Hello everyone,
I am not sure if anyone else has tried Adafruit's Feather M0 series of boards yet. They appear to be using an older version of the SAM-BA bootloader and it's absolutely terrible. Seeing as it's the exactly same MCU and crystal as the Zero would there be any reason why the proven Zero bootloader wouldn't work on it?
Thanks
What's terrible about it?
I'm surprised the SAM-BA bootloader even works with the IDE since I have been unable to get the IDE to detect the SAM-BA bootloader when it's loaded onto a SAMD21E17. I thought maybe the IDE was just incompatible with it. The Arduino team hasn't been very forthcoming with information regarding it.
And to answer your question, the Zero bootloader should work just fine on it. I use that on my Neutrino.
Boards they are shipping today are using an old version that's neither stable or fast. Compared to the Arduino modified version used on the Zero it takes double the time and fails 50% or great of the time. Adafruit is also using their own USB VID/PID values so you have to rely on their outdated driver package as well.
If you have time take a look at the Adafruit forum and the all of the bootloader complaints. Their support team even admits they have no clue why their bootloader fails so often. Eventually I am taking the same route as you and creating my own board. I thought the Feather M0 would be a nice step between a Zero and my own board so I could get some power usage data without the EDBG.