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!
IR Communication
February 7, 2013
IR Control Kit Hookup Guide
October 2, 2013
Level Shifter - 8 Channel (TXS0108E) Hookup Guide
May 19, 2022
MicroMod ESP32 Processor Board Hookup Guide
October 21, 2020
MicroMod Single Pair Ethernet Function Board - ADIN1110 Hookup Guide
May 12, 2022
MIDI Shield Hookup Guide
October 8, 2015
Monitor Sensor Data from Anywhere
August 10, 2022
nRF24L01+ Transceiver Hookup Guide
July 30, 2015
Qwiic Differential I2C Bus Extender (PCA9615) Hookup Guide
May 31, 2018
Raspberry Pi SPI and I2C Tutorial
October 29, 2015
RFM69HCW Hookup Guide
April 29, 2016
Roshamglo Hookup Guide
March 13, 2017
Roshamglo Project: TV-B-Gone
March 12, 2017
Satellite Transceiver Breakout - Swarm M138 - Hookup Guide
April 22, 2022
Serial Communication
December 18, 2012
Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI)
January 14, 2013
Serial Terminal Basics
September 9, 2013
Si4703 FM Radio Receiver Hookup Guide
August 13, 2015
Simultaneous RFID Tag Reader Hookup Guide
February 23, 2017
SparkFun expLoRaBLE Hookup Guide
February 4, 2021
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Please be aware that the tutorials you find there are no longer
actively maintained.