Arduino ProtoShield from "Household" Items (<5$)

Step 9 Enjoy

And there you have it. Some wire, solder and epoxy can turn any standard board into an Arduino shield.

Comments

[The_YongGrand]

Brilliant idea! Gonna try it on my homebrew Arduino, and with the cheap stripboards at my home. Thanks for sharing! :)

[rippinblaise]

that's not a breadboard, that's a circuit board breadboards are plastic and have holes in them and you can change them around... solderless too

[bigjeff5]

It's been answered somewhat already, but there are a dozen types of breadboards. One type is the solderless breadboard, which consists of a plastic case and metal clips - that's what you're talking about, and they are great for very fast prototyping. Another type is a through-hole breadboards (these were around long before solderless breadboards). These are now often called proto-boards, as they are a little more permanent than solderless breadboards (though they are still often re-used). These are for slightly longer-term prototyping (and many hobbyists never move beyond them). Once you move to a PCB, though, there is no reason not to de-solder the breadboard and use it again. The original breadboard was literally a wooden board with nails driven into it, and the wires for the circuit were wrapped around the nails. This type of circuit is still in use (obviously they don't use wooden boards any more) for telephone communications and many industrial applications because with specialized wire-wrapping tools the connections are far more robust than soldered connections. None of these are printed circuit boards, even though the through-hole boards do have copper on plastic like PCB's. Breadboards do not have any circuits. They have options - if you want to create a circuit you can connect a wire from this hole to that hole, or if you connect a component in one set of holes the holes directly next to it will allow you to connect another component to that particular pin, etc. A PCB, on the other hand, has a very specific circuit pattern printed on to it, and the correct components must be connected to their designated spot to make the circuit work. They don't have wires either, that's the whole point of the circuit being printed on the board. PCB's don't have options, and they are not used for prototyping. They are the final product that you conceptualized with a breadboard.

[jcgravesjr]

(removed by author or community request)

[br3ttb]

haha this is why it's good that Instructables have pictures. it is what it is. Whatever you happen to call it, it's $3.50 at Radio Shack. (they call it a "PC board" by the way)

[jcgravesjr]

(removed by author or community request)

[bigjeff5]

A PCB is the final board with the printed circuit. You don't run wires with a PCB, you just drop in the correct components in their designated spot and solder them up. Prototyping is what you do before you figure out how your PCB has to be layed out to make your ciruit. You use breadboards (or proto-boards, they are the same thing) for this purpose, and there are solderless and non-solderless varieties. People get confused, I think, because many hobbyists never move beyond the breadboard stage.

[rippinblaise]

pc stands for "printed circuit" and breadboard came from when people used to put things on bread boards (the ones you put bread on) to make a circuit. Today it's used for the ones you buy at the store.

[br3ttb]

yeah. barebones is a great option for prototyping. the problem is that if you want it to talk with arduino shields you're faced with the same offset problem in reverse. that's why I've gotten more excited about the header I made in this instructable. Initially it was a way to make a cheap shield, but it dawned on me that it could lead to an elimination of the problem all together.

I'm working on a way to churn those things out. if they become cheaply available, a shield maker could use standard spacing, and just ship an offset header with the shield, making it usable on both standard and offset 'duinos.

also, someone with tons of old shields would be able to use them with a standard spaced 'duino, be it the barebones or seeduino.

if widely used, eventually there would be no reason for the arduino to keep the offset spacing, and it could be changed to the standard spacing.

[UziMonkey]

Many people refer to these types of boards as breadboards. The type you're referring to are solderless breadboards.

[br3ttb]

good catch. thanks. thought I had changed all of those.

[Koil_1]

Sweet idea! Personally I've been making my own boards from blanks. I usually either use my Dremel or a chemical etch solution with my printer if it has to be more precise. I have to admit printing the pattern on the board and then soaking it in the etchant solution is a smelly messy job. The only real benefit is the quality of the product you get out of it. What you've done here is WAY more inexpensive and a whole lot easier. You don't want to know how much the ink cartrages cost. The etching solution isn't cheap either. Then there's the clean-up.... Need I say more? Massive respect and many kudos to you my friend.