I'm trying to connect a few different devices to a arduino uno and I'm running out of pins. I only have one device using the ICSP bus. Because I only have one slave device can I have the SS pin for it just go direct to ground instead of taking up another one of my precision i/o pins? Since it's the only device is it ok to have it listening for data all the time or will it get confused some how?
Depends on your device. Some use the falling edge of the SS line to reset, initialize, or start and operation.
Thanks for the reply John!
Any insight into if it will work with the arduino wifi shield?
What devices are you trying to connect? It's often possible to share some of the pins between devices.