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MegaShield Kit for Arduino
sku: DEV-09346
Description: The Arduino Mega now has its very own prototyping shield! The MegaShield mates with the Arduino Mega board and gives the user a prototyping area, two general LEDs, and, most important of all, the Arduino Mega reset switch is brought to the top level. The shield also works with our small breadboards if you don't want to solder to the prototyping area.
This comes in kit form and must be soldered together by the end user. Please note - we do not ship assembly instructions! All soldering is through-hole (relatively easy) but always check your component orientation before soldering!
Kit Includes:
- 1x MegaShield PCB
- 11x 8-pin Arduino Stackable Header
- 1x Bright 5mm Green LED
- 1x Bright 5mm Red LED
- 2x 330 Ohm resistors
- 1x Momentary push button
- 1x 10k resistor
Features:
- All Arduino Mega pins are brought to the top level
- 5V and GND power busses
- Power and stat (connected to D13) LEDs
- Reset Button brought to top level
Documents:
- Protoshield Schematic
- Eagle Files
- Assembly Tutorial by Bob Gallup
- Arduino Home Page
Pricing
click on image to enlarge 
Comments
14 comments
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I am working on a revision of this shield right now. I'm increasing the annular ring size across the board. I was wondering... would any of you find it useful to have a 3.3V bus? Is the 5V bus useful? I was also wondering if having more buses near the Analog inputs would be useful. Maybe I've been listing to too much of the Who http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl9bvuAV-Ao Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! - Pete
But here are a few other comments on the kit:
1. LEDs: I don't know that the bright ones are really necessary, nor do they need to be 5mm. The smaller 3mm basic ones, like in the SFE store, would be just fine, I think.
Furthermore, I know it's very minor, but with the clear LEDs, you have to actually plug them in first to figure out which one is green and which is red.
2. Parts list: I think there is an error in the parts list for the connectors on the web page.
Doesn't the shield require 9 of the 8-pin female headers and 1 of the 6-pin female headers? The description says 11 and 1. (My kit was missing the 6-pin, by the way.)
Shouldn't there also be two 2-pin headers included as well, for the two ground and two +5V pins along the edge of the board (at the ends of the digital pins)? The main photo of the shield on the site shows them in place, but they aren't in the parts list (nor were they in my kit).
[cont...]
3. Instructions: I know your product page clearly says that you don't ship assembly instructions, but I think a simple note with some basic pointers in it would be useful. Here are some examples:
- Figure out which is the red LED and solder it on the board in the spot marked POWER. Figure out which is the green LED and solder it in the STAT spot.
- Check the resistors carefully! One is 10K ohm and the other two are 330 ohm. The slots on the board are marked correspondingly. Be sure to match the resistors with the right slot when you solder them on the board.
I wouldn't underestimate the value of very simple instructions or tutorials. They go a long way towards helping people get going with the technology. (I can read a schematic, but I bet not all early users of these tools can.) ladyada, for example, has done an excellent job of making useful instructions.
I DO like your taste in musical inspiration!
Thanks.
.andy
Another warning about soldering the LEDs in the correct orientation is probably even more important than the one about the resistors. Resistors are symmetrical, so it doesn't matter which way you insert them, but LEDs are not!
People not familiar with the schematic symbology won't know about which side of the LED illustration on the board represents the cathode and which is the anode, and whether the short or long lead is anode or cathode.
This really should be noted in instructions!
.andy
There is no through-hole on the board right under the SparkFun logo, nor are there any in the last row where "sparkfun.com" is screened on the top. This means you can not use an 8-pin header in either of the last two rows, which would be handy for an off-board connector.
It seems you could put the holes there and move the logo to the reverse side to make it more useful.
.andy
No on the 3.3. With only 30mA, there is not much that it can be used for except an acel or gyro...unless you add a 500mA 3.3 LDO regulator. I have to use an auxillary 5vto3.3 board for my 3.3v XBEE module. No on the analog bus, but yes on power and ground bus along the PWM, and run them all the way along the "communication" pins too.( in servo pinout of course). Thanks.