MakerFocus M5Stack M5StickC Plus ESP32-PICO-D4 Mini IoT Development Kit WiFi Support Bigger Screen IoT Controller for UIFlow, MicroPython and Ar duino

Purchased this for use with Home Assistant / ESPHome to control my home theater system as an IR blaster. It worked great - easily programmable and the integrated battery and charging works excellently. Also used for another Arduino project and was also easily programmed with the Arduino programmed. A great little device with lots of integrated sensors (which I have not yet had the change to take advantage) in a very convenient package.

It's amazing (at least in 2020/2021) what functionality they've packed into such a small package. I can't wait to try out some other Arduino code and write my own stuff using this m5stickc.Note that this piece can be found for a bit less (after factoring shipping costs and delay) at the m5 stack store. The m5 stack store has additional add-ons for this m5stickc that are very cool, such as a robot vehicle body and a battery pack.

I am already a big fan of the M5 Core products and wanted something smaller to prototype some projects with, most notably a U2F device and a USB Keyboard emulator. The real time clock included with the M5 Stick as well as the blue tooth & WiFi made this the perfect solution. I highly recommend it for learning, prototyping or just fun.

WHAT I LIKED: It is an ESP-32 microcontroller with some useful sensors onboard, a battery, a screen, and a sturdy plastic case. I picked it up for a hobby project (I want to build a remote detector for my non-smart septic system alarm) and it seems fit for this kind of use cases really well. Being an ESP-32 you get a reasonable amount of processing power, Wi-FI, GPIO pins etc.WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: as with many microcontrollers originating in China, the attention to the quality of software or documentation is patchy at best. Documentation is sketchy and confusing, support for features is inconsistent relative to the rest of M5Stack platform (e.g. the ability to turn off the screen), examples sometimes contradict the documentation, and some toolchains (I'm looking at you, MicroPython!) are documented quite more poorly compared to others. It does take quite some trial and error to program it (I ended up using Arduino toolchain) but you can still get things done.Overall, I highly recommend it as a great device for hobby projects.

This thing is mighty for it's size. You don't have to judge this book by its cover to realize the power behind it.

I really love the spectrogram it has a pretty good resolution

I like that it just works and is very capable.

If your not use to programing its not the best starter gadget. No, battery disconnect button only low power mode which from factory could have the battery be dead on arrival.