9

The Adafruit Feather ecosystem

BEST OF BREED

ONLYTHE

BEST

eathers? Wings? What’s going on here?

It all might sound a little odd at first, but

once you come to realise what these little

development boards can do, they just

may become your go-to microcontroller

for all of your projects. Why are they so

special? To start with, the form factor is tiny! Feather

boards all measure in at 2.0” × 0.9” × 0.28” (51 mm

× 23 mm × 8 mm), which makes them much friendlier

when space is a consideration.

In addition to their diminutive size, they all feature

built-in micro USB ports for uploading code or charging

a connected 3.7 V lithium polymer battery. Yes, you

heard right. The boards all feature a built-in LiPo

battery connector, making your projects much more

portable. You can still power the board from the micro

USB, but when you want portability, simply plug in a

compatible LiPo battery and it will charge the battery

via USB. Now you can take your project with

you, completely untethered. Sure, you

can accomplish this with other boards,

typically requiring extra components

and time, but these boards have it

built-in and make it really easy.

Next, come the

FeatherWings. These

are the ‘shields’ for the

Feather boards. Just

like a standard

Arduino shield,

they add a ton of

functionality,

and most

are the

same small form

factor as the

Feather boards

themselves. In

this Best of Breed,

we’ll be sharing a few of

our favourite Feather boards

and FeatherWings. We’ve used

them in several projects, and we’ve

really come to love the Feather ecosystem.

Will this become the new standard form factor in

microcontroller development boards? Only time will

tell, but in our world they have already become a

go-to board.

For this author, building and coding up a little retro

IoT desk-light was the point at which it became clear

the Feather ecosystem was incredibly powerful and

exactly what was needed for all his projects from

that point on. It was small, had plenty of power,

was extremely affordable, and so easy to use.

Adafruit had created the new standard in

microcontroller form factors as far as he

was concerned, and from that point

on he was hooked.

What Feather board you

should start out with is really

up to you. We have selected

a few of our favourites for

reviewing, but do just keep in

mind this isn’t a comprehensive

list. And by the time this article

actually hits the stores, they will

have even more Feather boards and

FeatherWings available.

F

The new standard form factor?

By Marc de Vinck @devinck

The Adafruit

Feather ecosystem

Left

We really like these

Feather LoRa Radio

boards. It’s so easy to

set up and send data

Credit

Marc de Vinck