Grove System

The Grove system was pioneered by Seeed Studio in 2010 and I've been using it for more than 10 years now.

It consists on 3 main components:  
  • An adapter board to plug into the most popular main boards. There's a Grove cape for the BeagleBone, a Grove BoosterPack for the LaunchPads, a shield for the Arduino, among other variants.
  • A unique 4-pin connector for analog and digital GPIOs as well as ports like UART or I²C.
  • A wide range of modules, including sensors, actuators and screens. 
The connectors and cables share the same 4 pins across all the modules with
  • black for ground
  • red for VCC, either +5 V or +3.3 V
  • white for signal 2 or I²C SDA data or UART TX
  • yellow for signal 1 or I²C SCL clock or UART RX
The connector of the cable includes a fail-safe design to prevent any misplacement. 
The modules include a wide range of sensors, actuators and screens. 

Seeed has a Starter Kit for the each of the major platforms, with an adapter board compatible with the platform, cables and a set of sensors. 
This initial set can be extended thanks to modules available individually at affordable prices. The Grove modules page lists more than 100 modules, and counting! Each module has a dedicated wiki page and a library if required.

The Grove Protoshield allows to build a specific device, like this Volt-Amp-Watt-Meter.

The only caveat I've found so far is a possible confusion about voltage, as some sensors run at +5 V and others at +3.3 V only. Few to them accept both voltages.

Seeed Studio now provides a compatibility list for all the modules.
The Grove Beginner Kit for Arduino brings an interesting option to start exploring the world of embedded systems.

The all-in-one design requires with no cables and no soldering. Twelve lessons explore each of the peripherals separately, with detailed and progressive explanations.

Conclusion

The Grove system offers a great solution for fast prototyping, with a flexible and large choice of modules, and support for the most popular platforms with adapter boards.

The only point to check is voltage. Few elements run at +3.3 V and +5 V simultaneously. Most of them run at either +5 V or +3.3 V only. If powered incorrectly, the modules won't run properly in the former case, and might be damaged on the latter case. So check the voltage carefully before connecting the elements!

Pros

  • Fast and secure plug-and-play
  • Wide range of sensors, actuators and displays

Cons

  • VCC confusion for the elements: some run at +3.3 V, others at +5 V

Wrap-Up

  • Perfect for fast prototyping
  • Modules shared across multiple platforms 
  • Rich assortment of modules

Links
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Edited: 28 Dec 2017, 19 Aug 2020