Arduino Prototyping Shield on the cheap

Arduino Prototyping Shield on the cheap
Breadboards are very handy, but sometimes I just want to connect one IC or some LEDs and resistors to the controller.

My simple solution was to canibalize a cheap Breadboard to get two expandable PrototypingShields with some additional features.

What I used:
Breadboard (~3$)
2 Pieces of Veroboard (<1$)
28 PinHeader (<1$)
28 femaleConnectors (<1$)
2 Leds
1Switch
some Resistors...
and some epoxy to get it smooth and fixed

Tools:
Soldering iron
Dremel
pliers
a knife
 
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Step 1Soldering the Shield

Soldering the Shield
Sadly the ArduinoBoard doesn't align with the standard 0.1" spacing, so it's a little tricky to get the Shield smoothly into the Arduino connectors.

Firstly I cutted the right number of pinheaders.
After putting them into the Arduino connectors, I saw the difference to my 0.1" spaced veroboard.

I bent the headers a little bit as you can see in the second picture.

Now the pins are ready to solder.

As you can see in Pic4 I cutted the veroboard with one hole space to the border, to solder the female connectors later.
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10 comments
Oct 2, 2011. 11:26 AMJimmy Proton says:
what was the width of the breadboard after you removed the power rail?
Jul 19, 2011. 5:33 AMlurkingdevil says:
I have a veroboard that only has holes. Your board appears to have strips of holes connected. Mine doesn't. What can I do?
Jul 20, 2011. 3:44 AMlurkingdevil says:
How did you solder the male headers on the copper side of the board as in pic 4 and pic 5.
Mar 19, 2009. 11:29 AMjdege says:
You can buy breadboards in this size. You don't have to cut on a larger one.
Nov 22, 2009. 1:22 PMFallenSub says:
Eh, damn, one big breadboard like yours costs 17$ in my country -_-
Dec 28, 2009. 1:51 AMJodex says:
Here in Finland they don't even sell those mini breadboards. And maybe the cheapest one is about 7€ witch is about 10$.. =/
Jul 31, 2009. 4:01 AMElectronMad says:
nah if you'r in seed studio its about 3 bucks and if u buy a bulk pack its like 1$ each. ANYWAY NICE instructable... :) good job
Jul 2, 2009. 1:25 PMReCreate says:
wow really?

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Author:nejo0017(www.nejo0017.wordpress.com)