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  • Author Author: bhfletcher
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Click boards -- The Biggest Add-on Board Collection in the World

bhfletcher

If you've never heard or used a Click board, now is a great time to check them out.

Click Boards from MikroElektronica

 

MikroElektronika invented the Click boards and the mikroBUS standard to which they fit. MikroElektronika makes the claim, "The Biggest Add-on Collection in the World," and I think they are correct. As of today, November 30th 2020, I can see 974 items on their https://www.mikroe.com/click  landing page, including Sensors, Displays, Wireless transceivers, Motor control, Connection ports, Encoders, speech recognition, thunder detection, and fingerprint scanning.

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mikroBUS

At the heart of the Click technology is the mikroBUS -- a 12-pin, dual-row standard that includes SPI, I2C,  and UART protocols, along with an Analog input and PWM output. Voltage sources of 5V and 3.3V are both accessible on the mikroBUS.

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96Boards Mezzanine / Ultra96-V2

On the Avnet Ultra96-V1 or Ultra96-V2, you can adapt the 96Boards Low-speed Expansion to two mikroBUS sites using the Click Mezzanine. You can purchase the Click Mezzanine either by itself (AES-ACC-U96-ME-MEZ) or in a bundle (AES-ACC-U96-ME-SK) that includes the mezzanine plus 3 Click boards (USB UART with Microchip MCP2221, 2x16 Character LCD with Microchip controller, and 6DoF inertial measurement unit with ST Micro LSM6DSL).

 

For more information about the Starter Kit, see this page:

96Boards Click Mezzanine Starter Kit

 

For an example project using the Starter Kit, see:

https://www.hackster.io/pablotrujillojuan/manage-usb-i2c-uart-click-board-from-petalinux-in-ultra96-6fa7cf

 

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Buy 96Boards Click Mezzanine Starter KitBuy 96Boards Click Mezzanine Starter Kit

Buy 96Boards Click MezzanineBuy 96Boards Click Mezzanine

Buy Ultra96-V2Buy Ultra96-V2

Buy Ultra96-V2 I-gradeBuy Ultra96-V2 I-grade

 

Sphere

The Azure sphere MT3620 Starter Kit has native mikroBUS sites on-board. You can read more about some of the example designs for Sphere with Click here:

Using MikroE Click BoardsTm with Microsoft Sphere

Azure Sphere and Click Stepper2 Motor Control

 

Buy Azure Sphere Starter KitBuy Azure Sphere Starter Kit

 

Arduino

Any board that has an Arduino UNO or MEGA Shield interfaces can also be adapted to mikroBUS sockets, which opens up a couple other Xilinx-based boards, like MiniZed and MicroZed with the Arduino Carrier Card. Of course, a number of Arduino type boards are also compatible with these shields as well.

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Buy Arduino UNO Click ShieldBuy Arduino UNO Click Shield

Buy Arduino MEGA Click ShieldBuy Arduino MEGA Click Shield

Buy MiniZedBuy MiniZed

Buy MicroZed Arduino Carrier CardBuy MicroZed Arduino Carrier Card

 

Raspberry Pi / MaaXBoard

MikroElektronika also offers an adapter for a Raspberry Pi Hat, which is also compatible with the Avnet MaaXBoard. Check out this blog using MaaXBoard, the Click Pi Hat, and Azure:

Sending Data to Azure with MaaXBoard

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Buy Raspberry Pi Click HatBuy Raspberry Pi Click Hat

Buy MaaXBoardBuy MaaXBoard

 

If you're looking to quickly prototype something with your favorite development, it is definitely worth exploring mikroBUS compatibility and if you can use Click boards for your testing. Like I said at the start, it is "The Biggest Add-on Board Collection in the World!"