[DIY] {Arduino} Protoshield

Arduino protoshield

I was toying with the idea of buying an arduino http://www.arduino.cc/ for some time. It is one of the best open source MCU, complete with sample code and comes with 6 analog in and 6PWM (depends on the flavour). The best thing I liked about arduino is, it comes with many many "shield". Each shield serves a specific purpose, such as the motor shield, the ether shield etc. The shield package comes in a kit set. Hence, the low cost.

The price is not prohibitively expensive, but some how I spent my disposable income on my other research interest....Recently I got some cash to spare (not a windwall tho) and quickly approach my colleague Mike Ong to help me to contact his supplier get a set of protoshield and arduino. His supplier quoted me 

Arduino Duemilanove = $52.80

Arduino ProtoShield V.4 Kit = $15.70

mini breadboard = out of stock

Good pricing! For $68.30, I can play it for a very long period of time.

So..... what is this protoshield alll about ?? Basically it is a mini development board for the arduino. Instead of using the big breadboard the store issued me and having many wires extending from the arduino to it. Sadly, the mini breadboard I wanted was out of stock....

The protoshield comes in a kit form. The PCB is of a very good quality, each description on the pin can be seen clearly.

Close up of the PCB

There is no instruction manual that comes together with the kit. Nevertheless, it is very straight forward to mount the components by reading the description on the PCB and do the soldering. The LEDs have their cathode filled off and it matches the pattern on the PCB.

Now, the soldering part. Secure the components with some sticky tape/masking tape or what ever tape that is convenient to you. Flip it over and let the soldering begin!

This how it looks like, arduino mounted with protoshield. Let alone the name sounds so coOOOooOOooOOoOL right!

I insulated the USB mini connector with some masking tape, because it is dangerously near to some of the points I soldered.

For the next 2 hours, I am playing with PoV (persistence of vision). Some of the staff, my project's boys and girls have seen it

I know I owe all of you the how-to. Writing a how-to actually takes more time then playing with it... *sigh*

I will try to write the how to for using the arduino IDE, that uses PROCESSING (another C-like programming language) and the how to of my PoV.

AFTER I attended my meetingS............