DumbDumb Is a Small, Smart Hardware Terminal in FeatherWing Form

Terminals have existed almost as long as computers have. While terminals don’t traditionally have the ability to run any software themselves, they do provide inputs and outputs for the computers and servers that do. They’re common in large-scale settings where servers don’t need their own monitors and keyboards. They’re also useful in the maker community for people running headless computers, working with microcontrollers, and more. DumbDumb is a small, smart hardware terminal that comes in Adafruit’s FeatherWing form.

Despite the name, DumbDumb isn’t a dumb terminal. While it only understands some VT100 terminal commands, it boots to Python and works with the MicroPython REPL. Working with REPLs like MicroPython is the main purpose for DumbDumb. Because it’s FeatherWing-compatible, it can be used with a wide range of Adafruit Feather boards. Specifically, it’s meant to work with the Adafruit Feather HUZZAH32 ESP32 board.

DumbDumb has its own STM32G071R8 microcontroller. The screen is a 320x240 LCD. Le Roux Bodenstein is considering updating the design to include a larger 480x320 display. That new revision would also add a number of power-saving measures, including hardware interrupts to the ESP32’s RTC to wake it up from sleep. Future firmware updates are also possible. Those could, for example, include a function for switching a graphical mode. While those aren’t necessary to work with MicroPython, they could be useful. The design is small, battery-powered, and has a full tactile keyboard to make it easy to type on.