Photon, Electron, and Core
The first prototyping board that was released by Particle (then known as Spark) was called Core. The subsequent prototyping boards released by Particle were called Photon and Electron. Core was superseded by the more powerful, faster, and less expensive Photon. Sale of Core has since been discontinued at Particle's online store at https://store.particle.io/, and hence, we will primarily discuss the Photon and the Electron. At the end of this chapter, we do a feature-wise comparison of the boards. The comparison can help one arrive at the most suitable board for one's project needs.
Spark Core
The Spark Core was the first IoT prototyping board released by Spark (now known as Particle) in a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised $567,968 from 5,549 backers. The Spark Core is an Arduino-compatible, Wi-Fi enabled, cloud-powered development platform that makes creating Internet-connected hardware a breeze.
The technical details of Spark Core are as follows:
ARM Cortex M3 CPU
72 MHz operating frequency
128 KB flash memory
20 KB RAM
12-bit ADC
Wireless programming
Analogue and digital I/O pins
TI CC3000 Wi-Fi module
802.11 b/g Wi-Fi support
USB 2.0 full-speed interface
The Spark Core is priced at $39 USD.
Particle Photon
The Photon was built considering the feedback received from Core users. Thus, the Photon is the successor of the Core, and is more powerful than the Core in terms of CPU and memory.
The Photon can be ordered with or without headers, which means it has the flexibility to be used as a prototyping board (with headers) by hobbyists, or it can be soldered into a bigger circuit (without headers) for production.
The Photon is also Arduino-compatible, like its predecessor.
The technical details of the Photon are as follows:
120 Mhz ARM Cortex M3 processor
Wireless programming
Broadcom BCM43362 Wi-Fi chip
Supports 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi
1 MB flash memory
128 KB RAM
18 GPIO and peripheral pins
On-board RGB LED
Real-time operating system (FreeRTOS)
Support for AP (Access Point) mode (SoftAP)
Open source design
FCC, CE, and IC certified
The Photon has additional capabilities such as a wake-up pin for waking up from low power modes. The Photon is optimized to use less power, and this is made possible by the new Wi-Fi module it uses—Broadcom's BCM43362, which it incorporates. This new Wi-Fi chip powers other popular IoT products such as Nest Protect, LIFX, and others, as it provides the most stable solution. The Photon is available for $19 USD, and can be purchased from Particle's online store at https://store.particle.io.
Particle Electron
The Electron is a cousin of the Photon with minor differences. It has a GSM module instead of a Wi-Fi module. The Electron can be used for creating cellular-connected electronics projects and products. It ships with a SIM card, and is optimized for low-bandwidth messages. The SIM card offers affordable data plans for over 100 countries worldwide through carriers such as Telefonica, AT&T, T-Mobile, O2, Movistar, Vivo, Telenor, Rogers, and many more. You can find the list of countries where the Electron's GSM connectivity is available at https://www.particle.io/cellular.
The technical details of the Electron are as follows:
1 MB flash
128 KB RAM
Wireless programming
U-blox SARA-U260/U270 (3G) and G350 (2G) cellular module
STM32F205 120 MHz ARM Cortex M3 microcontroller
RGB status LED
30 mixed-signal GPIO and advanced peripherals
Open source design
RTOS
FCC, CE, and IC certified
The Electron is available both in 2G and 3G variants. The Electron 2G is available for US $39, while the Electron the 3G variant is available for US $59. The Electron SIM card is available without any contracts, and the basic data charges are $2.99 per month for 1 MB and an additional $0.99 for each additional megabyte of data transferred.
Comparison
This section provides a tabular comparison between Spark Core, Particle Photon, and Particle Electron. This table can help in an easy reference of technical specifications, and can also help decide the best board to use for a given project.
|
Feature |
Spark Core |
Particle Photon |
Particle Electron |
|
Wi-Fi Support |
802.11 b/g |
802.11 b/g/n |
No |
|
Wireless Module |
TI CC3000 |
Broadcom BCM43362 |
U-Blox SARA U-Series or G-Series |
|
Microcontroller |
STM32F103 |
STM32F205 |
STM32F205 |
|
CPU speed |
72 MHz |
120 MHz |
120 Mhz |
|
Flash memory |
128 KB |
1 MB |
1 MB |
|
RAM |
20 KB |
128 KB |
128 KB |
|
Wakeup pin exposed |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
|
VBAT pin exposed |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
|
No. of GPIO pins |
18 |
18 |
30 |
|
UART present |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
JTAG present |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
I2C present |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
SPI present |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
ADC present |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
DAC present |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
|
CAN present |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Dimensions and weight |
35.6 mm x 20.3 mm x 11 mm, 6 g |
With headers -36.6 mm x 20.3 mm x 6.9 mm, 5 g
Without headers - 36.6 mm x 20.3 mm x 4.3 mm, 3.7 g
|
20.32 mm x 16.5 mm x 52.1 mm, 10 g |
|
Operating voltage and current |
3.6V to 6V,
~ 50 mA to 300 mA normally,
3.2 μA in deep sleep
|
3.6V to 5.5V,
~ 80 mA normally
~ 80 uA in deep sleep mode
|
3.7V,
~ 180 mA normally
~ 130 uA in deep sleep mode.
|
|
Price |
$39 |
$19 |
$39 or $59 |
Table 5: Comparison of Particle products
