Wired Py?

[mike632t]

Wireless devices are very portable (which is not at all a bad thing) but are there any plans for a wired device - possibly using POE...?

[jmarcelino]

The ESP32 chip supports native Ethernet through an external RMII chip (for example the popular LAN8720, breakouts can be bought for $3)

I tested this on another ESP32 about a week ago! Works really well.

https://twitter.com/jmarcelino/status/843256681807171585

It is still only on the C-interface side (ESP-IDF) but no doubt it will be ported to MicroPython.

There is an issue with pin assignments on the LoPy and SiPy, one of the necessary (non-changeable) pins conflicts with the communications chip in those. But should work on the WiPy. (I don't have one to test...)

That said if you have PoE it generally means you have ample power available so the board would be competing with the $10 Pis / OpenWRT etc of this world which offer full-fat Python at very high speeds and ample interfacing options. Other than being smaller I don't see how a major market could come from competing with those.

[robert-hh]

@mike632t If you look at micropython.org, it's forum and it's github repository, there are ports for quite a few wired devices. The reference port is called PyBoard, and the MP-Port is pretty stable. The Pycom MP is more or less a spin-off from micropython.org, which is mostly non-commercial.