Tessel and breadboards

[patrickm]

Hi,

with Arduino, I am used to access the analog and digital pins directly, e.g. to have LEDs blinking via a breadboard.

What examples are there to have the pins of the Tessel connected to a breadboard, and work with "custom" components (LEDs, shift registers, etc.)

Thanks!

[OlsonDev]

Hi @patrickm,

I'm not sure if you had more in mind but this is all I'm doing...

I'm using something similar to the breadboard jumper wires mentioned here except Male/Male (I shopped around on Amazon for variety packs though).

Did you have something fancier in mind?

[patrickm]

ahhh.. thanks!

yes, that picture helps to envision the kind of projects I am thinking on. Strangely I was confused by having a Tessel module in my hand, that the module should be something that would go to the breadboard.
The module terminates a number of pins, but indeed the module can be skipped as a whole.
Any plans to build a custom module yourself?
Cheers!

[OlsonDev]

You bet!

You can certainly put a Tessel module directly in the breadboard and connect to it via jumper wires. For example, see this guy's solution to the climate module picking up some of the Tessel's heat (see ekolker's explanation above for more info). But yeah, the intent of all the first-start projects (for example) is that you plug the module in directly.

As far as my plans to build a custom module... not quite but that picture I embedded above is the start of my homemade keyboard project; currently each one of those 20 buttons works as intended. Expect a project post with more details in the near future.

[jon]

@patrickm,

If you haven't seen it already, the docs have a lot of information about how to use the GPIOs in ways that you're probably familiar with from arduino.

-Jon

[patrickm]

just one last thing: the arduino setups allow wiring up 5V from the board, how/where would I get the 5V from Tessel.
I saw the 3.3V but some ICs require 5V, any options here?
thanks!

[jon]

Hi @patrickm,

If you're powering the Tessel with 5V (as you do when you use a USB cable), you'll have 5V on the VIN header of the GPIO bank (corner closest to Port B).

Keep in mind that most sensors that are powered by 5V will likely have 5V logic levels on any signals. Tessel is a 3.3V microcontroller so the logic levels need to be 3.3V maximum. You'll need to reduce the voltage from 5V to 3.3V in that case (commonly achieved with a voltage divider).

-Jon

[patrickm]

Thanks, these are great exercises to get to know the Tessel.

I just got my first LED blinking via the GPIO:

var tessel = require('tessel'); // import tessel
var gpio = tessel.port['A']; // select the GPIO port

// Toggle an LED every 200ms
(function blink (value) {
  gpio.digital[2].write(value);
  setTimeout(blink, 200, !value);
})(true)

`

and then

tessel run example.js`

Let's see if I can drive the 74HC595 shift register with 3V.