Posts made by DrWino

@drwino I managed to get the TOF hat to work by remapping the wire.begin to GP0 and GP26. I get reading but they are not accurate and different from the same program using the TOF unit. No idea why?

M5stickC hat does not work. Have new M5stickC and 2 new TOF hats. Does not find the VL53LOX. The M5stickC works fine with TOF unit device connected using grove cable. What's the problem?

I have been using M5stack with M5ez for some time. But new batch of M5stack has different color map. For example magenta is now green. blue is yellow. Anybody know what is going on and how to fix.

I am sure that many people have this problem. I use Arduino IDE and it programs the M5stack fine. I now need to send updates to users who have the previous version. A simple way would be to have the IDE export the .bin file. Then email the .bin to the user and have them download it into the M5Stack using say the ESP32 Flash Download tool which they can download from the internet. BUT I cannot make this work. Perhaps someone has solved this already or has a better idea of how to perform this important function. Thanks.

I had the same bizarre issue and I found the solution here ! Just turn the USB C plug around and it works ! Weird.

How do you get time from the RTC in the M5stack ? The documentation is only for micropython. Also is the RTC battery backed up ? Thanks.

The M5stack is interesting but many details and specs are missing. Perhaps the makers can help:

1. what is the power consumption when OFF ? Does pressing the power switch twice actually shut the device OFF -> power is zero ?
2. what the power consumption in deep_sleep ? I get variable amount from 17 to 40mA using a USB power meter with no battery.
3. Is is possible to measure battery voltage ?

The M5stack is a battery powered device but very little support exists for conserving battery power, saving power, and estimating remaining battery life.

I always end up replying to myself ! Anyway, here is the latest - maybe it can help someone or get some ideas. I decided to remove the BOTTOM and try again. The power is only from the USB to the PC or USB power supply. Now the same M5Stack connects every time ! Maybe the battery is somehow not letting it reset properly for the next connection. Using just the bare PROTO board also works fine. Next step is to try the ADS1015 over I2C and see if that is OK. Interesting.
Still looking for ideas to conserve battery power.

I read the all the suggestions in this blog but I cannot get the M5Stack to connect reliably. It will connect sometimes. Different M5Stacks may or may not connect. Some may connect in a different location. ESP32 is becoming a big waste of time and I am giving up on the M5Stack/ESP32 as useless. Which is surprising as an IOT device it should be at least able to connect. In other irritations the ADCs are kind of useless and noisy. I tried to use ADS1015 over I2C but it fails after some random number of hours. The M5Stack is useless for battery operations as the display takes about 160mA and there is no way to turn it off and on.

M5Stack -> trash box.

Arduino 1.8.5 with board M5Stack-core-ESP32

Here is the other thing - the grey M5Stack works fine, but all the black M5stacks do not connect. It there some firmware or other difference between models besides the 9dof chip which I do not use in my application.

@calin That would explain it. But how do you apply your patch ?

I reply to myself. It appears this problem is related to the use of BtnA and Wifi. Some delays seem to help but somewhat unreliable. Maybe somebody has better solution

I have spent considerable time to develop an application using M5Stack. I have run into a serous reliability problem. I have two M5Stack basic. While testing they would connect to Wifi (open network). Suddenly one stopped connecting. I tried the other one it also was now not connecting. I load same program to M5Stack grey model and it connects fine. I load example program SimpleWiFiServer to grey M5stack and it connects immediatly. I load the SAME program to the black units and neither one will connect. I am very unhappy with the time wasted with this unreliable hardware. My application was going to use 200 to 300 M5stacks but now I am very uncertain if such a failure can just happen without any known cause in just a few weeks of testing. Any suggestions welcome otherwise we throw this product out and warn others.

To conserve battery power I want to send the M5Stack to sleep for 1 minute, then wake up on timer, check sensors, preform calculations and refresh the display. The back to sleep for 1 minute. I can send the M5Stack into deep sleep but it switches the display off when it goes to sleep. Any ideas how to keep the display showing (does not need to update).

The PROTO module is kind of an poor design. It is just a perf board. It would have been more useful to at bring out the header pins to solder points on the PCB. The way it is now you have to solder wire to the SMT pad under the header. Makes no sense. Also, bring out the 3.3, 5V, and GND to busses so they can be used. I am just going to make my own proto module. I finally managed to locate the Samtec header part number but they take a few weeks to get.

I am been able to read the ADC on pin 35. This corresponds to ADC1_CH7 BUT I cannot get ADC on pin 36 to work. I think this is ADC1-CH0. Anybody has any sample code ? Thanks.

For DIY case it is essential to 3d print the case. I saw that STL files are available but these are impossible to modify. Can you please post STEP files ?

Thank you for the detailed reply. I will try some of the options but first I will order a few M5Stacks so life can continue if we get blue smoke !

I am writing text to the same location with updated values. I get the text superimposed on the old text. i use a space, the reset the setCursor, then write the new text. But I get flicker - How to avoid this ? Also if you make a filled rectangle and then write text on it - the whole thing flickers like mad.