GrovePi stacking

Archives GrovePi
1

I’m experiencing two problems:

  • stacking a GrovePi+ on top of a SparqEE Shield (see http://www.dexterindustries.com/forum/?topic=soft-resetting-the-grovepi)
  • having filled all available Grove connectors (see http://www.dexterindustries.com/forum/?topic=having-more-grove-modules-than-connectors-on-the-grovepi)

Maybe both of them can be addressed by stacking and some suggestions.

I know that stacking two or more GrovePi is covered on http://www.dexterindustries.com/forum/?topic=stcking-multiple-grovepi and I would love to see a parametrizable kernel and library in the future.

On http://www.dexterindustries.com/forum/?topic=what-pi-gpio-pins-does-the-grovepi-use i see:

GrovePi uses the I2C pins for communicating with the Raspberry Pi (GPIO 0,1 in Rev 1 and GPIO 2,3 in Rev 2). The SPI pins are also used when updating the firmware, so you can use all the pins except the I2C pins.

So I can see only this problems when stacking:

  • two boards or modules present the same address on the I2C bus
  • two boards try to use SPI for communication at the same time
  • some board may not pass along all pins from the Raspberry Pi to other board (e.g. GrovePi+ would pass only the first 26 pins - even if B+ now has 40 pins - so it should be connected as the last one, maybe)

Am I right?

Do you know that something like the PiFace Rack (see http://www.piface.org.uk/products/piface_rack/) could help?

2

Hey,
Stacking multiple GrovePi’s together might cause some addressing issues which can be resolved by the changes to the firmware and library. Let me try working on a script which should make your life a bit easier. No ETA on this though.

The problem that you should be concerned is that you cannot update two GrovePi’s together because both share the same reset line. Also, if you are adding another shield, it should not use CE0 pin on the Pi, because that is the one that is connected to the Reset Pin (I think this is the problem with the SparqEE shield).

Yes, GrovePi+ only passes the first 26 pins to the other shields and it uses the first 26 pins only even on the B+ or Pi2 and you can indeed use something like the PiFace Rack too.

-Karan

3

Hi,

Is it possible to stack 3.2 inch lcd screen on top of grove pi ?. I tried installing grove with lcd module, but grove pi was not being detected.

Thanks in advance.

4

Hey,
Can you add a link to the shield that you are trying to use.

-Karan

5

Hello guys I’m wondering if I could stack a Stepper motor Bonnet on the GPIO after Grove Pi or if I should instead make an arduino/motor shield a slave via USB?.. Do you guys think stacking this shield (https://www.adafruit.com/product/4280 ) on top of the Grove pi could work???