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Grove Ecosystem Introduction

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What is the Grove Ecosystem?

Grove is a modular, standardized connector prototyping system. Compared to systems using jumpers or solder, Grove's modular building-block approach makes assembling real electronics easy. The Grove system consists of a base unit and various modules with standardized connectors. These were originally called "stems" and "twigs", but the names have been phased out.

The Base unit, generally a microprocessor, allows for easy connection of any input or output from the Grove modules. Every Grove module typically addresses a single function, such as a simple button or a more complex heart rate sensor. You don't need a Base unit to connect up to Grove modules. You can use a cable (Grove to Pin Header Converter) to run from the pins on the Raspberry Pi or Arduino to the Grove connectors.

What are in the Grove Ecosystem?

The Grove ecosystem provides a convenient and user-friendly approach to prototyping and building electronic systems. Its modular nature, standardized connectors, and wide range of modules make it easier for both beginners and experienced makers to assemble and experiment with real electronics quickly.

Grove Sensors

The Grove ecosystem offers a wide range of sensors that can be easily integrated into your electronics projects. These sensors are designed to address specific functions and can provide various types of input data.

Grove Network Modules

The Grove system also includes network modules that enable communication and connectivity in your projects. These modules allow you to connect your electronics to different networks, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, LoRa, NFC, or other Standard Protocol.

With Grove network modules, you can easily add wireless capabilities to your projects, enabling data transmission, remote control, or interaction with other devices or the internet.

Grove Accessories

In addition to sensors and network modules, the Grove ecosystem offers a variety of accessories that complement and enhance your electronics projects. These accessories include components such as LCD displays, LED matrices, motor drivers, relay modules, and more.

The Boards supported by the Grove interface

The Grove interface is designed to be compatible with a wide range of development boards and microcontrollers.

Published by Seeed Studio

Seeed Studio XIAO Expansion boardGrove Base Shield for ArduinoBitMaker Expansion for Micro:bit
tip

For more acknowledged boards supporting Grove interfaces, like Raspberry Pi, Pi Zero, or other boards, launched by Seeed Studio, you can check here(extensions and kits).

Published by Arduino

Arduino MKR Connector Carrier

Published by Adafruit

Grove Shield FeatherWing for Particle Mesh and all FeathersGrove to STEMMA QT / Qwiic / JST SH Cable

Published by DIGI

Grove Connector Development Board - XBee, through-hole sockets

The Kits come with the Grove Modules and Courses

Arduino Board-based

Grove Beginner Kit for Arduino is one of the best Arduino Beginner Kit for beginners. It includes one Arduino compatible Board and 10 additional Arduino sensors and all in one-piece of PCB design. All the modules have been connected to the Seeeduino through the PCB stamp holes so no Grove cables are needed to connect. Of course, you can also take the modules out and use Grove cables to connect the modules. You can build any Arduino project you like with this Grove Beginner Kit For Arduino.

Grove Beginner Kit For Arduino
tip

For more kits about Ardunio, please check here.

Raspberry Pi Board-based

We have designed 8 tutorials for you to start with some basic Grove modules and the Raspberry Pi 4 board. This section introduces you how modules can be combined and applied in real-life applications.

Grove Base Kit for Raspberry Pi
tip

For more kits about Raspberry Pi, please check here.

SeeedStudio XIAO Board-based

The primary audience for “XIAO: Big Power, Small Board” encompasses hobbyists, students, educators, and professionals in electronics and machine learning who want to explore and maximize the potential of compact hardware platforms. Typically, these readers might hold positions as electronics enthusiasts, DIY project creators, electronics educators, or even junior embedded system developers. As they advance in their careers, they might be eyeing roles such as electronics design engineers, IoT developers, or machine learning hardware integrators.

XIAO: Big Power, Small Board
tip

For more kits about Seeed Studio XIAO Series, please check here.

Wio Terminal Board-based

This kit comes with Wio Terminal and a course in the box. This book is designed specifically for educators to be able to adopt the Wio Terminal into the classroom or workshops to show learners the power of TinyML. It provides the basic underpinnings that one would have to cover to teach the very basics of ML while keeping the concepts grounded in hands-on exercises.

