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Hardware Hacking Guide

Ten Wong edited this page Mar 2, 2017 · 8 revisions

Some Grove modules' hardware design is not natively compatible with Wio device, but can be remedied by workaround or hacking. In this guide, we will show you how to hack un-supported Grove to work with Wio.

Grove - Encoder

Fail on Wio Link, Wio Node

To use Grove - Encoder, you need either using battery to power the board or some manual soldering workaround. This is due to the RX pin of UART socket is pulled up to CP2102's TX pin and we put Grove - Encoder onto this UART socket. The pulling up may interact with the signal from encoder. We can fix this by shorting the resistor R1 to enhance the pulling down of the encoder signal.

You can just solder off R1 and then short the two pads of R1 with a chunk of tin. Or, you can solder a jump wire onto the two pads of R1.

encoderhack

Grove - LCD RGB Backlight

Fail on Wio Link, Wio Node

The Grove - LCD RGB Backlight works under 5V. But the communication signals can be compatible with Wio Link/Node's 3.3V voltage. So the thing we need to do is, power the Grove - LCD RGB Backlight with a 5V, e.g. We can grab 5V from USB. Please pull out this Grove while OTA the Wio device.

Now found Wio Node I2C1 is not work, so use I2C0 port.

Grove - Dust Sensor

Fail on Wio Link, Wio Node

Same as the Grove - LCD RGB Backlight, the Grove - Dust Sensor needs 5V power supply too. But the signal pin of Grove - Dust Sensor outputs 5V which will interfere in the GPIO of Wio Link/Node. The interaction may cause Wio Link/Node unable to OTA update its firmware. So we need inserting a 1K𝛀 resistor on the SIG line of Grove - Dust Sensor.

dustsensor

Grove - SPDT Relay(30A)

Fail on Wio Link, Wio Node

The Grove - SPDT Relay(30A) works under 5V. But the communication signals can be compatible with Wio Link/Node's 3.3V voltage. We need to power the Grove - SPDT Relay(30A) with a 5V, e.g. We can grab 5V from USB. Please pull out this Grove while OTA the Wio device.

spdtreplay

TBC📶🆖