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

Step 1 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.

Comments

[Jimmy Proton]

what was the width of the breadboard after you removed the power rail?

[lurkingdevil]

I have a veroboard that only has holes. Your board appears to have strips of holes connected. Mine doesn't. What can I do?

[nejo0017]

It's pretty much the same. The circuitBoard under the protoBoard just connects the pinHeader with the female header. So board layout doesn't matter.

[lurkingdevil]

How did you solder the male headers on the copper side of the board as in pic 4 and pic 5.

[jdege]

You can buy breadboards in this size. You don't have to cut on a larger one.

[nejo0017]

Thanks for your comment ! But the small ones are about 5$. I can get 3 small ones out of this 3$ breadboard. Regards, jo

[FallenSub]

Eh, damn, one big breadboard like yours costs 17$ in my country -_-

[Jodex]

Here in Finland they don't even sell those mini breadboards. And maybe the cheapest one is about 7€ witch is about 10$.. =/

[ElectronMad]

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

[ReCreate]

wow really?