Hardware

PewPew Standalone v10.2

PewPew Standalone is a handheld device, it doesn’t require any additional hardware, except for two 1.5V AAA batteries.

Specification

Display

8×8 red LED matrix

Input

6 buttons

Sound

no sound

Interface

12-pin connector at the back

Controller

Atmel SAMD21

Battery

2 x AAA 1.5V alkaline (not included)

The device includes a display, six buttons, on-off switch, USB port and a battery holder. The batteries are required for operation, it can’t be powered from the USB port. There is also a 12-pin connector on the back of the device that can be used for connecting other electronic devices.

The 12-pin Connector

Label

Name

Function

R

Reset

Ground this pin to perform hard reset.

-

GND

Negative power and ground. There are 2 pins.

1

board.P1

DigitalIO, SWC, SPI-MISO/MOSI, PWM

2

board.P2

DigitalIO, SWD, SPI-SCK, PWM

3

board.P3

DigitalIO, I2C-SDA, SPI-MISO/MOSI, PWM

4

board.P4

DigitalIO, I2C-SCL, SPI-SCK, PWM

5

board.P5

DigitalIO, ADC, DAC, PWM, TouchIO

6

board.P6

DigitalIO, ADC, TouchIO

7

board.P7

DigitalIO, SPI-MISO/MOSI, UART, TouchIO

+

VCC

Positive 3V power. There are 2 pins.

You can insert a male header into the holes at the back of the device and plug it into a breadboard to easily gain access to the pins.

Updating the Firmware

  1. Download a .uf2 file from https://circuitpython.org/board/pewpew10/.

  2. Connect the PewPew to your computer using a USB cable. It appears as a disk named CIRCUITPY.

  3. Back up all your files, as the update might delete them.

  4. “Eject” or “safely remove” the CIRCUITPY disk.

  5. Connect the R and - pins on the 12-pin connector twice in short succession, like a double-click. Seen from the front, these are the two rightmost pins. If you added a male pin header, this is easily done by touching any metal part to the two pins. The PewPew display should go black and a disk named TRINKETBOOT should appear.

  6. If the CIRCUITPY disk reappears instead and the PewPew display shows the scrolling menu (or whatever else you installed as main.py), try the double-click again, it can take a few tries to get the rhythm right.

  7. Copy the downloaded .uf2 file to the TRINKETBOOT disk. When it’s done, which should take no longer than a few seconds, TRINKETBOOT disappears, CIRCUITPY reappears, and your PewPew is now running the new CircuitPython version.

  8. If needed, copy all your files back. Also, if you upgraded to a new major version, you will need to replace any .mpy files you have on your device, with ones compiled for the new version.

Open Development

This hardware is developed in the open, and all the designs and related materials are publicly available under a permissive license. You are free to inspect how it is build, build your own, improve and extend the design, and even sell your own versions.

The designs are available in the project’s repository.

Buy a Kit

If you want to buy a kit that you only need to solder, you can find one at Tindie.