1. Introduction to the pyboard

To get the most out of your pyboard, there are a few basic things to understand about how it works.

1.1. Caring for your pyboard

Because the pyboard does not have a housing it needs a bit of care:

  • Be gentle when plugging/unplugging the USB cable. Whilst the USB connector is soldered through the board and is relatively strong, if it breaks off it can be very difficult to fix.
  • Static electricity can shock the components on the pyboard and destroy them. If you experience a lot of static electricity in your area (eg dry and cold climates), take extra care not to shock the pyboard. If your pyboard came in a black plastic box, then this box is the best way to store and carry the pyboard as it is an anti-static box (it is made of a conductive plastic, with conductive foam inside).

As long as you take care of the hardware, you should be okay. It’s almost impossible to break the software on the pyboard, so feel free to play around with writing code as much as you like. If the filesystem gets corrupt, see below on how to reset it. In the worst case you might need to reflash the MicroPython software, but that can be done over USB.

1.2. Layout of the pyboard

The micro USB connector is on the top right, the micro SD card slot on the top left of the board. There are 4 LEDs between the SD slot and USB connector. The colours are: red on the bottom, then green, orange, and blue on the top. There are 2 switches: the right one is the reset switch, the left is the user switch.

1.3. Plugging in and powering on

The pyboard can be powered via USB. Connect it to your PC via a micro USB cable. There is only one way that the cable will fit. Once connected, the green LED on the board should flash quickly.

1.4. Powering by an external power source

The pyboard can be powered by a battery or other external power source.

Be sure to connect the positive lead of the power supply to VIN, and ground to GND. There is no polarity protection on the pyboard so you must be careful when connecting anything to VIN.

The input voltage must be between 3.6V and 10V.