SAMD21 Lite is a Stamp-sized, MikroBus Compatible Cortex-M0+ MCU Board

If you’re a fan of tiny microcontroller boards, you’ll be pleased with BOKRA SAMD21 Lite board powered by Microchip SAMD21 Arm Cortex-M0+ MCU, exposing I/Os in a way compatible with MikroBus socket, and adding a Grove connector for good measure.

SAMD21 Lite board specifications:

MCU – Microchip ATSAMD21G18A Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller @ 48 MHz with 256KB flash memory, 32KB RAM
Expansion I/Os
- MicroBus socket with GPIO, SPI, I2C, USART, PWM, DAC, +5V, +3.3V, GND
- I2C Grove connector
- 10-pin I/O header with GPIO, USB 2.0, VIN, GND
Misc – Reset button, red power LED, 2x user LED (yellow/green), J1/J2 jumper to enable/disable I2C pull-ups
Debugging – 4-pin SWD header
Power Supply
- 5V input via VIN
- MIC5528500 voltage regulator
- Output current – 500 mA
Dimensions -28.6 x 25.4 mm

Despite its tiny size, SAMD21 Lite exposes all expect five I/Os from the microcontroller. The Microbus headers and the I2C Grove connector allow it to support hundreds of add-on boards from MicroElektronika or Seeed Studio.

The board can be programmed with Microchip/Atmel programmers including Microchip PicKit 4 or MPLAB Snap. Microchip SAMD21 is the microcontroller found in Arduino Zero board so it’s also compatible with the Arduino IDE, as well as Atmel Studio. But you’d need to flash the Arduino bootloader first, before being able to program it with the Arduino IDE over a serial connection. You’ll find basic documentation in this PDF.

Typical applications would include industrial applications, automotive control, remote I/O, consumer devices, household appliance, as well as keyboards and human Interface devices.

BOKRA SAMD21 Lite board is sold on Tindie for $18 plus shipping from Israel.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.