Author Topic: Arduino Shield  (Read 3396 times)

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Offline pete2009Topic starter

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Arduino Shield
« on: June 25, 2009, 01:29:48 PM »
Hi Guys,

I'm looking at the Motor Shield for the arduino. I see it will negate the need for motor controller.
I have a question though. Do the sheild units disable/make unusaeble all the unused ports on the arduino underneath?

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Offline Metal Slug 2

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Re: Arduino Shield
« Reply #1 on: June 25, 2009, 02:11:08 PM »
no, you can still use the unused pins.  Half way down the page you will see which pins are used and which are not being used:  http://www.ladyada.net/make/mshield/faq.html
If you take a look at the PCB you will notice three rows of six pins in the bottom right corner.  One row of 6 is a power bus (5v regulated), the middle is ground, and the botom most is are the 0-5 ADC pins found on the arduino.  just solder some wire from there to your sensors and you good to go.  other pins such as the servo pins can be used as normal digital pins (if your not using a servo on them of course).
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Offline pete2009Topic starter

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Re: Arduino Shield
« Reply #2 on: June 25, 2009, 04:09:39 PM »
Great, thanks for explaining that.

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Offline jamort

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Re: Arduino Shield
« Reply #3 on: June 25, 2009, 04:15:02 PM »
if you havent bought an arduino yet I would go for a Roboduino
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Offline Metal Slug 2

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Re: Arduino Shield
« Reply #4 on: June 25, 2009, 06:16:12 PM »
yes, purchasing a roboduino will be easier to use for building robots because of the layout of the pins on the board: its as easy as plug and play.  The signal, power, and ground pins are set up in a way such that you can just plug in the three-pin servo cable header and have it working, while with the arduino you must use wires to plug in the ground, power and signal.  however, with the roboduino, you cannot plug a shield in like you can with the arduino.  you will need to wire each pin to its corresponding pin on the shield.
« Last Edit: June 25, 2009, 06:17:53 PM by Metal Slug 2 »
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Offline pete2009Topic starter

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Re: Arduino Shield
« Reply #5 on: June 26, 2009, 02:27:48 AM »
Still haven't purchased anything as postage will be around U$100 for me so I need to decide carefully :)

As far as the robodino
1) I see you can't just plug in DC motors, you still need a driver
2) The arduino mega has more i/o and memory so it's a bit more future proof.
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Offline Metal Slug 2

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Re: Arduino Shield
« Reply #6 on: June 26, 2009, 06:31:20 AM »
Oh, in your case, since the postage will cost $100 I would go with an arduino mega, or regular arduino and buy it from a site that also sells servos and sensors.  The only site i know of that sells basically everything that you will need is the robot shop:  http://www.robotshop.ca/
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