Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
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Figure 1-9. A sampling of shields for Arduino: 1. Arduino prototyping shield 2. Adafruit prototyp-
ing shield 3. Arduino Ethernet shield 4. TinkerKit DMX shield 5. Arduino wireless shield
6. Oomlout Arduino/breadboard mount, manufactured by Adafruit 7. Spark Fun microSD card
shield 8. Adafruit motor driver shield 9. Spark Fun musical instrument shield.
Arduino Shields
One of the features that makes Arduino easy to work with
are the add-on modules called shields , which allow you to
add preassembled circuits to the main module. For most
applications you can think of, there's a third-party company
or individual making a shield to do it. Need a MIDI synthe-
sizer? There's a shield for that. Need NTSC video output?
There's a shield for that. Need WiFi or Ethernet? There's a
shield for that, and you'll be using them extensively in this
topic.
same footprint; and some prototyping shields, which make it
easy to design a custom circuit for your project.
The shield footprint, like the board designs, is available
online at www.arduino.cc . If you've got experience making
printed circuit boards, try your hand at making your own
shield—it's fun.
Until recently, shields for Arduino weren't physically com-
patible with Wiring boards. However, Rogue Robotics ( www.
roguerobotics.com ) just started selling an adapter for the
Wiring board that allows it to take shields for Arduino.
The growth of shields has been a major factor in the spread
of Arduino, and the well-designed and documented ones
make it possible to build many projects with no electronic
experience whatsoever. You'll be using some shields in this
topic, and for other projects, building the actual circuit
yourself.
Beware! Not every shield is compatible with every board.
Some derivative boards do not operate on the same voltage
as the Arduino boards, so they may not be compatible with
shields designed to operate at 5 volts. If you're using a
different microcontroller board, check with the manufac-
turer of your board to be sure it works with your shields.
X
The shields you'll see most commonly in this topic are the
Ethernet shield, which gives you the ability to connect your
controller to the Internet; the wireless shield, which lets you
interface with Digi's XBee radios and other radios with the
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