SAMD21 Xplained Pro

Vendor: Microchip
Features: External Flash, USB
Source on GitHub: samd/SAMD21_XPLAINED_PRO
More info: Website

Installation instructions

The SAMD21 Xplained Pro board is shipped without a bootloader. For use with MicroPyhton a suitable bootloader has be be installed first. The following procedure has been found to work and be simple:

  1. Get the bootloader from https://micropython.org/resources/firmware/bootloader-xplained-pro-v3.16.0-15-gaa52b22.hex.
  2. Connect your board to the debug port. A drive with the name XPLAINED shall appear.
  3. Copy the Intel hex file of the bootloader to that drive.
  4. Connect your board to the target port. A drive with the name SAMD21XPL should appear. If not, push reset twice. Then it should appear. If that does not happen, the bootloader was not properly installed or is not compatible.
  5. Copy the MicroPython firmware, a .uf2 file, to the SAMD21 drive. When the SAMD21 drive disappears, MicroPython is installed.

From now on only steps 4 and 5 are needed to update MicroPython. You can use the usual methods to invoke the bootloader, namely:

  • Push Reset twice.
  • Call machine.bootloader().
  • Use the touch 1200 procedure by switching the USB baud rate to 1200 baud and back.

At the above link above there are as well .uf2 versions of the bootloader which one can install using steps 5. and 6. above once a .uf2 capable bootloader is installed.

Firmware

Releases

v1.24.1 (2024-11-29) .uf2 / [Release notes] (latest)
v1.24.0 (2024-10-25) .uf2 / [Release notes]
v1.23.0 (2024-06-02) .uf2 / [Release notes]
v1.22.2 (2024-02-22) .uf2 / [Release notes]
v1.22.1 (2024-01-05) .uf2 / [Release notes]
v1.22.0 (2023-12-27) .uf2 / [Release notes]
v1.21.0 (2023-10-05) .uf2 / [Release notes]
v1.20.0 (2023-04-26) .uf2 / [Release notes]
v1.19.1 (2022-06-18) .uf2 / [Release notes]
v1.18 (2022-01-17) .uf2 / [Release notes]

Preview builds

v1.25.0-preview.147.g136058496 (2024-12-20) .uf2
v1.25.0-preview.145.ga3128f89c (2024-12-20) .uf2
v1.25.0-preview.144.g4e76acc88 (2024-12-20) .uf2
v1.25.0-preview.132.ge323da729 (2024-12-19) .uf2
(These are automatic builds of the development branch for the next release)