Teensy 4 + SmartLED + SD + Speaker + Bluetooth

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G'k

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Hello,
For a school projet (basic game), I'm gonna need to connect the following components together:

I have not been able to find much info online. It looks like I need the SmartLED Shield in order to connect the LED Matrix.
But I have read that the shield uses most of the pins, and prevents use of SD reader.

I do not have much electronics knowledge. I do not know how to solder, how to make a PCB. This course is supposed to be restricted to Arduino, but my project needs more computing power.
I have thought of splitting the tasks: use Teensy only for display and bluetooth, and use SD and speaker on another card. This seems like the best compromise

So, my question is: is it possible?

Thanks.
 
G'k said:
Hello,
For a school projet (basic game), I'm gonna need to connect the following components together:

I have not been able to find much info online. It looks like I need the SmartLED Shield in order to connect the LED Matrix.
But I have read that the shield uses most of the pins, and prevents use of SD reader.

I do not have much electronics knowledge. I do not know how to solder, how to make a PCB. This course is supposed to be restricted to Arduino, but my project needs more computing power.
I have thought of splitting the tasks: use Teensy only for display and bluetooth, and use SD and speaker on another card. This seems like the best compromise

So, my question is: is it possible?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Well, if you haven't bought the Teensy 4.0 yet, one option is to get the Teensy 4.1 instead. The Teensy 4.1 has a built-in SD card reader, and I can verify that it does work with the smart shield. Note that to use I2S1 sound (for the audio shield), you have to solder the jumper so the shield uses pin 8 instead of pin 7 (pin 7 is the I2S1 sound output, pin 8 is the I2S1 sound input). You can't have both sound input and output using the default pins with the smart shield. I imagine you will also have to change the defaults in the code to use pin 8 instead of pin 7.

Alternatively if you are good with soldering surface mount small pitch connections, you could hook up a SD drive to the solder pads on the back of the Teensy 4.0. Back in the day before the Teensy 4.1 came out, there were various folk doing that, and there were some PCB's made to simplify bringing out the pins. Unfortunately, it probably will take too long to get a PCB made. I may have a few that I had made up that I could send 1 or 2 needed. Note, I'm going on vacation on the 21st, and I won't be back until the 28th.

The tindie seller talldog has a kit available for sale (he also posts in this forum, but I forget his PJRC name):

Here is one of the breakout boards:

In terms of playing sounds, if you are just playing fixed songs from a SD, an alternative is to use something like a Dfplayer chip that includes a micro SD card reader, speaker output, and takes its input from a set of pins or via a serial port.
 
Thanks for the quick answer. Indeed, I do not know how to solder, but maybe my teacher can help me now that I think about it
I'm gonna have a look at your propositions and I will report back. Thanks!
 
G'k said:
Thanks for the quick answer. Indeed, I do not know how to solder, but maybe my teacher can help me now that I think about it
I'm gonna have a look at your propositions and I will report back. Thanks!
Click to expand...

I missed the part about not knowing how to solder. Frankly, if you haven't done any soldering before, soldering the Teensy 4.0 SD pins is a bit harder than the normal through hole soldering because the pitch is smaller. I wouldn't recommend doing it for a first soldering (unless of course you want the learning experience).

In terms of the PCB, you don't have to know how to make the PCB in this case as others have already designed freely available versions. But it generally takes a few weeks for the PCB board to be made, particularly since we are in the winter holiday season and shipping is overwhelmed (and for shipments from China, the Chinese Spring Festival/New Years will delay those shipments in February).
 
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