FEZ Rhino + 3-Pin E-Blocks

NETMF & Gadgeteer
1

Hi,
I’m new to Microcontrollers and bought a FEZ Rhino and some 3-Pin E-Block components and a the E-Block Components Shield ( http://www.ghielectronics.com/catalog/product/147 ).
How can i connect the Components Shield to my Rhino board?

Thanks for your Help!

Lg. Lyra

2

Welcome to the community.

Rhino do not use shields. You can add the eblocks by using the eblocks sockets on the rhino. They are not soldered by default. There is 4 of these but you can add a lot more by doing some soldering on the pads located at the edge.

Or get a fez panda then you can use the shield.

3

Thanks for your answer!
Okay, can you please explain me how i can add my LED-3-Pin E-Block to the rhino shield?

greetz, Lyra

4

Welcome Lyra1337! The eBlock shield is for an Arduino compatible pinout. It may be possible to map the matching Rhino pins to an intermediate protoboard, but you’ll have something that looks like spaghetti when you’re done :wink: You can get a set of female Arduino headers at someplace like SparkFun for a dollar or two. Unless you’re up for an adventure in soldering, I would suggest getting a Panda, especially if you have invested in a bunch of eBlocks.

[edit] Dang Gus, it’s Saturday night! You should be taking your wife out to a nice dinner!

@ Lyra1337 - Cut one end off the eBlock wire, and solder it to the appropriate pins on the Rhino, or use headers so you can disconnect it easily later.

5

We are out at dinner. God bless technology lol

6

Okay, thanks too, but i have no idea, how i can connect my e-blocks to the rhino board. Could you explain me, how i can do this?

7

@ Lyra - can you solder? If not, you are out of luck. There is no way to plug an eBlock directly into a Rhino. There are 4 unpopulated pinouts for 3 pin JST connectors (used on the eBlocks) on the Rhino, but off the top of my head, I don’t know what pins they expose (see datasheet). You can solder female JST headers to these, which would let you plug in a few eBlocks, assuming the right pins are mapped.

8

Okay, i have some skills in solder. I have found some “IO” contacts (i’ve attached an image), can i use them for the 3-Pin e-blocks?

(sorry for my bad english, im german.)

9

Yes you place JST sockets on there and then you can plug eblocks

10

@ lyra1337 - if you spend much time on this forum, you’ll find that Gus never sleeps :wink: