Hi! I got a Doppler and I’m excited. But. I don’t know hardware or soldering very well. I know software pretty well but I’ve only soldered a board one time and I don’t own a soldering iron. Most of the hardware stuff I’ve done so far I’ve done with breadboards and wires and alligator clips.
Doppler just has all those holes around the outside. Can someone Explain Like I’m 5 what I need to do to connect those holes to other devices?
A friend said what I probably need is “Pin Headers”, and all I’d need to do is solder the pin headers once and then I could use the pins with a breadboard or whatever else. Which “Pin Header” should I buy for use with the doppler?
Is there a way to temporarily attach a wire to one of the Doppler holes, to make sure I’m connecting to the right place before I solder anything?
Replying to answer my own question… I still don’t know which pin header to use with the doppler… but I found out the electronics store sells these little clamps that have a hook at one end and a breadboard wire at the other. So I can use this to test Doppler pins without committing to soldering anything.
If you want to start prototyping your own circuits around the doppler some starter kit like this is probably a good option. Also includes headers, so you can put the doppler on the breadboard: amazon canada - breadboard starter kit
If you don’t have a soldering iron to solder the headers - maybe there is a makerspace you can go to. They might also have tons of headers around. If you want to get your own iron… there are quite cheap options available. But if you think you will maybe use it more often in the future. I recommend stations from Ersa, Weller or Hakko.
Thanks! I am still confused about certain things. For example:
The quick start guide is useful, but it consists of many acronyms. I know what some of them mean but not others. Is there a list somewhere that explains the quick start labels? For example what is the meaning of the “PA” labels?
Where can I find documentation for the arduino api used on this chip (ie in C, what constants are defined)? For example on the ATMega arduino I used previously I could consult the Atmel manual to get information about chip features.
Is there some SAMD51 doc which is close enough to the Doppler that, if I do something the doc says on the Doppler, and it does not work, that qualifies as a “bug” I should file on github?
My current problem I’m hitting: The SAMD51 is described in many places as having pseudo-DAC support via PWM on digital GPIO pins. On my ATMega arduino this is supported by calling analogWrite(PINNUM, VAL). When I try this on the Doppler I get this linker error:
core/core.a(wiring_analog.c.o): In function `analogWrite':
/Users/mcc/Library/Arduino15/packages/dadamachines - M4/hardware/samd/1.3.1/cores/arduino/wiring_analog.c:515: undefined reference to `GCLK_CLKCTRL_IDs'
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
exit status 1
