The project

This is v2 of this project

why this project

This project is all about teaching physics and chemistry with microcontrollers.

As a physics and chemistry teacher, I have to also teach my students to create/use models and sensors applied to microcontrollers.

the Adafruit feather M4 express

Not satisfied with arduino board, i searched for a microtroller that suits my needs :

• Can be programmed with python (and C if I need more performance)
• Can output a true analog signal (not just pwm).
• a screen already integrated or can fit easily on top
• some integrated buttons are always useful

And the winner is…

After some trial/errors, my best candidate is the Adafruit feather M4 express :

• lots of power and two DACs to play audio
• an oled featherwing on top for the screen and buttons
• can add a battery

A step further

After that, I nedded some more handy ports to make my students have a better experience with that board:

• Add an arduino like port to connect cables and teach them electricity
• Add some grove port when we are using sensors/actuators
• Add a 3.5mm jack plug to output audio easily to speakers/headphones
• Add breadboard to make circuity
• Put everything together to move it easily

The result

The first proto looks like this :

You want to build one by yourself

Everything is on the github repo (see top of page)

You want buy one already made

One manufacturer of teaching hardware in france is building this.

Please contact :

Maison des Enseignants de Provence (MEP)
https://www.la-mep.com/
268 avevue de la capelette
Bat H
13010 Marseille
France

Tel : +33 4 91 78 02 01
email : commande@la-mep.com

Many thanks to :

To Antony Meunier, Engineering teacher in the lycée Saint éxupéry, for his help of the design of v1 of this board and his mastering in lasercut. To Ms Ourida Smahi, Sylvie Ségui et Chantal Le Nivet, technicians in physics and chemistry, for their help in the v1 assembly.