Applications Kit ML101 with Prof. Vijay Course
tip

For more kits about Wio Terminal, please check here.

Co-Create Program - Grove Modules

Seeed Studio Fusion has launched a Grove Sensor Co-brand Campaign to help engineers turn their Grove designs into real products. Participants have their designs manufactured and sold on Seeed Studio Bazaar(Product puuchase page).

Grove Cables

Normal Grove Cable

There're 5 types of Grove cables supporting your projects, the length is consist of 5cm, 20cm, 30cm, 40cm as well as 50 cm. As shown below:

5cm20 cm30 cm40 cm50 cm
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Get One NowGet One NowGet One NowGet One NowGet One Now

Grove - Branch Cable

Use this cable to connect two I2C Grove modules to one I2C Stem connector. This cable is compatible to all I2C Grove modules. It will be very useful when you need to connect more than one I2C device to your Grove System.

tip

You can check it on the Bazaar Purchase Page. We have luanched Grove - I2C Hub (6 Port) for this function.

Grove - Branch Cable for Servo

Grove Branch Cable for Servos is used to connect one or two servos to a project, with power and ground shared between the connectors and individual PWM signals for each servo connected to the Arduino's PWM-capable pins. The cable's four-pin keyed connector is typically connected to a Grove Shield digital socket, and the wire color (yellow or white) indicates the corresponding digital pin for the servo input.

tip

You can check it on the Bazaar Purchase Page.

Grove & Qwiic/STEMMA QT Interface to Male/Female Jumper Cables

This cable helps you to connect multiple Grove, Qwiic, and STEMMA QT modules to your development boards using a single cable.

You can connect one Grove Module and one Qwiic Module or STEMMA QT Module to Seeeduino Lotus or Arduino UNO.

tip

You can check it on the Bazaar Purchase Page.

Grove - 4 pin Female Jumper to Grove 4 pin Conversion Cable (5 PCs per PAck)

4 pin Female Jumper to Grove 4 pin Conversion Cable is being made available based on requests from customers to use Grove modules directly with Arduino. The female jumper on this cable is compatible with 2.54 pitch pin headers. With this cable, you can easily connect all of Seeed’s Grove modules to any 2.54mm pitch connector.

tip

You can check it on the Bazaar Purchase Page.

Grove - 4 pin Male Jumper to Grove 4 pin Conversion Cable (5 PCs per Pack)

Grove is a convenient plug-and-play system with specialized interface, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be used in open ecosystem like breadboard. The male jumper on this cable is compatible with 2.54 pitch pin headers. With this cable, you can easily connect all of Seeed’s Grove modules to any 2.54mm pitch connector.

tip

You can check it on the Bazaar Purchase Page.

Grove Female Header - DIP-4P-2.0mm-90-Degree

This is a 4-pin, 2.0mm pitch, 90-Degree version, DIP Grove Female Header pack with 10pcs, which is suitable to perform wire transfers and get your board to connect to components.

tip

You can check it on the Bazaar Purchase Page.

Grove Female Header - DIP-4P-2.0mm-10 Pcs

This is a 4-pin, 2.0mm pitch, DIP Grove Female Header pack with 10pcs, which is suitable to perform wire transfers and get your board to connect to components.

tip

You can check it on the Bazaar Purchase Page.

✨ Contributor Project

Grove Projects

Here are some project made with Grove for your reference, more projects please refer to Recipe or Instructables.

Automated WateringIoT Jar NotifierMagic Mirror
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MAKE IT NOW!MAKE IT NOW!MAKE IT NOW!
Crazy CaterpillarVoice-Control IR Remote ControllerPlant Watering Device
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MAKE IT NOW!MAKE IT NOW!MAKE IT NOW!
Wi-Fi SpeakerDIY a toy carTemperature-controlled USB Fan
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MAKE IT NOW!MAKE IT NOW!MAKE IT NOW!
Pokemon Go SAFETY BADGELED Clay OrnamentQuality of Life Meter
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MAKE IT NOW!MAKE IT NOW!MAKE IT NOW!
Grove Minimal ThermometerMore Humane Moisture SensorPI Game Box
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MAKE IT NOW!MAKE IT NOW!MAKE IT NOW!

