Your best bet to get them in ZA is to buy them from Amazon US, a couple of retailers offer international delivery and Amazon typically deliver with reputable courier services.

The touchscreen on the Core 2 is quite nice to use and it's also got a lot more IO pins available at the back to build more complex projects.

@@MichaelKlements that's awesome man. does it run on a battery?

I agree that most electronics hobbyists (myself included) would prefer to be more involved in the raw components, but there are loads of people who have little interest in the electronics side and prefer being able to just get started programming. It's also quite daunting for a newbie to get a box full of electronics components and have to learn the electronics and programming sides simultaneously, so these help to bridge that gap while still allowing some flexibility to add IO devices at a later stage.

I don't know, some of my projects ends up just looking awful. This has the ability to expand, but the form factor makes it look more like a finished project. I love it.

It really depends on your experience with each IDE. UI Flow is definitely much easier to approach as a beginner, but there are limitations in what you can do. I personally find Arduino's IDE to be the easiest and most powerful for me, but that's just because I've been using it for years and I know what I can and can't do with/through it. I found with UI Flow that it took me a long time to figure out how to do something if it wasn't immediately clear how to do it. Hope this makes sense.

@@MichaelKlements thanks for the quick reply... well I had to look up "IDE" (lol) which tells you a lot I guess! Even the jargon is a learning curve. Yes that does help actually. I checked out a couple of videos on UI Flow, and I can already see what you mean... but it's very helpful to hear first hand your experience. Of course, my problem is different from yours: your existing knowledge probably gets in the way, and I have no such problem! In UI Fow, I'm not sure how I would know which 'blocks' I need for a project, and I think that's where the UI gets a bit difficult, it sort of assumes you know what you're looking for. I guess, to be fair, that's a problem all the IDEs have: you need to know your hardware requirements, some basic electronics concepts, and have some idea of the functionality you need for both the hardware and your 'use case'... which is not obvious if you have limited or no experience of any IDE at all! What I liked the look of with the M5Stack was the form factor and screen with all those built-in capabilities... so much potential, but it's also a bit overwhelming if you don't know where to start. I'm currently thinking that Arduinos might be the way to go actually. Having done a YT free Arduino coding course, and studied the AccelStepper documentation, I've already learned the basics of the code structure and AccelStepper functions. Examining some example codes from GitHub has been a really good way to get my head around how the code works, as well as which code I might need for the functionality I have in mind. So I think this might well be the easier route, ironically, as it's just a matter of understanding the logic and then copying and then adapting existing code. I've figured out the motor requirements and which driver I need (in theory at least, so I'm going to over-specify the motor just to be safe), the OLED screen I want to use, and the interface controls. So now it's just a puzzle... I can see why people get so sucked into this maker culture... I'm even getting interested to learn basic CAD software lol...

@@MichaelKlements BTW, have you made the Raspberry Pi version of your camera slider yet? I was intrigued at the possibility of plahing with image-recognition, though it may be well beyond my ability at this point...

Yeah I think if you've got the time to learn each of them then your time would be better spent on Arduinos. There is a much larger online community and I've never run into a problem or had a question on a project which someone hadn't already experienced. The online community is really helpful to point you in the right direction or get some guidance when you get stuck. It is very much an iterative process. I usually start with a list of what hardware inputs and outputs I'd like to have, then figure out the sensors, boards and actuators etc. and then tackle the programming. If its complex then it helps to get a small program running with each individual sensors or hardware components first before combining them. I don't really like using Raspberry Pi's for projects than can be done with a microcontroller. It doesn't make much sense (in my mind) to use a Pi for a project that a microcontroller can handle better for a fraction of the price. With an Arduino you don't have to wait for it to boot up first or worry about shutting it down afterwards. You just turn it on and its ready to go and unplug it when you're done. They've also got analogue inputs built in. Pi's are only really useful for projects where you need strong networking abilities, lots of data processing or data logging and AI applications.

@@MichaelKlements Thanks for those explanations, that really helps clarify when to use Arduino vs Raspberry Pi. And I can see that Arduino is a really versatile platform for projects, just from the little bit of exposure I've had so far to such a wide range of projects that can be accomplished with a mircocontroller. I really like your prototyping suggestion of testing each bit of code with a single bit of hardware/sensor - I hadn't thought about it, but I can now see that would make fault-finding much simpler!

I've never used AWS or the AWS version of the Core 2, but it looks like quite a nice package. It would be good to know if you're able to re-flash the firmware on this version to be the standard Core 2 firmware if you change your mind in future.

Sandra, can it be flashed back to original firmware non aws?

@@yes_man_lol yes it can

I'm also curious about the moisture device. I am currently building a home hydroponic system and moisture level is important. Can you show me how to upload proper code for that? Also os there a way to spread out the sticks for multiple plants?

These are great to learn the basics and they're simple to use if you've got limited electronics or programming experience. The soil moisture sensor just provides a single analogue signal (0-3.3V) back to the device, so you can add as many sensors as you've got analogue inputs available. If you have a look at my blog (linked in the description) there are a couple of different soil moisture projects on different platforms to get started with.

