M5Stack ESP32 Basic Core Development Kit Extensible Micro Control WiFi BLE IoT Prototype Board for Arduino

I got this to use with the wifi hash monster and it worked fine. I was unsure if you were required to have the "Fire" version but this one works. Getting it to compile is a little tricky. You have to install a sketchy unsigned driver just so it will communicate over USB and let you upload compiled programs to it. That part sucks.The included battery is a total joke and only lasts like 20 minutes or so. I had to order the larger, stackable battery from China, couldn't find it anywhere in the US for a reasonable price.

I am very happy with these units. I have honestly purchased hundreds for various projects, give aways, and for resell after programming.I don't see how they can produce theses for so cheap. Amazing features!

The M5stack is a fantastic little product, but has some major flaws.The first issue I noticed is a high-pitched noise when the product is plugged in. There are multiple entries in about this on the support forum, but setting the DAC to 0 did not fix the issue. I had to cut the speaker wire to get rid of the intolerable noise.The second major issue was that the battery arrived almost dead. When I tried to use the unit in battery mode, it would shut down after 3 minutes. I tracked the charging with a USB meter, and the actual battery capacity is 3 mAh, just a small fraction of the 150 mAh it should have. The unit I received seems to be older, with only 4 MB flash instead of 16 MB, and arrived with the battery connected. It seems the battery discharged too deeply during storage and got damaged. I would have returned the unit because of this, except that I had already cut the speaker wire, and that I needed a more powerful battery for my application (GPS logger with display) anyway.The next problem I encountered was when I tried to use the I2C port with a Sparkfun GPS. I had used the GPS without problems with an Openlog Artemis and an Adafruit Clue, but the Openlog has no display, and the Clue has no SD card. The M5stack has both, so it seemed like a better unit for logging with display of current data. However, the I2C communication was extremely unreliable when using Python, with frequent errors and lost data. Trying to track the causes was an exercise in frustration, since the Python documentation for an UIFlow install for the M5stack is spotty at best. It seems to implement only a subset of Micropython, with many functions missing from the full distribution. The only "documentation" I found that shows which functions are available was the C source code on GitHub.Given that the Basic Core does not have a real time clock and limited flash memory, purchasing a newer M5stack model like the Core 2 or the M5Go would be a better choice for many applications.

I love the idea of this. I really like the platform and the formfactor and how it's built. Unfortunately, it has a pretty glaring flaw. Uploading code from the Arduino IDE to this device is an excercise in frustration. The unit will try to refresh to receive the upload, but it will almost always fail. The "workaround" is to try to tap the power/reset button at the EXACT right moment as the Arduino IDE tries to upload, otherwise you'll get an error that the board wasn't found.I only found out about this issue after purchase and trying to flash a basic test program to the device. There's multiple forum posts on M5Stack's forum as well as their issue tracker from many other users with this problem. One thread I found was from YEARS ago and this issue still exists. One solution was to solder a capacitor onto the board, which is ludicrous to even need for a sold product.I'm no programming master. When I've written code for Arduino type systems before I often need to revise and upload the program over and over because something isn't working right. When a defect prevents you from even uploading your code, the device might as well be unusable.

The mac drivers do not recognize it. Very risky to look for chineese not translated drivers

Good for ordinary programs. Good controler