Resource/Explanation of board reference acronyms, pins, etc.

[espruino-discuss3]

Posted at 2014-09-11 by spookyfox

The Espruino board reference page is great. The pin labels seem super helpful, but alas, I was not an EE in this life or any of my past lives. Can someone point me to a resource to learn about the different acronyms and uses of pins and whatnot? I'm perfectly capable of googling "PWM" (which I learned stands for pulse width modulation), but I'm really looking for a higher-level learning resource to get a handle on what's actually going on with the board.

Thanks!

[espruino-discuss3]

Posted at 2014-09-11 by @gfwilliams

Well, I'm not sure about higher level, but:

• If you search at http://www.espruino.com/Search you'll usually get pages on each particular peripheral.... and I've just made clicking the pin functions in the reference page link through automatically.
• Not sure if you found it, but there's a second board reference at http://www.espruino.com/EspruinoBoard
• The pins are usually connected straight through to the chip, so you can check the datasheet on it which gives you an overview of what the actual hardware can do without being too low level.
• If you're super interested then there's the reference manual which gives diagrams and exactly how things work and are set up - it's hard work though!

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Posted at 2014-09-11 by DrAzzy

I thought I remember seeing a legend for the abbreviations on http://www.espruino.com/ReferenceESPRUINOBOARD - maybe on the kickstarter.

If you're asking about what those abbreviations mean in the context of what pins can do

PWM - Can output PWM (use analogWrite() to do so), for example to dim an LED.
ADC - Analog to Digital Converter - this pin can be used with analogRead()
DAC - Digital to Analog converter - this pin can output an analog voltage between 0 and 3.3v - use analogWrite(). Note that you can't get much current out of the DACs - you can't use them to power stuff.
3.3v - Pin is not 5V tolerant. Pins not marked as 3.3v can be exposed to 5v safely.
UART/USART - Serial port, for interfacing with devices that like to talk over serial.
I2C - I2C port (SDA is data, SCK is clock), for interfacing with parts that use I2C.
SPI - SPI port, for interfacing with parts that use SPI. SCL is the clock, MISO is Master In Slave Out (so espruino's input and the connected part's output). MOSI is the opposite.
CAN - Controller Area Network, used in automotive applications. Not exposed by Espruino.