CC3000 as standalone SD card Data Logger?

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mattymatt
 
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CC3000 as standalone SD card Data Logger?

Post by mattymatt »

Hello all,

I'm fairly new to the Arduino and coding in general. I think adafruit is really great, and I'm ready to put in a large order for a project in which I need to log data to an SD card. I was originally eye-balling the Adafruit Data Logging shield ID #1141. However I've since noticed the CC3000 Wireless shield also has an SD card.

Which leads me to my question of can I use the CC3000 just as I would use the data logging shield? That way when I'm ready to advance to Wifi related projects if ever I've already got the shield and don't have to purchase two shields with one collecting dust.


Thanks,

Matt

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davide3
 
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Re: CC3000 as standalone SD card Data Logger?

Post by davide3 »

Well, if you're using an UNO (or other Arduino with the same memory), you might want to beware the issue mentioned here: http://forums.adafruit.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=51571

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: CC3000 as standalone SD card Data Logger?

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

The shield and breakout are pretty much the same functionally. The shield version has a bit of extra hardware to compensate for the CC3000's unwillingness to share an SPI connection.

In terms of non-electrical differeneces, the shield already has all the connections to the Arduino hardwired. It also gives you a prototyping area so you can add a few sensors or other hardware without needing another breadboard or PCB. The breakout is more flexible for non-Arduino projects. It's smaller than the shield, and is a bit easier to plug into a larger circuit.

If you don't have constraints that tip the scales in favor of one form factor, the choice is pretty much a matter of personal taste.

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mattymatt
 
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Re: CC3000 as standalone SD card Data Logger?

Post by mattymatt »

adafruit_support_mike wrote:The shield and breakout are pretty much the same functionally. The shield version has a bit of extra hardware to compensate for the CC3000's unwillingness to share an SPI connection.

In terms of non-electrical differeneces, the shield already has all the connections to the Arduino hardwired. It also gives you a prototyping area so you can add a few sensors or other hardware without needing another breadboard or PCB. The breakout is more flexible for non-Arduino projects. It's smaller than the shield, and is a bit easier to plug into a larger circuit.

If you don't have constraints that tip the scales in favor of one form factor, the choice is pretty much a matter of personal taste.

Thank you for your reply. I'm not sure if its to me or not. As I never mentioned a breakout board. I'm comparing two shields the cc3000 and the data logging shield. I would like to know if the CC3000 can work as a stand alone data logger. That way I have a data logger and wifi shield when I'm ready to use it.

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: CC3000 as standalone SD card Data Logger?

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

Whoops.. I saw the comparison with the CC3000 shield but missed the reference to the datalogger.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "stand alone". I normally use that term to mean a device that can work without requiring any other hardware.. in this case, and Arduino.

Neither the CC3000 shield nor the datalogger is a standalone device for that meaning of the term: neither the CC3000 module nor to the GPS module can write data to the SD card. In both cases, you need an Arduino to pull signals from the radio device and pass it to the storage device.

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mattymatt
 
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Re: CC3000 as standalone SD card Data Logger?

Post by mattymatt »

Maybe stand alone was a poor choice of word. What I'm asking is what is the point of owning a data logging shield if you own a CC3000 shield. Can you use the CC3000 for the purpose of just data logging, i.e. not using any of the wireless functionality just utilizing the SD function.

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: CC3000 as standalone SD card Data Logger?

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

As far as writing data to the SD card goes, both shields are identical. The Data Logger has a real time clock that the CC3000 doesn't, and the CC3000 has wifi capacity that the Data Logger doesn't.

I wouldn't buy a CC3000 shield specifically to ignore the wifi module and use it as an SD interface (I'd use the SD breakout for that http://www.adafruit.com/products/254), but if you want wifi in general and occasionally want something that can handle an SD card, the CC3000 is a good choice.

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obeisance
 
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Re: CC3000 as standalone SD card Data Logger?

Post by obeisance »

incidentally, I have been able to directly use the arduino SD library and examples with the CC3000 shield:
http://arduino.cc/en/Reference/SD

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