Several problems: Intermittent connection(serial), won't sync, lousy documention, etc.

[cparrish60]

I got a few LoPys about a month ago and spent three weeks playing with them. I've had some success, but mostly aggravation. The Atom plug-in is a POS. I had high hopes for PyCom, but I'm ready to throw them in the trash. Not my first rodeo; I have done several complex Arduino projects and many old-time 8051 projects in years past, but this thing drives me nuts. BTW, the documentation is sparse and out of date. Anyone else?

[TravisT]

I have not had too many issues with the PyMakr plugin for atom. But I can understand if you do not like that setup. At least with more recent version of the plugin (November is the last I used it heavily), I did not have problems. What I remember annoying me the most was not being able to copy from the REPL.

rshell is also a good option when you have a physical serial connection
https://github.com/dhylands/rshell

[jmarcelino]

@cparrish60
You can try the Visual Studio Code (free) plugin too: https://docs.pycom.io/chapter/pymakr/installation/vscode.html

If you're more of a DIY type you can also use any editor you want and upload from the command line using ftp or if using serial mpfshell https://github.com/PMunch/mpfshell

[cparrish60]

@ahaw021 At first, I thought PyMakr was annoying, but it failed so many times that I gave up. I'm now looking at using Arduino software and ESP-IDF/Eclipse IDE. I see that PyMakr/PyCharm is out, so I may try that later. BTW, I haven't had a problem with micropython or ESP32, but I f*ing hate Atom.

[TravisT]

Even though Pycom is not perfect, overall I have been really happy. It is really hard to compare Arduino (both simpler and with a large head start regarding maturity) with the much newer and complex ESP32 based devices.

I agree that some areas the documentation is amazing and some area it is sparse. The Micropython.org documentation can help fill in some of the gaps, or asking specific questions on the forums.

I agree with @ahaw021, that being more specific about your issues will both help you and the community by feeding back what is needed. Also being guilty of this myself, often a small issue causing you a lot of problems, or learning new skills/workflows feeling uncomfortable. I felt similar when I first started using Pycom devices, but it feels more natural now.

[ahaw021]

@cparrish60

unfortunate - personally i have had great success with the nodes and i think the documentation is some of the best around

i use the PyMakr plugin with Atom and yes it can be annoying sometimes but overall a good coding experience

not sure how having success with something like arduino automatically should mean mean that you will be successful with another chip-set (ESP32) and language (mircopython)

Maybe if you took some time out to explain what your end goals are, what your understanding of programming and functioning of the lopy boards and how you have gone about trying to do what you want to do people may be able to pick up on where you are missing a concept and help out

Andrei