Adafruit PyPortal Titano Display Board

Adafruit PyPortal Titano Display Board is an easy-to-use IoT device that allows a user to create all the things for the “Internet of Things” in just minutes. The user can make custom touch screen interface GUIs, all open-source, and Python-powered using tinyJSON/APIs to get news, stock, weather, photos, and more, all over Wi-Fi. The Titano uses a Microchip ATSAMD51J20 and an Espressif ESP32 Wi-Fi coprocessor with built-in TLS/SSL support. The Titano has a bigger 3.5″ diagonal 320x480 color TFT than the original PyPortal's 3.2" 240x320 screen, with a resistive touch screen. The connector is a reverse-friendly USB Type-C connector.

The Titano has a higher-resolution screen, with a different controller chip. The processor, STEMMA connectors, and Wi-Fi have the same wiring as the original 3.2" PyPortal. If the user is running Arduino/CircuitPython code, the user just has to adjust the graphics and fonts for a larger resolution screen. The Titano includes a speaker, light sensor, NeoPixel, MicroSD card slot, 8MB flash, plug-in ports for I²C, and 2 analog/digital pins. The board also has open-source hardware, open-source software, CircuitPython, and Arduino. The device shows up as a USB drive and the code (Python) can be edited in any IDE or text editor.

The SAMD51 M4 has native USB so it can show up as a disk drive, act as a MIDI or HID keyboard/mouse, and of course bootload, and debug over a serial port. It also has DACs, ADC, PWM, and tons of GPIOs. The ESP32 has secure Wi-Fi capabilities and plenty of Flash and RAM to buffer sockets. By letting the ESP32 focus on the complex TLS/SSL computation and socket buffering, it frees up the SAMD51 M4 to act as the user interface. The user gets a great programming experience thanks to the native USB with files available for drag-n-drop. The user doesn't have to spend a ton of processor time and memory to do SSL encryption/decryption and certificate management.