Leonardo Digital Pins 0 and 1

Projects Networking, Protocols, and Devices
1

Looking at the Leonardo info, it seems it doesn't use digital pins 0 and 1 anymore, at least not by default. I just wanted to double check - can I now use these pins for my sketches?

2

Yes, you can use those pins as General Purpose I/O.

They still have a hardware Serial UART attached to them, but it is not used for PC communication. This also means if you want to interface with a serial device, like a GPS receiver, it is much easier with the Leo since that hardware UART is now available.

3

Thanks. I know nothing about serial interface, but I do have a project that uses an xbee. I wonder if there is any advantage of using pins 0 and 1 with the xbee. If so, I'm assuming a library would have to be written to take advantage of the UART.

4

You don't need to use or create an additional library. The Leonardo's hardware UART is referenced as Serial1 (as opposed to Serial which is used for PC communications.)

Cheers!