I posted a ProtoShield Instructable yesterday. It had the benefit of accounting for the offset Arduino header, but people pointed out that it was a bit messy (I used epoxy where standard male headers would have been fine.)
The reason I'm embarrassed is that in thinking of if I should redo the Instructable, I thought of an entirely better way to tackle the problem. I'm going to leave that instuctable there, because it's still useful if you need to make a shield TODAY and you don't have male headers.
If, however, you can afford to wait a week to get some male headers from the internet, this is by far the better solution. It's faster to make and more robust (and it still handles the offset header)
UPDATE: The headers in the picture below are soldered onto what most would consider the wrong side of the board. I've added a step (step 6) that shows how you could get these headers on the correct side.
The reason I'm embarrassed is that in thinking of if I should redo the Instructable, I thought of an entirely better way to tackle the problem. I'm going to leave that instuctable there, because it's still useful if you need to make a shield TODAY and you don't have male headers.
If, however, you can afford to wait a week to get some male headers from the internet, this is by far the better solution. It's faster to make and more robust (and it still handles the offset header)
UPDATE: The headers in the picture below are soldered onto what most would consider the wrong side of the board. I've added a step (step 6) that shows how you could get these headers on the correct side.
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Signing UpStep 1: Required Materials
Arduino
Protoboard
2 x 8pin male header
2 x 6pin male header
pliers
soldering iron (& solder)
Protoboard
2 x 8pin male header
2 x 6pin male header
pliers
soldering iron (& solder)
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All that wasted energy by so many coz Arduino misplaced a header :-)
It is a damn shame that the Arduino designers are filtering out user complaints about the shield offset bug. They are dividing the community into two camps on shields... broken offsets vs. breadboard.
I was paying $5 for a barebones Arduino shield PCB (off ebay). That's crazy, because it forces you to get your first shield prototype -perfect-. Basic breadboards are a few cents each on ebay.
Shields are awesome, but I will never again buy an official Arduino design with the broken offsets.... the breadboard compatible 'duinos are smarter and cheaper. If you don't want to assemble one, they can be bought completely built.
And how are we supposed to put in the female headers to mimic the ones on the arduino?
One of the downsides of the way I did this is that when the shield is inserted, the copper side is facing outwards, away from the arduino. I did it that way because it's easier to solder the headers in place, but depending on what else you're putting on this shield it might create more problems.
Take a close look at step 6 pic4 and step 7 picture. The black things on the headers is on the copper side in step 6 but they are on the non-copper side in step 7.
Step 7 shows how the board would look like as done in Step 5 with the copper side facing away from arduino.
So now my question is, how do we solder the female headers with the copper side facing away from the arduino?
I'm not sure what you mean by female headers. the headers that are soldered in this instructable are male. soldering them on the copper side is much trickier. I actually don't remember how I did it. I can think of 3 ways now though:
1: you could leave a little space between the plastic part of the header and the copper. enough to get the iron in.
2: you could cut away some of the plastic on one side to get access.
3: you could pre-tin the base of each pin, then insert and heat from the non-copper side.
Like this : http://www.sparkfun.com/products/7914
at that point though it might be easier just to buy the adafruit DIY shield: http://www.adafruit.com/products/187
it uses female headers with long pins so you get a male/female combo. the key to that kit is the offset header, which you can buy individually from sparkfun:
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9374
full disclosure, I'm the guy who makes those offset headers for them.
A perf board and strip of 40 female + male headers would cost me max $2 from a local shop. It might actually cost less than that.
Sad part is, I can't find any female headers with long pins locally.
Would you mind sharing how you make those headers?
I literally spent the past 3 hours trying to acheive this. The offset headers gave me a headache, eventually I gave up halfway when pins started falling out, everything got misaligned and a ton of solder bridges formed.
I can't understand for the life of me why the arduino is made this way. This problem with the female headers is there in the decimila, deumilanove and also the uno. Why can't they have normal 0.1" spacing, it would make everyone's life SO much easier.