board is on or off, but the battery will charge faster if the board is off.
The LilyPad MP3 Player has
twelve "pins"
(they're really holes, but they connect to pins on the
microcontroller) that you'll use to connect to the outside world. For each pin, we've provided both
"sew taps"
(large holes you can loop conductive thread around to use it in fabric projects), and
standard
headers
(smaller holes that you can solder wires or
to if you wish).
Five of the pins are set up to be
triggers
, which you can use with the default software to trigger
playback of specific audio files. (We'll learn more about this on the next page,
.) Typically you'll connect triggers to switches that activate the playback of various
audio files. Many of the triggers also have alternate functions, such as serial ports, that you can use
to communicate with other devices in more complex projects. The alternate functions are listed in
the table below.
You'll also use the pins to connect to external
speakers
. The LilyPad MP3 Player includes a stereo
(two channel, left and right) amplifier that supports speakers between 4 and 8 ohms. Each speaker
has two terminals, labeled "+" and "-". Normally you'll connect two speakers to the board, but you
can also use just one speaker if you wish, or connect multiple speakers in series or parallel. Just
don't connect the speaker pins to anything but a speaker or
.
Here is a table of the pins and their functions:
pin
name
function notes
VIN
Raw
voltage in
(3.5V to
6V)
If you don't want to connect a Lipo battery, you can use this pin to power the
board from an external supply. If you want to also charge an attached Lipo
battery, this input should be between 4.5V and 6V. You can read more about
your options for powering the board
.
Page 6 of 28
