Good day fellow enthusiast!
Here is one of my latest and simplest shield designs for an arduino board.
The thing here is, sometimes we have a hard time checking out which I/O pins are LOW or HIGH, especially when we are dealing with LED, motors, etc. Now, here is one of the solutions that you can make in order to have yourself a smooth sailing progress in programming your prototype or project.
One of the shields we sell at our shop in e-Gizmo Mechatronix Central, is an LED shield. It is one of the shields that can help you monitor your I/O pins. Another thing is, in some countries, this kind of shield is not sold and most probably, only prototyping shields are available.
I shall now provide you a DIY LED shield that will you a LOT in your projects.
Features:
19 LED in series with your arduino’s I/O pins for monitoring.
Step 1: Materials
[box color=”#985D00″ bg=”#FFF8CB” font=”verdana” fontsize=”14 ” radius=”20 ” border=”#985D12″ float=”right” head=”Major Components in Project” headbg=”#FFEB70″ headcolor=”#985D00″]
Materials/tools:
Soldering gun,
Resistors (270 ohms),
5mm Green square LED,
Soldering lead,
Header pins or long pins,
Arduino MCU,
PCB,
Tact switch (2 pins)[/box]
Cost analysis:
(in Philippine Peso)
LED P2.50 x 19 = P47.50
Resistors (depends on the LED you used) P0.25 x 19 = P4.75
PCB (smallest size) = P10.00
Tact switch = P2.50
1×40 Header pins = P14.00
(OPTIONAL: x2 6 Long pins & x2 8 Long pins) = P48.00
Total = P78.75 (relatively cheap right?)
NOTE: The long pins are optional since you can also make a shield using header pins alone however, you cannot mount another shield on your shield if you did it the way I did it.
Step 2: Schematic
Here is how I soldered the shield and I know, I’m actually not proud of how I solder stuff since my soldering gun is not really that great.
The running “rail-like” solders are all connected to the ground.
Step 3: Procedures
STEP 1: Buy the materials! I am very particular with this since in some countries, hunting the materials are really tough. So I’m going to give you tips wherever you are in this universe.
In North America, check out Radioshack or try buying from Sparkfun through shipping.
In the Philippines, you can visit Raon and look for DEECO. They sell LEDs for a very low price wherein you can buy 20pcs for I think P25.00 only.
If you have the chance, visit our shop (e-Gizmo) in Taft. The prices of the materials are listed above and I made our shop as a reference for the materials’ prices.
http://www.e-gizmo.com
Step 4:
STEP 2: Start doing it! Now, you have to make a shield out of your PCB. Make sure you actually bought a PCB without connections since it is really hard to make a shield out of a PCB with connections.
Now, solder the header pins or long pins that you bought by doing it like the way I did it on the picture above!
If you are having a hard time, you can place the header pins on your arduino board like the 4th picture!
In this way, the pins won’t move as you solder it. I just ran out of long pins for this tutorial but it will be easier if you all 4 sets to help you out. You may also cut your PCB for aesthetic purposes by doing it this way: But warning, the PCB might break if you did it the wrong way. Figure it out first before trying to cut your PCB. Also, make sure that it is in the same size as your arduino board.
Read more: D-Led Shield v1.0 (for monitoring)