PiicoDev is the open-source and best-documented platform specifically designed with rapid prototyping and maker education in mind. As fellow community educators, we have infused PiicoDev with ideas to ensure that every home project, school activity, and maker space workshop is both rewarding and creative. Fully compatible with Raspberry Pi Single Board Computers, Micro:Bit, and Raspberry Pi Pico, PiicoDev is the perfect tool for any maker or prototyping enthusiast.
There are other prototyping and maker education, plug-and-play, ecosystems out there. Does that mean you now need to throw all their gear and buy PiicoDev replacements? Definitely not! Makers are all about making do and a number of these ecosystems will operate together happily. Makers are known for their resourcefulness, and many of these ecosystems can work together harmoniously with a little bit of coercion (i.e., providing the right power, commands, and communication channels to the integrated circuits embedded in the PCBs).
So this guide will explain the connectivity and power requirements of all the main Plug-and-Play maker education ecosystems. See the contents of the guide below.
MindMap of Ecosystems
To help you understand the connectivity and power requirements of the main plug-and-play maker education ecosystems, we have created a comprehensive guide. This guide includes a mind map of the different ecosystems, examples of cross-pollination, and a list of other ecosystems that are worth knowing about, such as Seeed Studio Grove, Adafruit Stemma, Adafruit StemmaQT, Sparkfun Qwiic, and DFRobot Gravity. These ecosystems offer an incredible variety of sensors, breakout boards, and developer circuits that could all work together to create a single unified project (with some necessary elbow grease of course).
If you ever find yourself at a crossroads, remember that PiicoDev and we are here to support you. With so many different brands and types available, it can be overwhelming to navigate the technical jargon. That's why we have cut through the chaff and distilled the information down to the essentials. As always if you have any questions, queries, or things you'd like me to help hook up for you, please just let me know your thoughts!
MindMap of Ecosystems
Understanding what can work together seamlessly and what combinations can present hurdles is important. And it's even more helpful to have a visual aid, such as a Venn diagram or mind map, to reference quickly. That's why our Artist in Residence, Wolf, has created a comprehensive mind map for connecting different ecosystems together. This mind map serves as a quick reference guide, featuring terminology that will be explained further in the guide.
Requires Cable Adapter – Official PiicoDev Cables are 4 Pin JST SH. Official PiicoDev cables have wires which are Blue, Yellow, Black, and Red. Respectively they transfer I2C Data, I2C Clock, Ground, and Power. These are compatible with Qwiic and STEMMA QT boards and cables. If the diagram requires a Cable Adapter it means the other Ecosystem utilises a different standard. In that situation, you will need to utilise an Adapter to provide the two systems a pathway to communicate. See a Piicodev Cable 50mm in the image below.
I2C – This is a method of communication between Integrated Circuits. The big picture is that it is a synchronous, multi-controller/multi-target (controller/target), packet-switched, single-ended, serial communication bus. The easier-to-understand picture is that you can easily daisy chain multiple sensors together in series with this communication method. Learn a whole bunch about I2C here.
UART – This is another (older) method of communication between Integrated Circuits. It stands for Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter. It’s not a communication protocol like SPI and I2C, but instead, it is a physical integrated circuit on a microcontroller. A UART’s main purpose is to transmit and receive serial data. Learn a whole bunch about UART here.
Analog – Digital communication is simply ones and zeros. Analog is everything else. This is a big world and I'd recommend this linked guide to understand it better. This means you will need an Analog to Digitial Converter (ADC) Board to convert the analog information into a format that a PiicoDev Board can understand. Learn a whole bunch about Analog here and here.
QT – Shorthand for Cute, Adafruits way of indicating the board is small. You will note Stemma and StemmaQT, they are very similar except operate with different connectors. StemmaQT shares the same cable as PiicoDev Cables
3.3V and 5V, 3.3V – These are the voltages the Boards can operate at.
Officially Supported Libraries – These are listing only the fully supported Programming languages. Usually, each module and Developer Board will have some example codes/scripts that are written in the Official Supported Language.
For prosperity below is my original draft image of the mindmap. Thankfully it was rescued by a talented digital designer.
Ecosystem Cross-Pollination Examples
I will now run through the process of connecting PiicoDev Hardware to other Ecosystems. I will only focus on the ones that are not directly compatibile like StemmaQT and Sparkfun Qwiic
PiicoDev Hardware to Adafruit STEMMA.
Looking at the above diagram there are two factors to keep on top of, Voltages and Connectors.
PiicoDev has PiicoDev Connectors and Stemma has f
PiicoDev must run at 3.3V and Adafruit STEMMA can run at 3.3V - 5V.
PiicoDev Hardware to DF Robot.
Looking at the above diagram we can see there are two factors to keep on to of
PiicoDev Hardware to SeeedStudio Grove
