The Seeeduino v4.0 is an ATMEGA328 Microcontroller development board. The ATMEGA328P-MU is a high performance, low power AVR 8-Bit Microcontroller. The Seeeduino v4.0 has 14 digital input/output pins (6 of which can be used as PWM outputs) and 6 analog pins. The board also features an ATMEGA16U2 microcontroller which acts as a UART-to-USB converter chip which means that the board can basically work like an FTDI chip.
The Seeeduino v4.0 inherits all of Arduino Duemilanove's and Uno's features but also adds some of its own. This board is compatible to Duemilanove's and Uno's pin layout, and the Duemilanove's screw holes and board dimensions.
For a detailed explanation and overview of all the features see the section in this WiKi titled Board Interface, Features, and Components.
The Seeeduino board offers a variety of features, some of which are not found in other duino boards (e.g. 5V or 3.3V logic, extra header pads, direct USB-to-UART connectors). See below for a detailed description of the board's interface and its unique features.
Connected to the ATMEGA16U2's (U5 chip) pins PB4, PB5, PB6, and PB7 pins.
The "L" LED is connected to digital pin 13, it can be used a "status" LED in your projects. The TX and RX LEDs work automatically, they let you know when the board is sending or receiving information respectively.
Port used to connect the board to your PC for programming. Micro USB is the ubiquitous version of USB, found in most Android phones, and other devices. You probably have dozens of these cables laying around your house.
Slide switch used to change the logic level and power output of the board to either 5V or 3.3V. Nowadays many new and great sensors are being develop to work with 3.3V, with other duino boards you would need to place a logic level converter between the board and these sensor(s), with the Seeeduino V4.0 board all you have to do is slide the switch!
The DC power jack allows your Seeeduino board to be powered from a wall adapter so that you can supply more power to your project if needed, for example when using DC motors or other high power devices. The DC input can be 7V-12V.
ICSP and SPI port for the ATMEGA16U2 chip.
ATMEGA16U2 chip. This chip is charge of the USB to UART connection which is used to program the ATMEGA328P-MU (U1) and can also use the FTDI-like port.
This button is conveniently placed on the side to allow you to reset the Seeeduino board even when a shield placed on top. This isn't the case in other duino boards where the button is placed on top making it hard to access.
Sometimes it is very convenient to connect a sensor/device to your board directly instead of going through a breadboard, or perhaps you want to solder the sensor directly to the board once you've completed your project, or maybe you want to monitor the output of the pins while they're been used by other devices. In any case we have added these extra pads to help you along the way.
The ATmega328P-MU chip, this is the brain of the board, where the code you write goes to be executed.
Just like the Extra Header Digital Pads, these extra connections are something we've personally come to realize people need in their projects, specially the power connections if you want to power more than one sensor/device without the use of a breadboard.
This is the output/input of the UART-to-USB function of the ATMEGA16U2 (U5) chip. You can use this port to communicate directly with devices that require a UART to serial connection, it is great for quick testing these devices without writing any code. This port makes the Seeeduino board work essentially like an FTDI chip if needed.
The output voltage of VCC will be either 5V or 3.3V, whatever you have selected using SW2.
This is the ICSP connection for the ATmega328P-MU, it is located in the standard ICSP/SPI position for Arduino Uno, Due, Mega, and Leonardo compatible hardware (e.g. shields) that may use this connector. The SPI pins in this port: MISO, SCK, and MOSI, are also connected to digital pins 12, 13, and 11 respectively just like those of the Arduino Uno.
Our depot has a variety of sensors/devices that can make use of this I2C or UART connection. In addition we sell independent Grove connectors to help you make our own sensor connections. The I2C Grove connector is also connected to analog pins 4 and 5 for SDA and SCL respectively if you would like to use those pins instead. The UART Grove connector is connected to digital pins 0 and 1 for RX and TX respectively.
Digital pins 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10 can be used for pulse width modulation (PWM).
The Arduino/Seeeduino drivers are included with the Arduino Software. In Windows, once the Arduino Software is installed, plug in your Seeeduino board to your PC's USB port and the driver installation will begin automatically as shown in the screenshot below:
After a couple of minutes (2-5), the driver should complete its installation and you will this window:
At this point the Seeeduino V4.0 is ready to use.
In Windows, if the automatic driver installation fails you can install the drivers manually, they are located in the Arduino Software folder, to do so follow these steps:
As described in the "Board Interface, Features, and Components" section of this WiKi, the Seeeduino board has an on-board LED connected to pin 13. In this example we'll show you how to blink that LED. Blinking an LED is the simplest program one can write to get acquainted with a board's hardware, and software.
To blink the LED in your Seeeduino board, follow the steps in the animated image below:
Or if you prefer we have listed and described each of the steps:
Two great features of the Seeeduino V4.0 board when compared to its competitors is its ability to switch between 5V and 3.3V logic, and its USB-to-UART port essentially making it an FTDI like device great for quickly getting started with devices that use the UART protocol/interface.
In this example we will show you how to use the popular ESP8266 WiFi module. This example is amazing because with other duino boards you would require a voltage converter, a logic converter, and software to control two separate Serial ports but with the Seeeduino board none of these three things are required.
Step 1: Putting The Board In 3.3V Mode
Step 2: ESP8266-Seeeduino Connections
Connect your ESP8266 WiFi module to the Seeeduino board as follows (See the photo below for a schematic):
Seeeduino Pin | ESP8266 Pin |
---|---|
GND | GND |
TX | RX |
RX | TX |
CH_PD | VCC |
VCC | VCC |
Step 3: Sending Commands
void setup() { } void loop() { }
Below is a list of changes that have been made to the Seeeduino board over all the versions.
Revision | Descriptions | Release Date |
---|---|---|
Seeeduino V0.9 | Initial public release | |
Seeeduino v1.1 |
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Seeeduino v2.12 |
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Seeeduino v2.2 |
|
Dec 16, 2010 |
Seeeduino v2.21 |
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Jan 12, 2011 |
Seeeduino v3.0 |
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Jan 1, 2012 |
Seeeduino v4.0 |
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Sep 1, 2014 |