How to choose a development board

To start using MaixPy, you must need a K210 development board, you can get your favorite hardware from Sipeed's official Taobao store:
Sipeed Official Taobao Store

Required hardware

A development board

Since MaixPy has many early product lines, the specific development board and parameter list are as follows, users can choose the corresponding development board according to their own practical ability and needs

The onboard ROM of MaixPy series development board is 16MB SPI FLASH, RAM: 6MB (general purpose) + 2MB (KPU dedicated)

MaixPy series development board
Description	Physical image	Description
Maix Amigo	Click to buy Maix Amigo	3.5-inch large screen, reserved three Grove ports, three SPMOD ports (one of which is a gamepad port)
Maix Cube	Click to buy Maix Cube	Mini development board, leads to Grove/Spmod interface
Maix Dock(M1W)	Click to buy Maix Dock(M1W)	All pins are led out, using M1W module (integrated ESP8285)
Maix Dock(M1)	Click to buy Maix Dock(M1)	All pins lead out, using M1 module
Maix Bit	Click to buy Maix Bit	All pins lead out, 2x20pin, the smallest system board
Maix Duino	Click to buy Maix Duino	Compatible with Arduino, supports ESP32 WIFI, supports reading of 5 ADC channels of ESP32
Maix GO	Click to buy Maix GO	Discontinued
Maix Nano	Click to buy Maix Nano	Core development board

USB Type-C cable

Type-C was chosen because it supports positive and negative insertion, which is very friendly to development

You can ask if it is included in the official purchase from Taobao. At present, most Android phones are also using Type-C cables

USB data cable note: Due to the uneven quality of USB cables on the market, the wires used (mainly the core material) are different, and the better data cable uses tinned copper, copper wire, copper foil wire, and bare wire. Copper, etc., the line resistance is small, the voltage drop at both ends of the data line is small, and copper clad steel, copper clad iron, the line resistance is large, the voltage drop at both ends of the data line is large, causing the actual voltage and current supplied to the development board Small, make the development board in an abnormal working state; therefore, it is recommended to use a reliable data cable (generally the quality of the data cable attached to the mobile phone is relatively reliable)

Screen

The screen is strongly recommended to buy!

From Taobao official purchase, you can ask whether it is included. It is recommended that users buy a board or package with LCD to facilitate the visual display of the results when running the program later.

camera

On sale are: OV2640 (conventional, M12), OV7740, GC0328;

Since the resolution supported by the K210 DVP interface is VGA (640*480 30W), you can actually use a camera with 30W pixels.

As of MaixPy firmware version: MaixPy 0.5.0_160, the supported camera models are as follows

As of the firmware version MicroPython v0.5.0-173, the related camera test conditions are as follows:

-The color mode of the current camera

You can ask for the model from Taobao official purchase, OV7740 frame rate is relatively high; OV2640 is relatively old, and the picture quality is slightly inferior to GC0328

Note: Many users ask which one supports the highest frame rate when they come up. In fact, the frame rate will be different in addition to the hardware, and in the program you use, the frame rate will also be different due to the different processing procedures of the program, so The specific maximum frame rate cannot be marked here (so as not to mislead users).

Micro SD card (TF card) (optional)

Files can be manipulated without using a Micro SD card. A part of the internal Flash has been reserved as a file system, but the Flash speed is very slow!

In order to facilitate the quick operation of picture files, you can choose to buy a Micro SD card, 　 MaixPy 　 built-in SPI SD card protocol driver,

When buying, try to choose a new Micro SD card with fast speed protocol, such as SD 2nd generation protocol, Class10 memory card

Because the K210 does not have SDIO hardware peripherals, it uses SPI to communicate with the SD card. Of course, the quality of SD cards on the market is uneven, and the SPI mode may not be compatible. Try to buy a regular card. If you really need it, please customize it yourself. Drive~~

For example: the two cards on the left side of the picture below are not supported by MaixPy drivers, the middle and right ones are supported, but the class10 card in the middle has the fastest speed (up to 128GB tested available)

I have also tested several SanDisk, Kingston, and Samsung cards purchased online, and found that one of the Samsung cards cannot be used

Sipeed official store SD card purchase link, the card’s SPI protocol only It supports the V1 version, so the reading rate is low. It is recommended to buy other SD cards that support the SPI V2 protocol. The SD card can be selected in the Taobao store development board package.

ST-Link (used to update the firmware of STM32 on the development board Maix Go) (optional)

If you buy a Maix Go, a STM32 chip is integrated on it to simulate the USB to serial port tool and to simulate JTAG, if you want to update its firmware later, it is recommended to buy a ST-LinkSpare; if you don't need JTAG function, you don't need to buy it

JTAG debugger (optional)

-Note:

!!! After burning key_gen.bin, the JTAG debugging function of K210 will be permanently disabled

K210 This chip supports JTAG debugging. If you need the debugging function, you need to use the JTAG debugger. Please consult and purchase at the official Taobao store of Sipeed.

If it is a Maix Go development board, you do not need to purchase a separate JTAG debugger. The Maix Go development board integrates a STM32 chip, which can simulate JTAG (STM32 uses CMSIS-DAP or open-ec firmware), open-ec firmware is not currently supported, and will be supported in the future, please refer to the description of the open-ec github project homepage