I am using the GrovePi+ together with my Raspberry 2 Pi, and would like to build a small system arounf it.
However, I encounter 2 practical problems.
The Seeed sensors are very difficult to use in a practical environment because they are difficult to mount on a chassis.
As an example the light sensor is located on the same side as the connector and mounting it needs to be done outside a box and is not very elegant.
It would be for instance better to mount the resistor on a socket like the LED’s.
The same applies for the temperature sensors. If the sensor would for instance be located on the other side of the print, it would be easier to mount.
If one wants to coneect for instance a moisture sensor at a distance of 10 m, there is no practical way to do it considering the wiring.
Therefore it would be very much appreciated if one could purchase the female connectors used by Seeed separately.
I do not understand why the male on-board connectors are available and the female connectors (together with a tool to attach the cable) are not.
Now we need to purchase cables that are too short, cut then and solder another cable in between. Not elegant and the source of errors.
I appreciate any reactions or even better … solutions.
Hey Freddy, I moved this into the GrovePi section of the forums.
1). I totally agree with you on this. We’ve got a new product coming out that might address this, the Grove sensor mount, which should help a little bit. But I agree, it’s hard that a lot of the sensors are on the same side as the connector. We don’t have a lot of control over this, it’s a design decision by Seeed. We’ll pass along the feedback though.
2). So here, it seems your challenge is that the grove sensors don’t have long enough connectors. 10 m is a very long distance for a sensor line to physically carry a signal; you might encounter voltage drop over that distance. And since it’s a bit of an outside use case (not a lot of people want to go this distance) I bet Seeed just hasn’t seen the demand for this sort of thing.
If you want to go this sort of distance, why wouldn’t you try to bridge the distance with wireless? you could easily put a GrovePi in the area you want to monitor, and a base station somewhere else. The two could be connected by wifi, no?
If you want to find a female adapter, I think Seeed sells them in their store. I did a quick search and couldnt find them, but if you contact them I bet they can help you out.
Thanks for your reply, but putting a second complete system near each distance sensor does not make sense.
For instance to detect the moisture level of ground it would also be very unpractical with power supply etc. and it would be very expensive.
I checked also with Seeed and could not found any female connector.
I do not believe they sell them.
I will ask though…
I think they have it in their Open Parts kit; and you might not be able to find the part with a simple search of their inventory. It’s the OPM (can’t remember what the M stands for).
Thanks,
The Open Parts kit is discontinued and I could not find the part in it.
I looked further but apparently they only sell the on-board male connectors.
I asked them to provide info on the female connectors.
As soon as I have an answer, I will post it in this threat.