Creating Your Own Shield - Arduino Sketches: Tools and Techniques for Programming Wizardry - page 404

and prepare yourself for another adventure; after you have created a shield,
you have to create the software for the shield. You do this in the next chapter.
Creating Arduino shields is an excellent way of learning electronics but can
also be a source of income. Several companies sell Arduino shields but also indi-
viduals shields on dedicated electronics sites. Arduino shields work, of course,
on Arduinos, but not only. Several boards exist with Arduino-compatible con-
nectors, even if they are not Arduinos and are not programmed by the Arduino
IDE. One example is Atmel's SAMA5D3 evaluation board. Atmel supplies most
of the microcontrollers on Arduino boards but also creates advanced processors
for professional designs. The SAMA5D3 is one example of a processor that can
run a full Linux or Android system, but with Arduino shields.
Summary
In this chapter you have seen just how easy it is to create your own shield using
Fritzing, an open-source application to create schematics and help you create
professional quality shields. You have created your own project and developed
a solution to increase the input/output of your Arduino beyond its initial design
point. However, to use your shield, you will require software to control the
components, something that will be presented in the next chapter. You will see
how to create your own library using the Arduino IDE, and how to package it
to distribute to other people and projects.