More Knowledge about Grove Ecosystm

The following information are presented by the Seeed Studio and the information might need to be updated as well.

Interface of Grove modules

You may notice that there're 4 color of the Grove cable.

  • pin 1 - Yellow (for example, SCL on I2C Grove Connectors)
  • pin 2 - White (for example, SDA on I2C Grove Connectors)
  • pin 3 - Red - VCC on all Grove Connectors
  • pin 4 - Black - GND on all Grove Connectors

There're mainly 4 type of Interface of Grove modules.

Grove Digital

A digital Grove connector consists of the standard four lines coming into the Grove plug. The two signal lines are generically called D0 and D1. Most modules only use D0, but some do (like the LED Bar Grove display) use both. Often base units will have the first connector called D0 and the second called D1 and they will be wired D0/D1 and then D1/D2, etc.

Examples of Grove Digital modules are: Switch Modules, the Fan Module, and the LED Module. In Figure 8, you can see what the Grove connector looks like on the schematic for the LED Grove module. They range from the simple to the very complex.

pinFunctionNote
pin1DnPrimary Digital Input/Output
pin2Dn+1Secondary Digital Input/Output
pin3VCCPower for Grove Module, 5V/3.3V
pin4GNDGround

Grove Analog

An Grove Analog connector consists of the standard four lines coming into the Grove plug. The two signal lines are generically called A0 and A1. Most modules only use A0. Often base units will have the first connector called A0 and the second called A1 and they will be wired A0/A1 and then A1/A2, etc.

pinFunctionNote
pin1AnPrimary Analog Input
pin2An+1Secondary Analog Input
pin3VCCPower for Grove Module, 5V/3.3V
pin4GNDGround

Grove UART

The Grove UART module is a specialized version of a Grove Digital Module. It uses both Pin 1 and Pin 2 for the serial input and transmit. The Grove UART plug is labeled from the base unit point of view. In other words, Pin 1 is the RX line (which the base unit uses to receive data, so it is an input) where Pin 2 is the TX line (which the base unit uses to transmit data to the Grove module).

pinFunctionNote
pin1RXSerial Receive
pin2TXSerial Transmit
pin3VCCPower for Grove Module, 5V/3.3V
pin4GNDGround

Grove I2C

Those long term readers of this blog know that our favourite devices are I2C sensors. There are many types of I2C Grove sensors available. Most are 5V/3.3V devices, but there are a few that are only 3.3V or 5.0V. You need to check the specifications.

The Grove I2C connector has the standard layout. Pin 1 is the SCL signal and Pin 2 is the SDA signal. Power and Ground are the same as the other connectors. This is another special version of the Grove Digital Connector. In fact, often the I2C bus on a controller (like the ESP8266, Raspberry Pi and the Arduino) just uses Digital I/O pins to implement the I2C bus. The pins on the Raspberry Pi and Arduino are special with hardware support for the I2C bus.

pinFunctionNote
pin1SCLI2C Clock
pin2SDAI2C Data
pin3VCCPower for Grove Module, 5V/3.3V
pin4GNDGround

Size of Grove

There are 5 sizes of Grove.

1X11X21X32X22X3
20x20mm20x40mm20x60mm40x40mm40x60mm
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Here are the dimensions.

  • Grove 20X20 DIP:

  • Grove 20X20 SMD Horizontal:

  • Grove 20X20 SMD Vertical:

  • Grove 20X40 DIP:

  • Grove 20X40 SMD Horizontal:

  • Grove 20X40 SMD Vertical:

For the detail mechnical drawing, please refer to Grove Mechnical Drawing.

Resource for Grove

ZIPGrove Mechnical Drawing

ZIPDimension of Grove 20X20 DIP

ZIPDimension of Grove 20X40 DIP

ZIPDimension of Grove 20X20 SMD Vertical

ZIPDimension of Grove 20X40 SMD Vertical

ZIPDimension of Grove 20X20 SMD Horizontal

ZIPDimension of Grove 20X40 SMD Horizontal

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