There is quite a lot of documentation here - docs.m5stack.com/en/uiflow/uiflow_home_page

thanks!

Maybe just trying reflashing Ui Flow using M5 Burner?

It has SPI and I2C interfaces so you should be able to set up communication with an Arduino

Hi Kieran, you can contact me through the contact form on my blog - linked in the video description.

Seeed Studio, Amazon or Arduino's online store sell "Grove" modules which are compatible with these boards.

@@MichaelKlements thanks!

@@MichaelKlements I can buy sensors of arduino and connecting to m5stack ​Core2?

Yes most sensors that work with an Arduino will work with these as well.

You should be able to re-load the original code from their examples

Beef Ingot/ you have hit the nail on it’s capitalist head. Having electronics stuffed into a box will not help new users understand what’s going on under the cover. Your review of this “ system “ was well written and clearly explained what this system does and does not do. I have a few ideas for the developers. (1) make it easy to open up it’s case so users can open it up and see the electronics inside. (2) make the case in clear transparent material. (3) a complete parts list and a schematic If you provide the above information then you have a better chance in marketing this system. Last point ( made by many) make the software open source

I agree that they are quite expensive in comparison to other standalone microcontrollers, but they are much more of a complete package. Once you've bought an Arduino/ESP32, a battery pack, power supply, a colour touch display, some pushbuttons, a breadboard and jumpers along with a couple of sensor modules then you're probably not too far from the cost of these devices anyway. That being said it depends on what you'd like to use it for. Newbies find it quite daunting to order all of these components, have a box of electronics arrive and then have to learn electronics and programming together to get a basic project running. It's also disheartening for them to make a simple wiring mistake and damage the controller and/or sensors before they've got anything running. These bridge that gap somewhat and still allow people to add IO devices at a later stage. Personally, I'd prefer to have the box of electronics and be able to see and touch the individual components, but that's not for everyone. The software side, being Ui Flow, is just one option to use with these devices. They're essentially ESP32's at their core and are compatible with the Arduino IDE and probably most other IDEs which you'd use to program ESP32s.

I realized this comment went really long, but was in too deep to bother restructuring it so here's a TL:DR: I think all the points made are true, yet the pool of customers remains basically the same. It's too closed for newbies to learn skills that are transferable and too expensive for the initial investment in a hobby a new person might not be sure they are really interested in. It's great for gifts though exactly because of being just barely unjustifiable due to cost rather than being actually unobtanium. Boy, if this is the TL:DR I need to stop commenting so much. --- ​@@MichaelKlements I agree with most of what you said, but feel as though there is a caveat which still makes most of my feelings towards the product fair. The caveat, is that newbies aren't usually starting with extremely complex projects. They don't need all of that io right at the start. Usually, a beginner project will maybe have a couple leds and a button. You don't necessarily need a screen or touch interface or anything like that. As for the fact that its an esp32 underneath, I almost feel as if that hurts the value proposition because the value, is that its super easy to program for, but then if its an esp32 anyways, but you aren't learning transferable skills, what are you really learning from the experience? I think it teaches you how to program for this like of products but now how to program. I think it teaches you how to set up a project with these components but now how to use components in general. That's perfectly fine if you really do not care to progress further, but if you do, its a rather expensive proposition both monetarily for what it is (a fancy ESP32 with custom firmware), and time wise due to having to relearn the basics whenever you move on to a more custom solution. ALl in all, you make many great points, but I ultimately feel as though while I think they all make sense, non of them really change who I think is the person who is ideal to buy this product. I think its too expensive for a regular new person, too limited for someone who is getting into it to learn (unless you kind of defeat the purpose and just move to a different programming suite), and just right for someone with exposable income, and empty drawer to fill, and who might one day use it for a one off quarantine project where they don't necessarily care about going further. That's perfectly fine, but I think that's a relatively niche audience. For this to have wider appeal, I feel it could go 2 directions. Either it could lower in price (which I understand no company wants to do if they don't have to), or it could have the interface be more friendly to transferring skills/learning. At this point I realize I could totally be talking out of ignorance, because maybe it does and it just wasn't talked about, but the ui interface should translate to a real, non closed down programming language. That way at least it would have the real value added benefit of being a good beginners learning tool for microcontrollers. I do realize I might have a bias with my experience now (I'm actually not even very experienced at all, I've maybe programmed for 3 years now, and have used microcontrollers for less than that in any real hobbyist sense), but I am trying to view things from the perspective of when I started, and as a non rich person, I cant imagine buying one of these as a newbie, yet alone handful of these later. I have a couple raspberry pis, a jetson nano, and a bunch of esp32s, and I cant justify this now, so I have a really hard time imaging a new person without a lot of disposable income going for this when they arent even sure how interested they are. As I typed this massive wall of text though, I did realize another potential customer: Gift givers. Id never buy this, but I might gift it as its the perfect thing for a gift. Its just past the point that someone might personally justify buying it, yet its still neat. The perfect amount of excess for a gift.