Photon per Spark Core

General
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Dear all,
I am a new user of Photon. I’d like to know if I can use a Photon in place of a Spark Core with no app code or pin changes. In other words, can I directly substitute a Spark Core for a Photon without design modifications?

Thanks for any help…

Cesar

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I am a new user of Photon. I'd like to know if I can use a Photon in place of a Spark Core with no app code or pin changes. In other words, can I directly substitute a Spark Core for a Photon without design modifications?

They're mostly pin compatible, however:

  • The Core has significantly less RAM, so large Photon programs won't run on the Core.
  • The Photon supports CAN, and the Core does not.
  • The Photon supports on-device Wi-Fi setup (SoftAP), the Core does not.
  • The Core supports Serial2 on D0/D1, the Photon uses the pads on the bottom instead.
  • The Photon supports threads, the Core requires a separate library, but memory will be an issue.

That's off the top of my head. There are probably other differences.

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A few more differences

  • The Photon supports battery backed Backup RAM and RTC, the Core not
  • The Core has a filtered 3.3* pin, the Photon has this as supply VBAT for Backup RAM & RTC
  • The pins available for interrupts differ slightly
  • On Photon all GPIO pins but A3/A6 (aka DAC) are 5V tolerant, on the Core only D0, D1, D3, D4, D5, D6 & D7
  • The Photon has two DAC pins
  • The Photon “only” stores up to 5 sets of WiFi credentials, the Core up to 7
  • The Photon supports chip and external antenna, for the Core exist two dedicated devices either with a chip antenna or a uFL connector for ext. antenna

But it might be a lot easier if you tell us what your Core projects are currently using to answer whether the Photon will be a drop-in replacement or not.
As you see, in most aspects the Photon will be suitable as drop-in, but for some special cases it won’t - so it depends on your project.

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Thank you for the answers