Ultimate GPS Shield - pin change

[project_science]

Hi,

I have the Ultimate GPS Shield, and when using it on the Leonardo, I use the 'software serial' setting, which I believe only uses pins 7 and 8.

I need these pins for something else. Is there a way to instead use pins 2 and 13, instead? Or the like? Are pins 7 and 8 the only pins the shield uses?

https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-ult ... al-connect

[Franklin97355]

The shield was designed to use pins 7 and 8 but if you want to cut the traces on the board you can connect the GPS TX and RX to other pins. You would have to check the Leonardo documentation as to which pins are available to use.

[project_science]

interesting. I was looking at the example codes, and the Adafruit_GPS example, "leo_echo" says this in the comments:

Code: Select all

// If using software serial, keep these lines enabled
// (you can change the pin numbers to match your wiring):
SoftwareSerial mySerial(8, 7);

That sounds like I could just switch the pins this way? Or was code only for a stand-alone GPS unit (non-shield)?

However, I'm trying to use the GPS shield with the Arduino Wireless Shield with my Xbee:

http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoWirelessShield

(which uses RX/TX pins, I think 0 and 1), and the Adafruit motorshield v1. The motor shield uses pins 7 and 8 as I have a 4WD robot with 4 DC motors. Is it possible to change pins 7 and 8 on the motor shield to 2 and 13 instead using software?

https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-motor-shield/faq

[Franklin97355]

The V2 motor shield does not use pins 7 and 8. Do you have the version 1 shield?

[project_science]

I'm using v1. I know v2 will solve all my issues by opening up all the digital i/o pins (I've seen the documentation page), but I'm hoping there's a way to alter which pins the GPS shield or the motor shield v1 uses in software alone without cutting anything on the boards

[Franklin97355]

Probably not both boards have traces on the shield that connect those pins to the hardware and without cutting them you are out of luck. The GPS shield was designed for this and the traces are well exposed and can be cut with an xacto knife