diff --git a/ports/nrf/boards/simmel/mpconfigboard.mk b/ports/nrf/boards/simmel/mpconfigboard.mk
index 992188b1d4..df67271445 100644
--- a/ports/nrf/boards/simmel/mpconfigboard.mk
+++ b/ports/nrf/boards/simmel/mpconfigboard.mk
@@ -28,6 +28,8 @@ CIRCUITPY_NVM = 0
 CIRCUITPY_PIXELBUF  = 0
 CIRCUITPY_PULSEIO = 0
 CIRCUITPY_PWMIO = 1
+# Deliberately excluded for other reasons than code space, see #5534
+CIRCUITPY_RAINBOWIO = 0
 CIRCUITPY_RGBMATRIX = 0
 CIRCUITPY_ROTARYIO = 0
 CIRCUITPY_RTC = 1