SparkFun Electronics - Arduino ProtoShield Kit

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Product Info

Arduino ProtoShield Kit

sku: DEV-07914

Description: Riding on the waves of the very popular Arduino USB board is this small prototyping shield. Originally spawned with collaboration between the folks at SFE and ITP @ NYU, the Protoshield mates with the Arduino USB board and gives the user a small soldering area, two general LEDs, access to a BlueSMiRF socket, a general pushbutton switch, and most important of all - the Arduino reset switch is brought to the top level.

This comes in kit form and must be soldered together by the end user. Please note - we do not ship assembly instructions! There are a few tutorials on assembly listed below. All soldering is through-hole (relatively easy) but always check your component orientation before soldering!

The kit is pictured with the bread-board option. We highly recommend this breadboard! See the related items below for all the colorful options of breadboards you have.

Kit Includes:

Features:

All Arduino pins are brought to the top level
5V, GND, and Raw pins are exposed as well
BlueSMiRF socket for wireless communication between Arduinos
2 general use LEDs
1 general use button
Reset button brought to top level

Documents:

Pricing

	78 in stock backorder allowed

$16.95	price
$15.26	10-99 (10% off)
$13.56	100+ (20% off)

	quantity

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Comments

13 comments

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	by rsbohn +7.9 \| September 22, 2006 at 2:40 PM 0
Simple to assemble. See the photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/rsbohn/249994855/ Now to build something on it!

	by Wayne +18 \| September 2, 2008 at 4:27 PM +0.66
Please consider offering just the bare board. I have the kit, but there are several adapters I'd like to build that don't require the othe bundled components. I considered the LadyAdy board, but I prefer the open pad config of your board.

	by WyoJustin +2.3 \| January 16, 2009 at 3:38 PM 0
Great board. I just got it together. Bob Gallup's tutorial was very detailed with great pictures. It looks like the board has been updated since then however. The big difference is now you need two 6 pin male headers not a six and a four.

	by Mark Fischer +2.5 \| February 5, 2009 at 6:42 PM +0.15
Second vote for offering the bare board. I bought the kit already, and its great for prototyping, but when you want to make something a bit more permanent, I'd love something with just the components you need.

	by johngineer +1.6 \| March 2, 2009 at 6:10 PM 0
Just completed assembly. Easy to put together and a good layout. My only suggestion would be to put the switch and two LED terminals next to each other, where the user could put an optional 3-pin female connector. This would make it easier to connect to these from the breadboard.

blink4jona

+2.8

| July 2, 2009 at 9:23 PM

great kit for the arduino noob. mine came in a sharp red color too. just a note, I blindly followed the tutorial from the link and broke up the header pins before I realized the new board has two 6 pin instead of one 4 and one 6. Still there's enough extra pins and I have bag of these things anyway.
one weird thing though. The leads from the switch S2 contact the USB receptable on the arduino board. the tutorial points this out and recommends electrical tape to prevent a short. Seems like something that could be avoided in the design. if you take the shield off and on or it is anywhere it might be compressed you can be sure the sharp pins from S2 will go through electrical tape and short. I am looking for some kind of potting material or epoxy to ensure no short.

	by CHaskins +12 \| July 3, 2009 at 9:01 PM 0
I see that there's 5v and gnd lines on the outside of the protoshield, would it be possible to move the female headers closer to the male pins and move the 5v and gnd lines where the female headers are so they are still exposed when using the mini breadboard?

	by njuk-njuk +1.4 \| July 11, 2009 at 1:55 PM 0
Bob Gallup's very helpful (though slightly out-of-date w/the latest shield) "assembly instructions" demonstrate soldering single pins for jumpers 1-3; however, i noted on the close-up images of the ProtoShield on SparkFun there are no such pins shown.

	by kitep +1.3 \| July 12, 2009 at 4:37 PM 0
There are 3 single male pins, one each for the two LEDs, and one for the button. Wouldn't it be better to make these female pins? That way you can just stick a wire in there like you do with the breadboard, rather than having to attach a wire with an alligator clip.

	by nevdull +1.8 \| July 19, 2009 at 0:35 AM 0
So here's YAR (Yet Another Request...you thought I was a pirate, didn't you?) for being able to purchase just the protoboard without the extra kit. Oh, and maybe paint some flowers on it and partner with Celestial Seasonings to send them out in scented cachés. I have lots of other great ideas, too! :) But seriously, being able to purchase the bare board by itself would be a very awesome thing.

johngineer

+1.6

| July 29, 2009 at 11:17 PM

Another request to offer this as a bare board (with male header pins to couple to Arduino)

As others have said the full kit is great for prototyping, but once you have a final design and you'd like to hardwire it you either have to desolder the headers or buy another full kit. The cost savings of one board would not be much, but if you're producing several copies it adds up quickly.

Also it would be cool if the Eagle files (brd and sch) were available for this board, to use as a starting point for creating custom shields.

Keep up the good work, SFE!

	by mct75 +3.2 \| August 30, 2009 at 6:38 PM +0.15
Strike another one for the board-only option. I'd like to either solder it to the underside of a Pro board, or use stacking headers to have it sandwiched.

l0ne

+2.1

| October 3, 2009 at 2:13 PM

This board is convenient for prototyping but it has errors!

The analog inputs are numbered backwards from the arduino (NG & diecimila at least)!! You can go mad wondering why your sensors seem to be floating (they are - look under the shield at the real thing to get your terminal #'s right)

Also, the S2 button is not pulled down properly. It's on the PCB as Junction - resistor - switch - ground. Oops, unusable!

So the shield - good idea and all that, but whoever QA'd it needs to be let go!