Grove i2c connector
Seeed's 2 mm 4-pin connector. Widely used, but a Grove port is not always i2c.
Pinout
Grove pinout
Grove runs a 4-pin Grove 4-pin at 2 mm pitch, wired SCL → SDA → VCC → GND looking into the socket. The pin order is the part that actually matters: a connector that physically fits but is wired differently will land SDA where SCL should be, and the bus simply goes quiet. Compare it against the others in the pinout visualizer before you trust a cable that merely fits.
Specs
Grove at a glance
| Vendor | Seeed Studio |
|---|---|
| Connector | Grove 4-pin |
| Pins | 4 |
| Pitch | 2 mm |
| Logic voltage | varies by board |
| Chainable | no |
| Interrupt pin | no |
| Official docs | Seeed Studio's Grove documentation ↗ |
Watch out: A 4-pin Grove connector can carry analog or digital signals — confirm the port is i2c first.
Voltage & chaining
Living with Grove on a real bus
Grove is varies by board. Voltage varies by board here, so the ecosystem gives you no guarantee — read each board's spec, and see the level-shifting guide when mixing rails.
Grove boards aren't built to chain board-to-board, so you branch from a hub or the host instead of running them in series. That keeps the pull-up maths simpler, at the cost of more wiring back to one point.
Cable length is the other quiet limit — i2c budgets 400 pF of total bus capacitance, and every extra centimetre spends it. Inside an enclosure you'll never notice; if you're reaching across a room, read how far i2c actually goes first. If a chain stops responding, an i2c scan tells you whether it's a wiring or an addressing problem.
Compatibility
Connecting Grove to other standards
Every pairing below is pre-answered — whether it's a direct cable, an adapter, or a level shifter first. Or skip to the compatibility checker and pick both ends.
Boards
Boards that ship with Grove
8 boards in our dataset ship with Grove — plug-together, no soldering. Each page lists its i2c address, voltage range and wiring notes.
Questions
Grove FAQ
What connector does Grove use?
A 4-pin Grove 4-pin at 2 mm pitch, wired SCL / SDA / VCC / GND. The pin order matters as much as the plug — a connector that fits but is wired differently will swap SDA and SCL.
What voltage does Grove run at?
varies by board. Check the individual board, because the standard itself doesn't pin this down.
Can you daisy-chain Grove?
Not by design — Grove boards aren't built to chain board-to-board, so you branch from a hub or host instead of running them in series.
Does Grove have an interrupt pin?
No. Grove carries only power, ground, SDA and SCL. A sensor with an interrupt output needs that pin wired separately to a spare GPIO — i2c itself has no way to signal "data ready" on the bus.
What should I watch out for with Grove?
A 4-pin Grove connector can carry analog or digital signals — confirm the port is i2c first.