Serpente - A Tiny CircuitPython Prototyping Board

Name: Serpente - A Tiny CircuitPython Prototyping Board
SKU: 17985
Price: 15.00 USD
Availability: Discontinued
Rating: 4.89 (18 reviews)

(18 Reviews)

A tiny CircuitPython development board, perfect for quick projects and prototyping!

Designed by Solder Party in Sweden

Serpente - A Tiny CircuitPython Prototyping Board 1

Serpente - A Tiny CircuitPython Prototyping Board 2

Serpente - A Tiny CircuitPython Prototyping Board 3

Serpente - A Tiny CircuitPython Prototyping Board 4

Serpente - A Tiny CircuitPython Prototyping Board 5

Serpente - A Tiny CircuitPython Prototyping Board 6

Serpente - A Tiny CircuitPython Prototyping Board 7

Serpente - A Tiny CircuitPython Prototyping Board 8

Serpente - A Tiny CircuitPython Prototyping Board 9

2020-01-03T14:22:34.422Z-three_boards_oshwa.jpg

Retired

This product is no longer available for sale. The seller may be offering an improved version or it may be hanging out on the beach, enjoying the retired life.

A tiny CircuitPython development board, perfect for quick projects and prototyping!

Introduction The Serpente boards are low-cost development boards designed to be used with Adafruit’s CircuitPython. All three boards are virtually the same, except for the USB connector. The standard…

Introduction

The Serpente boards are low-cost development boards designed to be used with Adafruit’s CircuitPython.

All three boards are virtually the same, except for the USB connector. The standard Serpente board contains a female USB Type-C connector, the Serpente Plug C contains a male USB Type-C connector, and the Serpente Plug uses the board itself as a Type-A USB plug.

If you are familiar with the Digispark boards, you may notice some similarities. This fact is of course not incidental, the Serpente boards are inspired by the Digispark, both in form-factor as well as use-cases. The Serpente boards are meant to be used as quick and dirty, yet flexible, prototyping tools.

Technical details

Here are some of the technical details regarding the boards:

ATSAMD21E18A 32-bit Cortex-M0+ running at 48MHz
256KB flash and 32KB RAM
4MB Flash for storing files and CircuitPython code
6 highly customizable GPIOs
250mA LDO
3.3V logic and power
Powered either from USB or external source
User-controlled RGB LED
Mounting holes on the Serpente female Type-C board
Castellated edges so the boards can be used as modules easily

Guided Tour

USB A, male or female USB Type-C Connector - Three options to choose from, use the one that works best for you! USB is used for both data and power. The Type-C connectors support only USB 2.0 signals and are hardwired to be a Sink only.
Reset Button - Allows you to reset the board quickly and if you double press it, the board boots into the bootloader.
4MB Flash Storage - All 4MB of the storage are available to you, you can store your CircuitPython files as well as logs, images and more! When connected to a PC, the flash storage shows up as a disk drive.
ATSAMD21 Microcontroller - Cortex-M0+ running at 48MHz, not the fastest thing around, but fast enough for prototyping and simple applications.
6 Flexible GPIOs - All 6 GPIOs can be used as analog inputs, PWM outputs or regular digital IOs. You can also configure them to be SPI, I2C and/or UART.
3.3V LDO - The LDO provides up to 250mA of current for you.
RGB LED - Each color is user-controllable with a possibility to PWM the colors.
Optional External Power - If you don't want to use the USB to power the board, connect an external source (max 6V) to the VIN pin and you're ready to go!
Mount holes (female Type-C only) - We used the extra space to provide you with two mounting holes in case you want to make sure your Serpente stays in place.
Breadboardable - The spacing of the headers allows you to use the boards with a breadboard, both as GPIO and power!
Castellated edges - You can easily use the Serpente boards as CircuitPython modules.

For more information please visit the documentation at https://serpente.solder.party/

What you get with your order

Serpente board of your choice (female Type-C, male Type-C or USB A)
Male pin headers, not soldered

Example usage

Rotary Encoder + 8x8 LED Matrix

Ultrasonic Sensor + Servo Motor

Joystick + HID Mouse

Quantity	Price
1-4	$15.00
5-9	$14.50
10-24	$14.00
25-49	$13.00
50+	$12.00

Review Breakdown

Average Ratings

Product: (5.00)

Documentation: (4.72)

Shipping: (4.89)

Communication: (4.94)

Guillaume | Aug. 21, 2020

I love these tiny Serpente boards.

I first found the serpente board on Adafruit.com, and bought a few usb-c (male) models there. I wanted the other USB models after that, so I ordered more from Adafruit and also from Tindie. I use them to learn the basics of Python programming with graphics (tiny oled display) and as a Human Interface Devices (HID) that automates Minecraft tasks; like grinding for XP at a mob spawner. Everything worked just as documented. It's a great learning tool for me.

Tara | May 5, 2020

Excellent!

It's so cute and tiny :)

Looks like this is a great way to get into CircuitPython!
Thank you so much!

Sebastian | April 21, 2020

Great little board

Bought two of these and they have been very nice to work with so far. Quick to setup and get going with. Not the biggest fan of circuit python but that’s not a knock on the board just personal preference and I saw that someone made an arduino core but I haven’t had a chance to try it yet. If the usb-a version comes back in stock I’m definitely buying more.

Cory | April 21, 2020

Great product

This little board is great for learning CircuitPython or for tiny USB dongle type projects. I've already thrown together some code to act as a mouse using a joystick or to type a sequence of keys when inserted into a USB port.

