TinyML Research And Learning With Wio Terminal

Produced by 21ic Forum jinglixixi

Website: bbs.21ic.com

The Wio Terminal development board is a compact and exquisite product. This is because it differs significantly from the evaluation products we commonly see. Firstly, most MCU evaluation boards do not come with peripherals or have very simple peripherals, consisting only of LEDs and buttons; secondly, for those performance evaluation boards, while they may have richer peripheral configurations, they still appear as development boards overall. The protagonist we are introducing here is more of a product in terms of appearance, as shown in Figures 1 and 2.

Since the Wio Terminal development board can appear in a terminal way, it can also be referred to as the “Wio Terminal”.

Figure 1 Front of the product

Figure 2 Back of the product

What features and advantages does it have?

This development board is based on the Microchip ATSAMD51P19 microcontroller as the core processing unit, with a running speed of 120MHz-200MHz. It supports Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (only Arduino supports wireless connections), providing the foundation for building IoT projects. The development board is equipped with a 2.4-inch LCD display, onboard IMU (LIS3DHTR), microphone, buzzer, microSD card slot, light sensor, and infrared transmitter (IR 940nm), with its structural layout shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3 Internal Structure

The reason we say it is a little elf for TinyML research and learning is that, with its peripheral configuration and the visual training models available online along with Arduino IDE deployment models, it can facilitate machine learning applications, as shown in Figures 4 and 5.

Figure 4 Machine Learning Process

Figure 5 Intelligent Recognition

Relevant product parameters are shown in Table 1:

Table 1 Product Parameters

Main Chip	Manufacturer Part Number	ATSAMD51P19
Core Processor	ARM® Cortex®-M4F
CPU Speed	120MHz (up to 200MHz)
Program Storage Size	512KB
External Flash Memory	4MB
RAM Size	192KB
Operating Temperature	-40°C ~ 85°C (TA)
LCD Screen	Resolution	320 x 240
Display Size	2.4 inches
Driver IC	ILI9341
Wireless Connection	Manufacturer Part Number	RTL8720DN
KM4 CPU	ARM® Cortex®-M4F
KM0 CPU	ARM® Cortex®-M0
Wi-Fi	802.11 a/b/g/n 1×1, 2.4GHz & 5GHz
Bluetooth	Supports BLE5.0
Hardware Engine	AES/DES/SHA
Built-in Module	Accelerometer	LIS3DHTR
Microphone	1.0V-10V -42dB
Speaker	≥78dB @10cm 4000Hz
Light Sensor	400-1050nm
Infrared Emitter	940nm
Interface	microSD Card Slot	Maximum 16GB
GPIO	40-PIN (Compatible with Raspberry Pi)
Grove	2 (Multifunctional)
FPC	20-PIN
USB Type-C	Power & USB-OTG
Operating Interface	5-way Switch	/
Power/Reset Switch	/
User Custom Buttons x3	/
Case	Dimensions	72mm*57mm*12mm
Material	ABS+PC

Additionally, to support more additional components, it is also equipped with two multifunctional Grove ports for the Grove ecosystem and a dual-row 40-pin GPIO pin compatible with Raspberry Pi, as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6 Pin Assignment

Among them, the Arduino IDE is familiar and chosen by many electronic enthusiasts, as it is a low-threshold and easy-to-start development tool.

The product consists of 5 components: the Wio Terminal development board, USB Type-C data cable, spare keycaps, user manual, and stickers, as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7 Product Composition

1. Power On

Connect the Wio Terminal to the computer using the included USB cable, and then power it on as shown in Figure 9. At this point, you will notice the green LED on the back is lit.

Note: The top position of the side switch is off, the middle position is on, and the bottom position is reset.

Figure 8 Power Connection

Figure 9 Power On

Of course, if the Wio Terminal crashes or the Arduino IDE cannot find the USB serial port, there is another way to enter the bootloader, as shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10 Entering Bootloader

Surprisingly, the startup interface is actually a mini-game, as shown in Figure 11. At the top of the interface, the functions of the three operation keys are given: start, jump, and shoot.

Press the “Start” key to start the game; press the “Jump” key to leap over obstacles. If left to run, it will soon be “OVER”!

Figure 11 Initial Interface

Figure 12 Game Over

2. User’s Small Requirements

To use this product well, a small requirement is to have a certain level of English reading ability. Why do I say this?

When you open the user manual, you will find that it is only available in English, Japanese, and German. More importantly, when accessing the official website, although there is a webpage that supports Chinese display, the content is not synchronized; some key content cannot be seen on the Chinese page, so some English reading skills are also essential. However, we are not reading a novel; combining the interface display and program content can still help understand its meaning.

3. Development Environment Setup

Taking Arduino IDE as an example, the setup process is as follows:

1) Download and install Arduino IDE 1.8.5, and then open Arduino IDE to configure it to support the Wio Terminal development board;

2) Click on the “File” menu and select “Preferences”, then enter the URL

“https://files.seeedstudio.com/arduino/package_seeeduino_boards_index.json”, and then click the “OK” button, as shown in Figure 13;

Figure 13 Adding URL

3) Click on the “Tools” menu and select “Board” and then “Board Manager…”, and in the search bar, enter the keyword “Wio Terminal”, and click the “Install” button;

Figure 14 Search for “Wio Terminal”

4) After installation, it will appear as shown in Figure 15. At this time, you will see the corresponding options for Seeeduino class under the “Board Manager…” option, as shown in Figure 16.

Figure 15 Installation Complete

Figure 16 Addition Complete

5) Under normal circumstances, if the Wio Terminal is connected to the computer, the drivers will be installed automatically, as shown in Figure 17. Otherwise, you need to download and install the drivers manually;

Figure 17 Driver Installation Complete

Since the Wio Terminal does not provide a separate driver, in case of errors in automatic loading of the driver, you can download the Seeeduinov4.2 driver to resolve the issue.

Figure 18 Seeeduino v4.2 Development Board

6) For download verification, the best method is to select the Blink example by going to File -> Examples -> 01.Basics -> Blink;

Figure 19 Program Content and Verification

7) Go to Tools -> Board -> Seeeduino WioTerminal to select the board type;

8) Go to Tools -> Serial Port to select the virtual serial port of the product;

9) Click the Upload button on the toolbar, wait a few seconds, and the upload will be completed, with the status bar showing the message “Done uploading.”, as shown in Figure 20.

At this point, you will see the blue LED on the back of the Wio Terminal start to blink, indicating that the development environment is set up.

Figure 20 Upload Complete

Later, we will show you its colorful display functions and how to use graphical functions, so stay tuned.

This article is an original work by 21ic forum user jinglixixi. For data download, please click on “Read the original”.

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