Summary of Adafruit Feather Bluefruit wireless sensor board soon available
The Adafruit Feather Bluefruit Sense is a new Arduino-compatible development board based on the nRF52840 microcontroller. It integrates Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and native USB support while adding a suite of sensors for motion, environmental monitoring, and gesture detection. Designed for CircuitPython and the Arduino IDE, this compact board offers extensive GPIO capabilities and wireless connectivity for advanced IoT projects.
Parts used in the Adafruit Feather Bluefruit Sense:
- nRF52840 ARM Cortex M4F microcontroller
- LSM6DS33 Accel/Gyro sensor
- LIS3MDL magnetometer
- APDS9960 Proximity, Light, Color, and Gesture Sensor
- PDM Microphone sound sensor
- SHT Humidity sensor
- BMP280 temperature and barometric pressure/altitude sensor
- Native Open Source USB stack with UF2 bootloader
- Bluetooth Low Energy 2.4GHz radio module
- NeoPixel LED for colorful feedback
- Red LED for pin #13 blinking
- Blue LED for connection status
- SWD debug pads
- Adafruit FeatherWings compatibility interface
Adafruit has today announced the Adafruit Feather Bluefruit Sense development board will be soon arriving in their online store, building on the popular Feather nRF52840 Express, by adding a range of sensors that can be accessed wirelessly. The Feather microcontroller is equipped with Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity together with native USB support featuring the nRF52840. Offering an ‘all-in-one’ Arduino compatible mini development board, supporting CircuitPython. Adafruit explains a little more :
“Like the Feather nRF52840, this chip comes with Arduino IDE support – you can program the nRF52840 chip directly to take full advantage of the Cortex-M4 processor, and then calling into the Nordic SoftDevice radio stack when you need to communicate over BLE. Since the underlying API and peripherals are the same for the ‘832 and ‘840, you can supercharge your older nRF52832 projects with the same exact code, with a single recompile!
This Feather is also a BLE-friendly CircuitPython board! CircuitPython works best with disk drive access, and this is the only BLE-plus-USB-native chip that has the memory to handle running a the little Python interpreter. The massive RAM and speedy Cortex M4F chip makes this a good match.”
Unfortunately, no information on pricing has been released as yet by Adafruit, but if you’re interested in receiving an update when the development board becomes available jump over to the online store via the link below to register your details.
Features of the Adafruit Feather Bluefruit Sense board include :
– ST Micro series 9-DoF motion – LSM6DS33 Accel/Gyro + LIS3MDL magnetometer
– APDS9960 Proximity, Light, Color, and Gesture Sensor
– PDM Microphone sound sensor
– SHT Humidity
– BMP280 temperature and barometric pressure/altitude
– ARM Cortex M4F (with HW floating point acceleration) running at 64MHz
– 1MB flash and 256KB SRAM
– Native Open Source USB stack – pre-programmed with UF2 bootloader
– Bluetooth Low Energy compatible 2.4GHz radio (Details available in the nRF52840 product specification)
– FCC / IC / TELEC certified module
– Up to +8dBm output power
– 21 GPIO, 6 x 12-bit ADC pins, up to 12 PWM outputs (3 PWM modules with 4 outputs each)
– Pin #13 red LED for general purpose blinking, Blue LED for general purpose connection status, NeoPixel for colorful feedback
– Power/enable pin
– Measures 2.0″ x 0.9″ x 0.28″ (51mm x 23mm x 7.2mm) without headers soldered in
– Light as a (large?) feather – 6 grams
– 4 mounting holes
– Reset button
– SWD debug pads on bottom of PCB
– Works out of the box with all of our Adafruit FeatherWings! (Even the UART-using ones like the GPS FeatherWing)
Source: Adafruit Feather Bluefruit wireless sensor board soon available
- What programming environments does the board support?
The board supports both the Arduino IDE and CircuitPython. - Can I use existing code from nRF52832 projects on this board?
Yes, you can supercharge older nRF52832 projects with the same exact code by performing a single recompile. - How much memory does the nRF52840 chip provide?
The chip includes 1MB flash and 256KB SRAM. - Does the board include sensors for motion and orientation?
Yes, it features an ST Micro series 9-DoF motion sensor combining LSM6DS33 and LIS3MDL components. - What wireless connectivity options are available?
The board offers Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity and a 2.4GHz radio compatible with FCC, IC, and TELEC certifications. - Can the board run a Python interpreter?
Yes, it is the only BLE-plus-USB-native chip with enough memory to handle running the little Python interpreter. - What types of LEDs are included for feedback?
It includes a red LED for general purpose blinking, a blue LED for connection status, and a NeoPixel for colorful feedback. - Is the board compatible with other Adafruit FeatherWings?
Yes, it works out of the box with all Adafruit FeatherWings, including UART-using ones like the GPS FeatherWing.
