Beginner Help. Order Board with or without pins?

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Korsakovsky
 
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Beginner Help. Order Board with or without pins?

Post by Korsakovsky »

Hi!

We are going to explore Arduino this winter, and have ordered a starter kit.

I also want to purchase a Teensy to work with.

They come either with or without pins.

For a beginner, which would be a better choice, or does it matter?

Thanks!

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millercommamatt
 
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Re: Beginner Help. Order Board with or without pins?

Post by millercommamatt »

With pins would be best for a beginner. However, soldering is an early skill everyone should add to their tool kit and soldering header pins is good practice.

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Korsakovsky
 
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Re: Beginner Help. Order Board with or without pins?

Post by Korsakovsky »

Thank you very much for your help!

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jim_lee
 
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Re: Beginner Help. Order Board with or without pins?

Post by jim_lee »

IF you are going to go pinless (I never use them) you will want the 30 awg silicon wires to hook it all together. Makes life doable with all them tiny tiny connections.

This stuff in every color they sell : https://www.adafruit.com/product/3166

Or not.. Up to you.

-jim lee

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millercommamatt
 
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Re: Beginner Help. Order Board with or without pins?

Post by millercommamatt »

30 AWG seems a little small. I usually use 22 - 26 AWG depending on how much flexibility I need.

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Korsakovsky
 
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Re: Beginner Help. Order Board with or without pins?

Post by Korsakovsky »

Thanks again!

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Beginner Help. Order Board with or without pins?

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

millercommamatt wrote:30 AWG seems a little small. I usually use 22 - 26 AWG depending on how much flexibility I need.
Wire gauge is mostly related to the amount of current the wire will carry. That’s a function of the amount of copper in the wire’s cross section.

The official ampacity tables calculate self-heating from the wire’s resistance and set their limit at a wire temperature 20C higher than ambient. Fortunately there’s a rule of thumb for conservative estimates that’s much easier:

The cross-sectional area of wire doubles every three AWG numbers, and the wire diameter doubles every six AWG numbers. For any given AWG number, the next larger wire will carry about 1/8th more current, and the next smaller wire will carry about 1/8th less.

12awg wire is standard for wall power, and is rated for 25A.

That means you can just hop by 3awg steps, multiplying or dividing by 2 as you go:

12awg = 25A
15awg = 12.5A
18awg = 6A
21awg = 3A
24awg = 1.5A
27awg = 750mA
30awg = 375mA

Odd AWG numbers are less common, so you can step up or down to the nearest common size.

As I said, these are conservative estimates, so they have a built-in safety margin. IIRC, NASA considers 30awg good for 1.5A, so 375mA won’t push any limits.

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Korsakovsky
 
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Re: Beginner Help. Order Board with or without pins?

Post by Korsakovsky »

That chart is so helpful (and timely)! Thanks!

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