Communication

Embedded electronics is all about interlinking circuits (processors or other integrated circuits) to create a symbiotic system. In order for those individual circuits to swap their information, they must share a common communication protocol. Hundreds of communication protocols have been defined to achieve this data exchange, and, in general, each can be separated into one of two categories: parallel or serial. Serial UARTs, SPI, and I2C are used with many products in the SparkFun catalog to pass data. They can be used with a serial terminal to help troubleshoot issues or display data. However, there are other methods of communication some of which include IR, RS-232, RS-485, CAN, MIDI, and DMX. Check out the tutorials below to start relaying data between your devices!

Roshamglo Project: TV-B-Gone

March 12, 2017

Turn your Roshamglo board into a (nearly) universal TV power button.

Hack Your Roshamglo Badge

March 12, 2017

Learn how to customize and program your Roshamglo badge.

Simultaneous RFID Tag Reader Hookup Guide

February 23, 2017

A basic guide to getting started with the RFID Tag Reader breakout and how to read and write multiple RFID tags over multiple feet!

Serial Basic Hookup Guide

February 9, 2017

Get connected quickly with this Serial to USB adapter.

SparkFun USB UART Breakout (CY7C65213) Hookup Guide

February 2, 2017

How to use SparkFun's advanced USB UART breakout, based on the Cypress CY7C65213.

ASCII

June 13, 2016

A brief history of how ASCII came to be, how it's useful to computers, and some helpful tables to convert numbers to characters.

RFM69HCW Hookup Guide

April 29, 2016

The RFM69HCW is an inexpensive transceiver that you can use to create all kinds of wireless projects. This tutorial will help you get started.

Boss Alarm

March 30, 2016

Build a Boss Alarm that alerts you of anyone walking into your office and automatically changes your computer screen.

SparkFun USB to Serial UART Boards Hookup Guide

February 18, 2016

How to use the SparkFun FTDI based boards to program an Arduino and access another serial device over the hardware serial port, without unplugging anything!

Raspberry Pi SPI and I2C Tutorial

October 29, 2015

Learn how to use serial I2C and SPI buses on your Raspberry Pi using the wiringPi I/O library for C/C++ and spidev/smbus for Python.

Getting Started with OBD-II

October 8, 2015

A general guide to the OBD-II protocols used for communication in automotive and industrial applications.

MIDI Shield Hookup Guide

October 8, 2015

How to assemble the SparkFun MIDI Shield, plus several example projects.

MIDI Tutorial

October 8, 2015

Understanding the Musical Instrument Digital Interface.

CAN-BUS Shield Hookup Guide

October 8, 2015

A basic introduction to working with the CAN-Bus shield.

Si4703 FM Radio Receiver Hookup Guide

August 13, 2015

Add some tunes to your project with the Si4703 FM Radio Receiver Breakout.

nRF24L01+ Transceiver Hookup Guide

July 30, 2015

A basic getting started guided to the SparkFun Transceiver Breakout - nRF24L01+

BC118 BLE Mate 2 Hookup Guide

January 15, 2015

Hooking up and using the BLE Mate 2, which uses the BC118 BLE module from BlueCreations.

Arduino Wireless Communication via the Electric Imp

April 8, 2014

How to communicate between an Electric Imp and Arduino using serial.

Hexadecimal

March 20, 2014

How to interpret hex numbers, and how to convert them to/from decimal and binary.

OBD II UART Hookup Guide

March 4, 2014

How to start working with the OBD-II Uart board.

USB Type A Female Breakout Hookup Guide

February 13, 2014

An above-and-beyond example using the USB Type A Female Breakout board.

Bi-Directional Logic Level Converter Hookup Guide

October 25, 2013

An overview of the Bi-Directional Logic Level Converter, and some example circuits to show how it works.
Viewing 55 Communication Tutorials. View All Tutorials.

Old Tutorials

Looking for the old, archived tutorials? Head on over to the archived tutorials on the main SparkFun site.
Please be aware that the tutorials you find there are no longer actively maintained.