Compatibility of PiScreen, Raspberry Pi 2 B, and Arduberry

Archives Arduberry
1

I’m building a system to control a number of devices from an Arduberry, ultimately controlled by a program running on a Raspberry Pi. For diagnostic/fault-finding/log review purposes, I’d like to attach a PiScreen TFT display to the Pi for console access, plugging in a USB keyboard when needed.

I plan to communicate with the Arduberry solely by serial connection across the GPIO pins. I found the pinout list here for the Arduberry/Pi connector, which appearsto conflict with some of the GPIO pins the PiScreen uses (list of unused pins here), but I’m not sure if all the ones the Arduberry is connected to become flat unusable by other devices.

To summarise my question, if I’m only communicating with the Arduberry by the serial connection across GPIO, do the other GPIO pins remain available for use by the PiScreen?

2

Hey Vertel,

if I’m only communicating with the Arduberry by the serial connection across GPIO, do the other GPIO pins remain available for use by the PiScreen?

Yes, that’s right, you’re not really using any of the other pins (unless you write software to do so). Note that for burning new firmware, you ARE using the SPI lines.

One question though: it sounds like you’re an advanced user and if you’re writing your own firmware, why not use I2C to communicate with the Arduberry? That would leave the serial lines free for use with your screen.