Now You Can Use the Qwiic Connect System with Your Favorite Development Boards

Microcontroller development boards, like the popular Arduino line, are great for prototyping electronic devices. But the more components…

Cameron Coward
5 years ago

Microcontroller development boards, like the popular Arduino line, are great for prototyping electronic devices. But the more components you connect to them, the more complicated the wiring becomes. If you’ve got a lot of components, you’ll quickly end up with a headache-inducing rat’s nest of wires. SparkFun Electronics’ Qwiic Connect System is designed to simplify that wiring by using chainable I2C modules that require just four wires. Now a new set of adapters is being launched on Crowd Supply that will let you connect your favorite development boards to Qwiic modules.

Qwiic Connect System modules are designed to be used with one of SparkFun’s development boards, such as the RedBoard Qwiic. Those boards have the standard I/O pins that you’d find on any other microcontroller development board, but they also include a 4-pin JST connector for attaching Qwiic modules. Those modules include sensors, relays, LCDs, and more. Because they use I2C for communication, you can chain as many modules together as you like. You can use the I2C protocol with any microcontroller, but the easy-to-use Qwiic connectors have only been available on SparkFun boards. With these adapters, you can use Qwiic modules with a variety of other development boards.

At launch, there will be adapters for Arduino, Adafruit Feather, Adafruit ItsyBitsy, Adafruit Trinket, mikroBUS Click, and SAO (Shitty Add-On). Because the vast majority of development boards from other companies use one of those pin header layouts, you can find an adapter for almost any board on the market. Most of the adapters also include a microSD connector, which adds some nice convenience. The ItsyBitsy adapter even includes a LiPo battery charger circuit and a JST battery connector. All of the boards are designed to be as small as possible to keep your projects compact. There isn’t any word on pricing yet, so be sure to subscribe for updates when the Crowd Supply campaign launches.

Cameron Coward
Writer for Hackster News. Proud husband and dog dad. Maker and serial hobbyist.
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