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What is the Circuit Playgroud Express?

The Circuit Playgroud Express is an all-in-one circuit board featuring a processor, sensors, LEDs, USB and more that you can program:

• 10 Mini NeoPixel LEDs
• Accelerometer
• Temperature Sensor
• Light Sensor
• Sound Sensor
• Infrared Transmitter / Receiver
• Mini Speaker
• Two Push Buttons
• Slide Switch
• Seven Touch Pads

What Do I Need?

1. Your Circuit Playgroud Express

2. MU Editor

Getting Going

1. After downloading the MU Editor link above, install it.

2. You will need to install CircuitPython on to your CPX board extra detail here.

   • Go to the CircuitPython site and follow the download steps for the latest stable release.
   • Connect your Circuit Playgroud Express to your computer via USB and press the reset button.
   • The device should display as a Disk Drive named CPLAYBOOT if instead it appears as CIRCUITPY, skip ahead to step 3.
   • Find the .uf2 CircuitPython file you downloaded; drag and drop it onto the CPLAYBOOT drive this will install CircuitPython on your CPX.
   • Wait for a few seconds, the lights should flash and the device should reconnect and reappear named CIRCUITPY.

3. Launch the MU Editor

   • Choose Adafruit CircuitPython mode.
   • Save your code to the CIRCUITPY disk and name it main.py.
   • Make sure that any code.txt or code.py files that exist on your CIRCUITPY disk are removed or renamed. If files named code.txt or code.py exist on your CIRCUITPY disk, your code in main.py will not run.

More on Mu Editor

Choose the Adafruit CircuitPython mode for this session. Some version of Mu list the Adafruit CircuitPython as CircuitPython, either will work for this session. There are other modes you can choose to explore here later in your own time!

Mu Editor has a ‘checker’ button which checks that your code can be understood correctly and will highlight any errors.

The Serial button listens to your CPX board for any data being emitted. It can be used in conjunction with the Plotter to show this data graphically.

Exercises

Now that you’re all set up, head over to the Exercises to learn how to program the Circuit Playground Express!