Limitations On Particle Photon?

Hardware
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Good morning all. Been using the Photon for almost 5 days now (since I got it at a Hackathon) and I’m going to be using again at an upcoming Hackathon this weekend. I was wondering what limitations are on the device. I have never messed with a circuit board or anything at all similar to the Particle. I don’t know much about electrical engineering either, but hey I can use Google :smile:

Anyways, I wanted to know the feasibility of hooking the Photon up to my car stereo. I understand that there is a difference in volts, since the Photon can give off 3.3v. I guess I’d also like to know what other devices can be hooked up to the Photon (I need hack ideas).

This is my skill level with the device: Got two of them installed and running on my Mac and Windows OS (that’s an accomplishment in and of itself). I attached one with a PIR Motion Sensor and have it communicating to another Photon to make it mpve and sending push notifications to my phone when there is motion detected. The other Photon I attached 2 servos and 2 leds and put them inside a stuffed doll to make it look like a robot. I then created an online GUI to control the robot.

Help a brotha out!

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Wow, what a broad question - not easy to answer in only one life :wink:

But for the native hardware questions you might like to look into the datasheet docs

And for the supported hardware you could start at the libraries view of Particle Build

3

Thank you for the resources. I figured it was badly written. I’m not very good with forums

4

That was not what I wanted to get across - it’s just such a vast field of possible answers.
You need to limit it for us to be of some assistance :wink:

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5

(potentially endless) Opportunities with Particle Photon?

…may be a more accurate/positive title, given the contents of your Post!

Limitations On Particle Photon?…seems to suggest that the Photon has some unexpected limitations for your needs.

Your car will likely have >12V supply with potentially higher spikes, but the internals of the stereo could well have 3V3 & 5V power rails available. The photon is powered off ~5V via USB and many pins are 5V tolerant. You should check the max voltage for powering the Photon directly, in the data sheet or by searching the forum & google.

Make sure to get the Photon into low power mode or OFF - to avoid draining the car battery when the car is parked.

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