SparkFun Qwiic Shield for Teensy Hookup Guide

Pages
Contributors: QCPete
Favorited Favorite 0

Introduction

The SparkFun Qwiic Shield for Teensy and SparkFun Qwiic Shield for Teensy Extended provide an easy-to-assemble way to add the SparkFun Qwiic ecosystem to Teensy development boards. Both of these shields connect the I2C bus (GND, 3.3V, SDA, and SCL) on your Teensy to four SparkFun Qwiic connectors. The Qwiic ecosystem allows for easy daisy chaining so, as long as your devices are on different addresses, you can connect as many Qwiic devices as you'd like.

SparkFun Qwiic Shield for Teensy

SparkFun Qwiic Shield for Teensy

DEV-17119
$4.25 $1.75
1
SparkFun Qwiic Shield for Teensy - Extended

SparkFun Qwiic Shield for Teensy - Extended

DEV-17156
$4.75

Required Materials

To follow along with this tutorial, you will need a Teensy development board with either the "standard" or "extended" form factor. Here are is a collection of the compatible boards. Note, some of them come with headers pre-populated, so keep that in mind when considering which headers to populate on your shield.

Teensy 4.0

Teensy 4.0

DEV-15583
$23.80
15
Teensy 4.1 (Headers)

Teensy 4.1 (Headers)

DEV-16996
$35.95
3
Teensy 4.1

Teensy 4.1

DEV-16771
$31.50
9
Teensy 4.0 (Headers)

Teensy 4.0 (Headers)

DEV-16997
$26.80
2

The Qwiic Shield includes a set of stackable headers to fit the Teensy footprint but you may also need some headers to solder to your Teensy. Or if you would prefer to use another header type for your shield assembly we've listed a few options below:

Break Away Headers - Straight

Break Away Headers - Straight

PRT-00116
$1.75
20
Female Headers

Female Headers

PRT-00115
$1.75
8
Teensy Header Kit

Teensy Header Kit

PRT-13925
$1.50
Now you probably would not want the Qwiic Shield for Teensy if you didn't have any Qwiic products to use with it, right? Well, if you don't have any Qwiic products, the following might not be a bad place to start:

SparkFun GPS Breakout - NEO-M9N, U.FL (Qwiic)

SparkFun GPS Breakout - NEO-M9N, U.FL (Qwiic)

GPS-15712
$69.95
5
SparkFun 16x2 SerLCD - RGB Text (Qwiic)

SparkFun 16x2 SerLCD - RGB Text (Qwiic)

LCD-16397
$21.50
6
SparkFun Qwiic Motor Driver

SparkFun Qwiic Motor Driver

ROB-15451
$19.50
3
SparkFun Cryptographic Co-Processor Breakout - ATECC508A (Qwiic)

SparkFun Cryptographic Co-Processor Breakout - ATECC508A (Qwiic)

DEV-15573
$5.95

You will need some of our Qwiic cables to connect your devices to the shield. Below are a few options:

Qwiic Cable - 50mm

Qwiic Cable - 50mm

PRT-14426
$0.95
Qwiic Cable - 100mm

Qwiic Cable - 100mm

PRT-14427
$1.50

Qwiic Cable - 500mm

PRT-14429
1 Retired

Qwiic Cable - 200mm

PRT-14428
Retired

Lastly, if you want to use a non-Qwiic I2C device, these adapters help to convert it to a Qwiic connector:

SparkFun Qwiic Adapter

SparkFun Qwiic Adapter

DEV-14495
$1.60
4
Qwiic Cable - Breadboard Jumper (4-pin)

Qwiic Cable - Breadboard Jumper (4-pin)

PRT-14425
$1.50

Qwiic Cable - Female Jumper (4-pin)

CAB-14988
Retired

Required Tools

You will need a soldering iron, solder, and general soldering accessories to solder the header pins to the Qwiic shields:

Solder Lead Free - 15-gram Tube

Solder Lead Free - 15-gram Tube

TOL-09163
$3.95
4
Soldering Iron - 30W (US, 110V)

Soldering Iron - 30W (US, 110V)

TOL-09507
$10.95
7

Suggested Reading

If you aren't familiar with the Qwiic system, we recommend reading here for an overview:

Qwiic Connect System
Qwiic Connect System

We would also recommend taking a look at the following tutorials if you aren't familiar with them:

How to Solder: Through-Hole Soldering

This tutorial covers everything you need to know about through-hole soldering.

I2C

An introduction to I2C, one of the main embedded communications protocols in use today.

Getting Started with the Teensy

Basic intro to the Teensy line of products, with soldering and programming suggestions.

Arduino Shields v2

An update to our classic Arduino Shields Tutorial! All things Arduino shields. What they are and how to assemble them.