M5stickC Plus from M5Stack with the Arduino IDE

The M5stickC ESP32 development module from M5Stack has been upgraded with the new M5StickC Plus. The M5StickC was already our favorite ESP32 module but has now become even better thanks to a larger LCD screen, a more powerful battery, and a built-in buzzer.

Tested and recommended by OneGuyOneBlog.com:

M5Stack® M5StickC PLUS ESP32-PICO Mini IoT Development Board
Banggood.com

M5stickC Plus vs M5StickC

The screen of the new module is larger (1.14 “, instead of 0.96”) and has a higher resolution (135×240 pixels instead of 80×160). The new battery has 40 mAh more capacity and a buzzer is now also built-in. Furthermore, the HAT port has an extra GPIO pin (G25), there are 2 additional mounting holes at the back. All other properties have remained the same compared to the previous module.

M5stickC Plus and the Arduino IDE

Of course, you can also program this module with the Arduino IDE. For this, you need to have the IDE installed together with the ESP32 core for the Arduino IDE. If you haven’t already, follow the directions in the blog “ESP32 with Arduino IDE on Linux and Windows“. In brief:

1. Download and install the Arduino IDE. For more information, you can read the blogs “Installing the Arduino IDE on Windows 10” or “Install or upgrade to the latest Arduino IDE on Linux“.
2. Start the IDE and open “Preferences” via menu File > Preferences.
3. Enter this URL in the “Additional Board Manager URLs” field: https://dl.espressif.com/dl/package_esp32_index.json
4. Open “Boards Manager” via menu Tools > Board > Board Manager and install the esp32 platform.

Then you can install the libraries for the M5StickC Plus. At the time of writing these are not yet available in the Arduino IDE Library Manager, so you will have to install them manually. You can do this as follows:

1. Go to GitHub and download the libraries in .zip format.
2. In the Arduino IDE, go to Sketch > Use Library > Add .ZIP Library… and choose the .zip file you just downloaded.

When the library is installed you can select the module and upload the FactoryTest sketch to see if everything works:

1. Go to the Tools menu and choose “M5Stick-C“ at “Board”
2. Select at “Upload Speed” the rate “1500000“
3. At “Port” you select the correct COM port for the module.
4. You can now load the example and upload it to the module: File > Examples > M5StickCPlus > example > FactoryTest

Tested and recommended by OneGuyOneBlog.com:

M5Stack® M5StickC PLUS ESP32-PICO Mini IoT Development Board
Banggood.com

To be continued

In the near future, I will also make the projects for the “old” module on this website suitable for the Plus. Have you made cool projects yourself with this module? Let us know in the comment section below!