The Gravity standard developed by DFRobot, a company well-known in the electronics and amateur robotics community, is very popular among users due to its ability to easily connect sensors and actuators to Arduino frontends and their clones. It is worth knowing that apart from the modules themselves (containing e.g. temperature, humidity, shock or light level sensors) and the executive modules, e.g. with relays, motor drivers or LEDs, there are also base overlays available. They allow simultaneous connection of multiple modules to Arduino series boards (or other boards compatible with popular ecosystem of Italian manufacturer). In this category, we present the most interesting proposals from DFRobot's offer, which can be the basis for the construction of many interesting devices.
Gravity - base hats
DFRobot Gravity - IO Expansion Shield for Arduino V7.1
Shield for Arduino, which extends the I/O pis capabilities. It has i.a. led out each pin with a pair for power supply, possibility to turn on the voltage converter of 3.3 V, a...Gravity - CH423 I2C 24 Digital IO Expansion Module - DFRobot DFR0979
The CH423 pin expander from DFRobot allows you to expand the system by up to 24 additional digital I/O ports via the I2C interface. Among them, there are 8 GPIOs with...Gravity - IO Shield - extension for FireBeetle M0 and ESP32-E - DFRobot DFR0762
The extension provides a convenient connection between DFRobot Gravity sensors and FireBeetle 2.0 series. It offers the most commonly used ports , including digital,...Gravity DFRobot IO Expansion + TB6612FNG 2-channel motor driver 12V/1.2 A - Shield for Arduino
Shield for Arduino which is an extension of the i/O pins and two-channel driver for DC motors TB6612FNG with a voltage of 12 V and performance of 1.2 A per channel. It also has...DFRobot Gravity - IO Expansion Shield for LattePanda
Shield for minicomputer LattePanda of Gravity And/O all GPIO pins that are compatible with standard Arduino and does not interfere with other LattePanda outputs. Every...DFRobot Gravity - Micro:Mate - extension board for BBC micro:bit
Micro:mate is a small expansion board of I/O for micro:bit for learning the electronics and building the projects. Board has 6 rows of 3-pin interfaces of I/O, thanks to which...DFRobot Gravity Expansion Shield - expansion board for the OpenMV Cam M7 camera
Shield extending the capabilities of the camera OpenMV Cam M7 with additional connectors for connecting the sensors and modules from the Gravity series. Board is equipped with...See also
- Gravity - starter kits
- Gravity - accelerometers and gyroscopes
- Gravity - actuators
- Gravity - gas & dust sensors
- Gravity - medical sensors
- Gravity - distance sensors
- Gravity - current sensors
- Gravity - temperature sensors
- Gravity - force sensors and limit switches
- Gravity - light and colour sensors
- Gravity - LED
- Gravity - encoders and potentiometers
- Gravity - converters
- Gravity - communication modules
- Gravity - sound modules
- Gravity - relays
- Gravity - buttons, keys and joysticks
- Gravity - cables
- Gravity - displays
IO Expansion Shield series
DFRobot Gravity IO Expansion Shield for Arduino is a kind of base for building devices based on Arduino series modules, e.g. Arduino Uno, Leonardo, Mega 2560 and various clones compatible with this system. Modules are connected to base boards using 3- or 4-pin connectors compliant with DFRobot Gravity standard. One of the most popular and interesting solutions in this series is DFRobot Gravity IO Expansion Shield V7.1, which offers a number of features far beyond the standard Arduino board capabilities. Apart from a number of connectors, which allow to connect analog sensors and input and output modules using digital pins, the overlay has also two 4-pin connectors, used to communicate with sensors equipped with I2C bus. There is also a socket for Xbee series radio modules. On the board there is also place for gold pins to select operating mode of the overlay (5V or 3.3V), and a slide switch to select operating mode. The latter is designed for programming the board via USB or for communication with Xbee module via UART interface. The module also has two power connectors.
A slightly similar, although more complex model is the DFRobot Gravity IO Expansion & Motor Driver Shield. It allows you to control a bipolar stepper motor or two DC motors using the built-in TB6612FNG integrated driver. The board also has connectors for Xbee radio module and - known from previously discussed Gravity IO Expansion Shield overlay - connectors for 3-pin digital and analog modules and 4-pin SPI modules.
Other examples of IO Expansion Shield series overlays
DFRobot Gravity - IO Expansion Shield for LattePanda, i.e. for popular single board minicomputers, is an overlay allowing to connect popular modules, usually used with Arduino platform, to minicomputers. Slightly similar overlays were also created for the BBC micro:bit teaching platform. The manufacturer provides users with both a miniature DFRobot Gravity Micro:Mate expansion board, as well as an extended set of Environment Science Board V1.0, allowing to learn how to measure environmental parameters. A big advantage of this solution is the use of a PCB with an intriguing shape, imitating the shape of a geometric landscape. Also this module allows you to connect sensors from the Gravity series. The set, in addition to the board itself, also includes sensors for temperature, soil moisture, water quality, as well as sound, color, atmospheric pressure and even UV. There is also a miniature OLED display.