VoCore Forum

I've read through a fair bit of the forums without finding the answer, and perhaps this is already covered in the forthcoming dock2 manual, but...

How should I connect UART with dock2 attached?

Many thanks for all the fun so far!

remove or bend the two place holder pins.

I've been struggling with the same problem and I was a complete noobie. Here is what I learned the hard way.

The pins connecting the dock to the Vocore are soldered into the Dock. Soldered to the Vocore are the femaie sockets. I didn't know this so I cut the pin close to the Dock so that I could bend the pin in the Vocore and then attach a wire to the pin. But this didn't work too well. Since the pin is not soldered to the Vocore is just fell out. Personally I think it would have been much better if the pins were soldered to the Vocore instead of the dock. That way if you disconnect the dock you have easy access to the pins. Anyway, I found that AWG 22 gauge wire fits nicely into the female socket. (I had some American 4-wire telephone cable that had the perfect solid wire size to fit the socket.)

What I should have done is separated the dock from the Vocore (it's not too difficult, it's tight but comes apart). Then carefully, carefully bend the UART pins away so that you can stick a wire or alternate pin into the Vocore socket. I found the pins to be brittle and will snap off. So bend slowly. Then carefully place the dock back onto the Vocore, aligning the remaining pins on the dock with their corresponding sockets on the Vocore. When everything is aligned, press. Stop, check alignment of pins and sockets, press again and work the dock back into the Vocore. Also be very careful about the size of the pin or wire you stick into the socket. I cracked a socket using a wire that was too big (it was the TXD2 header socket).

I hope that helps.

Allan