Absolute Beginner; Which Pins to Connect Sensors etc to

[Vlasko]

Hi All,

I am an absolute beginner, and I bought a MicroPy because I have experience with Python, and so thought that it would be more straight forward from a software point of view than an Arduino.

I am having some problems finding the associated pins on the MicroPy for Arduino compatible sensors. Many of the pins are quite obvious, but some are not. For example on one of the sensors I bought there is one labelled ILED, where does this go? Is there a good cheat sheet to match up the labels on sensors to where they go on the MicroPy?

[ThomasChr]

You need to figure out what kind of Signal the Pin Sensor puts out. If it‘s a simple digital High or Low then nearly every (GPIO) Pin on the Pyboard can read it. If it‘s serial you need a Pyboard Pin Capable of Serial Data Transfer. If it‘s analog you need a (ADC) Pin which can read analog signals and so on...

Does that help you a little bit?

Thomas

[Vlasko]

Ok, that does make sense. I have never really done electronics, do you know any good resources that could help me do a bit of a crash course?

Also, do sensors such as this require you to run additional programs? If so, does that mean certain sensors aren't MicroPy compatible?

[ThomasChr]

As you are the creator of the programs it's possible to read nearly every sensor with Micropython.
If the voltage level do not match you need to add some hardware. And if the sensor is way to fast you also need some stage before Micropython.

Good thing is: Most of the program code to read the sensors already haven been written by someone, so you just need to find the correct library.

To learn electronics I would recommend a good book. There are tons out there!