Avoid M5Stack - it is a waste of time

felmue

sorry to hear about your troubles. However I feel your statement about 'absolute no documentation' is a bit hard. There is, but I agree it's not perfect nor complete, but to me it's still useful.

Which firmware did you try to flash? UIFlow or your own?

I would be very surprised that going back to a previous firmware would brick the device. You should always been able to connect a wire from GPIO0 to GND (to force bootloader mode), power up and flash a fresh firmware.

Felix

ajb2k3

@efried said in Avoid M5Stack - it is a waste of time:

You get absolutely no documentation with the modules.
The firmware updates are erroneous and you may brick the M5stack when returning to a previous version, The IDE dows not know the latest version
The file upload does not work most of the time , only RUN works, but this is lost after disconnecting
when asembling the LCD cracks easily

1, There is Documentation for most of the products,
2, Firmware update issues are due to the USB driver not being Installed properly.
3, File upload? If UIFlow then this is down to network access issues on your part.
4, You cracked the screen, wow, I have not achieved this yet however, I have managed to over tighten mine enough to pop out the screen cover.

ardo

A fairly new user of m5stack here (and only talking UIFlow),

There is documentation, but often incomplete and unclear, hence not at all new user friendly (e.g. try finding explanation of the math blocks)
I experienced this (1.6.1) but luckily it got fixed rather quickly in 1.6.2
That is being investigated/fixed right now
I managed to crack a screen on a stickC, my own fault, but it is very flimsy.

My conclusion: I still have confidence in M5Stack, I think they are very willing to help and fix any problems. But the documentation really needs to be improved.

Efried

Thanks for the anwers. Frustration is high now after using the M5Stack for more than a year employing micropython. It seems that this is a good concept but very limited support and small sample code base for micropython compared to other languages. You have to guess the right usage of functions, some are changing underway (urequest). Fortunately the browser based upload had to be abandonned because of a the complex and unreliable system architecture. But it is not acceptable that new firmware versions are published where code upload is broken. Just hold that back.
And please publish examples using high level commands for every module:
I mastered now the PM module and the GPS module by trial and error , next I will try them together.
but the cellular module is either garbage or was not tested to be used with GPRS data transfer. Using all three modules together is another challenge, may be this will not work.
Since the broken screen and the bricked M5stack are differente devices I could exchange, given some support.
thanks

Thrasher

@efried
I feel you.
Let it go, flash it like regular esp32 and code any ide you like. Refer to wirings to know how to access screen and perepherials with regular way without mysterious libs

Efried

as expected GPS and PM module do not work together!
GPS does only work without PM.
since months the wait() function is not repaired
Still no running GSM module.
This is a serious lack of quality!

ajb2k3

@efried have you tried using the gps outside of a building?

Efried

@ajb2k3 I'm to beginner in GPS
No the GPS module does not return a single value, when the PM module is present! May be they share pins.

felmue

Hello @Efried

I think you might be correct, both modules seem to use UART2 (GPIO16 / GPIO17) to communicate. I am afraid you'll need to use a different UART port for one of the modules in order to have both working at the same time. The GPS module is already prepared for that. Please have a look here:
https://docs.m5stack.com/#/en/module/gps

Felix

Thrasher

To be correct, if they use same uart gpios, uart should receive bunch of trash symbols. But recieving nothing is not a correct option

Efried

@thrasher I tried to delete the PM class before creating the GPS class but did nor help- still no gps values - is it feasible to have a software solution, may be not using high leven UIflow mycropython function.

Gaviota

@felmue said in Avoid M5Stack - it is a waste of time:

Hello @Efried

I think you might be correct, both modules seem to use UART2 (GPIO16 / GPIO17) to communicate. I am afraid you'll need to use a different UART port for one of the modules in order to have both working at the same time. The GPS module is already prepared for that. Please have a look here:
https://docs.m5stack.com/#/en/module/gps

Felix

... this is the same with the M5GO CHG Base.