Installing nanoFramework on the ATOM Lite ESP32 (M5Stack)

I have a wonderful little M5Stack ATOM Lite, ESP32 based dev kit to play with and as I’d had such success with the M5Core2 and nanoFramework, I thought I’d try the framework on the ATOM lite.

You, can check the device and the “Firmware Target” for the device from Recommended devices to start with .NET nanoFramework. So, for this device the target is ESP32_PICO.

If we connect your device to your computer’s USB port (hopefully the device will be recognised, if not see my previous post on setting up the M5Core2) execute the following command from the CLI, we’ll flash the device with the nanoFramework

nanoff --target ESP32_PICO --update --serialport COM10

Change the COM port to whatever your device is on. Also I’m again assuming you’ve installed nanoff, if not try running the following from the CLI “dotnet tool install -g nanoff”.

The ATOM lite comes with WiFi, bluetooth a NeoPixel RGB LED, button and even infrared.

Once you’ve installed nanoFramework, create a new nanoFramework project in Visual Studio 2022 (seem my previous posts on setting this up if you’ve not already got everything setup).

Let’s start with the LED, we’ll simply change the colour of the LED. First, you’ll need to add the package nanoFramework.AtomLite via NuGet. Next copy and paste this code into the Program.cs

while (true)
{
    AtomLite.NeoPixel.Image.SetPixel(0, 0, Color.Gray);
    AtomLite.NeoPixel.Update();

    Thread.Sleep(5000);

    AtomLite.NeoPixel.Image.SetPixel(0, 0, Color.Green);
    AtomLite.NeoPixel.Update();

    Thread.Sleep(5000);

    AtomLite.NeoPixel.Image.SetPixel(0, 0, Color.Red);
    AtomLite.NeoPixel.Update();
}