Richard | March 29, 2020

Just what I was looking for!

I needed a compact MC board that plugs directly into a USB jack - Serpente exactly fits the bill. I'm using it to "trick" a PC into thinking it's getting mouse and keyboard input. My only complaint is that the documentation is a little thin. I wanted to do a little "Hello world" test varying the color of the RGB LEDs, and it took me a while to guess how to access those pins. Thankfully, the Python names matched the schematic names - thank you! If I had looked further down in the reviews I would have seen the example and saved a few minutes.

Thomas | March 14, 2020

Micro + CircuitPython + Powerful = Fun!

Fast shipment, professional packaging (anti-static bag + air cushion envelope), excellent quality.

What else? Well, let's see how long they live with my solder/tinkering skills before i have to order more... ;)

Tarik | March 14, 2020

Great board, amazingly fast shipment

The Serpente works great as a quick-to-start CircuitPython board. I got the LED example running in minutes, and continued exploring CircuitPython and the boards capabilities. The shipment was super fast!

Ola | Feb. 26, 2020

Nice small boards. Fun with python.

Have only tested the board and circuit python for an hour, but it was easy to get into. Leds are blinking. Repl on a microcontroller is nice for testing.

Shakeeb | Feb. 6, 2020

fantastic serpente

Tiny, functional, beautiful. Can't believe I can run python this thing. Thanks for making it available.

Alexander | Jan. 21, 2020

Top quality, fast delivery, very friendly!

Got 2 boards to play around with and I'm very happy with them and with the overall process of getting them.
Fast shipment (shipped within ~1 day, delivered in 6 days/4 workdays), professional packaging (each board in it's own anti-static bag, put in an air cushion envelope), clean boards, excellent quality.

Tillo | Jan. 9, 2020

Great board

It's a great little board if you want to start with CircuitPython or if your project doesn't need too much IOs but needs to be small.

The exposed IOs are chosen in a super useful way, since all of them can be PWM outputs and analog inputs. Or the usual serial interfaces.

Bjørn | Jan. 6, 2020

Great fun!

The Serpente board has a really nice finish regarding all aspects. It's super slim, good looking, and very easy to get started with. I want to use this as the brains for my home automation setup

Joshua | Dec. 21, 2019

Very good boards, small and powerful, shipped fast!

Was looking for a tiny ATSAMD21 based board with very minimal peripherals, this seemed to fit the bill. Have bought 4 in two batches, all have arrived in excellent condition and fully working.

Got this working with Arduino IDE after making a fairly trivial port of the Adafruit SAMD Trinket M0 board, as I wanted to experiment with the TinyUSB stack that Adafruit uses. I couldn't find where someone had already done this, but was straightforward enough to get working.

Response from Solder Party | Dec. 21, 2019

Thank you for the kind words :) Have you published the Arduino port somewhere, I'm sure many would find it useful. Do you need to flash it with SWD pins or over the uf2 bootloader? Let me know if you need any assistance with the port.

Barry | Dec. 9, 2019

Great product & seller

Fast processing and delivery. Great miniature device with lots of potential, and I'm having fun exploring it. Good quality build.
This piece of code may help other noobs like me.

# according to the circuit diagram documentation the inbuilt LEDs have their anodes permanently connected to 3.3v
# therefore to turn them "ON" you need to sink the cathodes and complete the circuit
# led.value = True keeps / turns the LED OFF
# led.value = False sinks the current and turns the LED ON

import board
import digitalio
import time

red = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.LED_R)
red.direction = digitalio.Direction.OUTPUT

green = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.LED_G)
green.direction = digitalio.Direction.OUTPUT

blue = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.LED_B)
blue.direction = digitalio.Direction.OUTPUT

red.value = True # these 3 instructions are required
green.value = True # otherwise the first iteration
blue.value = True # shows a mix of colours

while True:
print("Red")
red.value = False # actually turns the LED ON
time.sleep(2)
red.value = True # actually turns the LED OFF
time.sleep(2)

print("Green")
green.value = False
time.sleep(2)
green.value = True
time.sleep(2)

print("Blue")
blue.value = False
time.sleep(2)
blue.value = True
time.sleep(2)

Leszek | Dec. 5, 2019

Good Job ;)

Very interesting design, great possibilities and simplicity of use with such a small size. Thank you for fast shipping ;)

Ben | Nov. 2, 2019

Perfect little CircuitPython controller!

This is a great little controller! Packed with tons of stuff in a tiny package, it was really easy to get up and running. It's powered by CircuitPython, and has a generous 4MB flash. Just plug it in, save a file to the drive, and your code runs!

My father in law was in town with a project, within a few minutes we had his sensor sending in data and graphing in the mu editor! I was surprised with how easy it was. Even with 6 IO, he'll have more than enough to run a I2C display and read sensor data.

The design and build quality is excellent. Arturo has done an outstanding job here!

David | Oct. 14, 2019

Fast delivery

I got the product amazingly fast. The board seems to be good quality, though i haven't had much time to play with it yet.

Les | Oct. 13, 2019

A tiny CircuitPython based board the size of an ATTiny85

I have been a fan of the ATTiny85 for a couple of years, and in the past 18 months I have started to dip my toe with CircuitPython. So when I found a board that offered the layout and size of the ATTiny85 merged with the ease of use that CircuitPython brings, then I just had to buy a couple for testing.
A great board that is cost effective for projects where you just want to get the project working with the minimal of fuss.

+ Show 13 more

Retired

This product is no longer available for sale. The seller may be offering an improved version or it may be hanging out on the beach, enjoying the retired life.