Arduino MKR FOX 1200 Pinout

Introduction

The Arduino MKR FOX 1200 contains features of Arduino Zero and SigFOX Connectivity. This is the powerful board that is based on the Atmel SAMD21 and an ATA8520 SigFox module. 

The Arduino MKR FOX 1200 has become a great choice for users who have minimal or no previous experience using networking consisting of a low-power device.

This board belongs to the Arduino MKR family. The boards of this family are used to build projects with minimal effort. 

The most attractive thing about this board is that it comes with a 2-year subscription to the SigFOX network which allows you to send up to 140 messages per day and free access to Spot’it geolocation service which helps to locate the board without any need for external hardware. 

SigFOX operates in most parts of Europe, South Africa, and Japan.

Arduino MKR FOX 1200 Board Layout

Microprocessor

  Arduino MKR FOX 1200 is a microcontroller board that is based on Cortex-M0 32-bit SAMD21 Microcontroller. This board is a low-power but powerful processor which is used in all boards of the MKR family.

Microchip

The board consists of a Radio Frequency transmitter chip for transmitting signals between two devices. The Microchip Smart RF ATA8520 is a fully integrated single-chip RF transmitter that consumes less power. 

USB Connector

The Arduino MKR FOX 1200 consists of a Micro USB port for supplying operating voltage to the board.

Clock Speed

The clock frequency of the processor is 48 MHz while the frequency of Real Time Clock or RTC is 32.768 kHz.

Memory

In Arduino MKR FOX 1200 the microprocessor has a total of 256 KB of Flash memory and 32KB SRAM.

Cryptochip

The Arduino MKR FOX 1200 has a secure element which is ATECC508A. The ATECC508A is the first crypto chip that has integrated ECDH or Elliptic Curve Diffie–Hellman key agreement. It is used for the encryption and decryption of digital signals as well as the IoT nodes which are used in home automation systems and other applications.

Arduino MKR FOX 1200 Specifications

The specification of the Arduino MKR FOX 1200 is as follows:-

Pins Description OF Arduino MKR FOX 1200

Power Pins

1. Vin:- This pin is used for supplying an input voltage of 5 volts. The input voltage is a direct current supply voltage. The input voltage is used to regulate the integrated circuits which are used in the connections. When this pin is in use the USB pin is disconnected. Vin is also known as the primary voltage source on the Arduino MKR FOX 1200 board.

2. 5v pin:- The 5v pin is used as the output for external components. The output is 5v. This pin is used only when the board is powered by USB or the power source of the 5v pin is a USB connector.

3. 3V3 Pin:- The 3V3 pin is used as an output pin. This pin generates an output voltage of 3.3 volts.

Reset Pin

The RESET pin is used to reset the board. For resetting the board we have to pull down this pin to LOW.

Input Output pins

Digital Pins

There are a total of 22 digital input/output pins available on the Arduino Zero board. The digital pins are used as an input or output according to the requirement. The digital pins are only able to read two values which are:-

• High
• Low 

However, we can use 1 for the high state and 0 for the low state. When these pins receive 0V they are in a LOW state and when they receive 5V they are in a HIGH state.

The digital pins on the Arduino MKR FOX 1200 are from D0 to D21

Analog Pins 

1. There are a total of 7 analog pins available on the Arduino MKR FOX 1200 board. Analog Input Pins are used to take the signal from analog sensors and then convert it into a digital value. These pins can receive any value, unlike digital pins. It can receive value not only in the high or low states but in other forms also. The analog pins of the board are from Pin A0 to Pin A06. 

The Analog pins of the Arduino MKR FOX 1200 Board are as follows:-

PWM Pins

 There are 12 pins also known as Pulse Width Modulation pins. The work of these PWM pins is to convert the digital inputs to analog output. These pins provide 8-bit PWM output with the analogWrite () function. The PWM pins of the Arduino Zero board are 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10,12, A3, and A4.

Communication Pins of Arduino Nano 33 IoT

1. I2C Pins

The Arduino MKR FOX 1200 board contains the I2C communication protocol. It stands for “Inter-Integrated Circuit.” It is a two-wire serial communication protocol. It uses two pins for communication purposes. One of them is used to send data while the other pin is used to receive data. 

The two pins of the I2C protocol are “Serial Clock Pin(SCL)” and “Serial Data Pin(SDA)”.

• SCL – It is defined as the line or pin which transfers the clock data. SCL pin is used to synchronize the shift of data in between two devices. This signal is generated by the master device.

It is a clock line.

• SDA – It is defined as the line or pin which is used by slave devices to send and receive data. It is a data line.

I2C pins on the board are D11 which is SDA and D12 which is SCL.

2. SPI Pins:-

The Arduino MKR FOX 1200 board supports the “Serial – Peripheral Communication Protocol” or SPI. The SPI protocol is used to develop communication between the controller device and its peripheral devices. Three pins are needed for SPI communication protocol which are :- 

• MISO – It stands for Master Input/Slave Output. This data line sends data to the master device. 
• MOSI – It stands for Master Output/Slave Input. This data line is used for sending data to slaves/peripheral devices.
• SCK – This pin is used to synchronize the data transfer between the master and slave device.

SPI pins on the board are D08 which is used as the MOSI pin, D09 which is used as the SCK pin, and D10 which is used as the MISO pin.

The Pins MISO, and MOSI are also known as CIPO and COPI which stand for “Controller In Peripheral Out” and “Controller Out Peripheral In” respectively.

3. UART Pin:-

The Arduino MKR FOX 1200 consists of a UART communication protocol which is used for serial communication of data. It needs two pins for communication purposes which are Rx and TX.

• Rx – This pin is used to transmit the serial data.
• TX – This pin is used to receive the serial data.

UART pins on the board are D13 which acts as RX pin and D14 which act as TX pin.

AREF

The AREF pin is used to provide the external reference voltage to the analog pins for the analog-to-digital conversion process.

GND pin

This pin is used as the ground pin of the board. 

Frequently Asked Questions:-

Frequently Asked Questions:-

1. Is Arduino MKR FOX 1200 available for RCZ4 Frequency?

No, Arduino MKR FOX 1200 is not available for RCZ4 frequencies as they are unlicensed bands that include frequencies of 868MHz. 902MHz. 923MHz. 920MHz. 

2. Arduino MKR fox 1200 can be used as a GPS tracker?

Yes, Arduino MKR can be used as a GPS tracker as it contains a geolocation service.

3. What is the power consumption of the Arduino MKR fox 1200?

          The power consumption of Arduino MKR Fox 1200 runs on two 1,5V batteries type AA or AAA.