Azure IoT DevKit – External Connectivity

Beyond the sensors built into the board the possibilities are endless when you consider attaching external devices. As I mentioned in my previous post, the DevKit has an edge connector with a number of input/output pins as well as power. You’ll need an “edge connector breakout” like this to make use of them.

I found this excellent post by Jeremy Lindsay which included a table of the pin numbers and how they map to Arduino pin names – you need this so that you can refer to a physical pin on the edge connector breakout to a pin in your Arduino sketch.

From this it’s possible to rig up an LED or similar on a breadboard and set it from code. One of the things I wanted to try out was using an ultra-sonic distance sensor and this is where I hit a snag. Unlike many Arduino boards there is no 5v output (even though it is driven from a USB 5v input) and the sensor I am using requires one. I’ve had to order a few more parts before I can make progress on this project. Essentially I’ll need a separate 5v supply to my breadboard and will have to convert the output from the sensor down to the 3.3v expected by the DevKit board.