Free pins on the MKR IOT carrier when connected to an MKR-1010

[bosepchuk]

I need two digital pins that I can command HIGH and one pin for one wire temp sensors for my cloud games project and I'm having trouble finding free pins.

The MKR-1010 has plenty of IO but the IOT carrier seems to use most/all of it (http://docs.arduino.cc/static/4f56009d2fe0b0e007793dcafd3b3125/2f891/mkrIoTCarrier-pinout.png).

I'm using the display and the LED strip on the carrier, and the serial monitor on the MKR. Nothing else. Are there any pins I can use without cutting traces on the board to free up pins? Maybe the button pins or something?

[bosepchuk]

SOLVED.

The only way I could be sure that nothing would interfere with the pins I need was to put a set of female headers between the MCU and the carrier on all the pins except those I need for my I/O.

Here's what that looks like:

WARNING: you just need to choose pins that are not needed for the carrier functionality you intend to use.

[apagliari]

Hi bosepchuk,

facing same issue related to 11 sda and 12 scl pin that I would need but apparently they are used by the grove connector.
I really like your ingenious solution even if I would have expected some real swing help from Arduino team about a very specific and simple question related to a product sold for a not exactly cheap price.
Wondering if meanwhile you managed to get some defiitive documentation on your questions.

and thanks for the inspiration!

Andrea

[bosepchuk]

Hi Andrea,

No, I didn't get any reply. My project was submitted with my stacked headers solution.

Documentation seems lacking compared to their core products like the uno and mega.

I was hoping that improved documentation would come with time, and that may be the case. I haven't looked at anything related to this since March.

Good luck with your project.

[Ale-X]

@bosepchuck
you could use the two analog pins A5 and A6 (also known as D20 and D21) as digital ones
if you are not using them with grove connected devices , (maybe you could use even the grove connectors supplied to make your assembly more reliable...) you dont need to disconnect the MKR board for theese two pins
and if you disable the touch libraries of the carrier i think you could also use all the rest of analog pins as digital ones. I have not tested the analog pins used by Qtouch sensors but I dont think the capacitive sensors wil be using the pins A0 to A4 if library is not loaded / initialized By:
//#include <Arduino_MKRIoTCarrier_Qtouch.h>
but maybe the carrier definition #include <Arduino_MKRIoTCarrier.h>
makes use of theese pins, I dont know ... I have not look inside the library files.

I need also a pin besides A6 and A5... for a simple high/low signal so I'll checkit and i'll be back with the result.... (and I hope not with a burned pin)