Carrier board for SEEEDuino XIAO

These days, Makers have access to quite a few different microprocessors for use in their projects. Most of them can be found on development boards of some sort, but not all are in a convenient size. The reason for this is that most of these development boards were designed with a breadboard in mind, and then after your prototype is done, you are required to design a PCB and place the specific processor and its supporting components onto this custom PCB…

Many makers choose to skip this step, either choosing to keep the project on the breadboard, or place the entire development module onto a piece of stripboard or similar, and then place their supporting components and sensors around that.

This is where the SEEED XIAO is different. It comes in a thumb-nail-sized package and can be used on the breadboard or directly placed onto a PCB via either pin headers or if you want access to all of its features, SMD pads.

SEEED XIAO SAMD21

In this build, I decided to design a generic carrier board, that will accept most of the XIAO RP2040 or the XIAO SAMD21

I have also included a small prototype area on the PCB, so that Makers can easily transfer their existing XIAO projects onto a semi-custom PCB, without having to design their own.

I have also addressed a problem area, especially with the XIAO SAMD21, it has no onboard reset button, only two tiny pads, by including a reset button for ease of use.

The PCB is in Arduino Uno form factor, and also provides headers to power it from an external 5v DC supply. Please note that the prototyping area has a 3.3v power rail, – due to the fact that all of the XIAO GPIO are limited to 3.3v anyway -. This power rail is powered directly from the XIAO 3.3v output, and the current is limited as per the specifications of the XIAO module that you are using.

Hardware Specifications – SEEEDuino XIAO

Hardware specifications and comparison

ProcessorESP32-C3 32-bit RISC-V @160MHzSAMD21 M0+@48MHzRP2040 Dual-core M0+@133MhznRF52840 M4F@64MHznRF52840 M4F@64MHzWireless ConnectivityWiFi and Bluetooth 5 (LE)N/AN/ABluetooth 5.0/BLE/NFCBluetooth 5.0/BLE/NFCMemory400KB SRAM, 4MB onboard Flash32KB SRAM 256KB FLASH264KB SRAM 2MB onboard Flash256KB RAM, 1MB Flash 2MB onboard Flash256KB RAM,1MB Flash 2MB onboard FlashBuilt-in SensorsN/AN/AN/AN/A6 DOF IMU (LSM6DS3TR-C), PDM MicrophoneInterfacesI2C/UART/SPI/I2SI2C/UART/SPII2C/UART/SPII2C/UART/SPII2C/UART/SPIPWM/Analog Pins11/411/1111/411/611/6Onboard ButtonsReset/ Boot ButtonN/AReset/ Boot ButtonReset ButtonReset ButtonOnboard LEDsCharge LEDN/AFull-color RGB/ 3-in-one LED3-in-one LED/ Charge LED3-in-one LED/ Charge LEDBattery Charge ChipBuilt-inN/AN/ABQ25101BQ25101Programming LanguagesArduinoArduino/ CircuitPythonArduino/ MicroPython/ CircuitPythonArduino/ MicroPython/ CircuitPythonArduino/ MicroPython/ CircuitPython

The PCB

Manufacturing

The PCB for this project has been manufactured at PCBWay.

Please consider supporting them if you would like your own copy of this PCB, or if you have any PCB of your own that you need to have manufactured.

More Pictures

Author makeriot2020Posted on December 26, 2022Categories PCBDesignTags SEEED, XIAO Edit "Carrier board for SEEEDuino XIAO"