages:

cd mu

pip install -r requirements.txt

pip install --editable .

Add the USB VID/PID of your board to mu/modes/adafruit.py.

Build and run:

make run

Check that you can communicate with the new boards from Mu's serial terminal. If so, commit your work and submit a pull request!