I purchased the Intel Edison Breakout Board kit and I am extremely eager to get started on my project while I wait for the Sparkfun GPIO breakout board to arrive. I have a ph sensor board that can communicate either with UART or i2c. I would like to use i2c to communicate with the Intel Edison. In order to use i2c communications, the sensor manufacturer explained that an external 4.7k pull-up resistor may be required. Also, the sensor can either be powered by 3.3v to 5.0v. My questions in regard to i2c communications are:
1) Does the Edison or Breakout Board have an internal pull-up resister that might interfere with a 4.7k resister?
2) Does the Edison or Breakout Board require a level shifter since the Edison only allows 1.8v, or does the Breakout Board already have a level shifter? In case a level shifter is required, can someone please recommend a level shifter for i2c communications?
3) The Edison Breakout Board looks like it has GPIO soldering pads on the top and underside of the board. Do I solder breakaway headers pins to the Breakout Board to access the i2c and the other GPIOs? If so, the Breakout Board seems rather thick to pass a breakaway header pin through to the top side of the Breakout Board for soldering; assuming that's possible, is there a trick to soldering pins to the soldering pads(I haven't soldering anything this small before)?
I know that last question sounds silly, however, the last thing I would want is to ruin the Intel Edison Breakout board.
-Rich