Si es pequeño el mundo... te voy a enviar algunos headers adicionales para facilitarte el armado!  Regalo de compañero de forum...

Lo mejor es que coloques los componentes sobre un Arduino proto shield y lo "enchufes" al arduino.  En mi tienda tengo un modelo de proto shield, pero hay otros diseños que se venden en otras tiendas.

http://www.nkcelectronics.com/freeduino-arduino-protoshield-pcb.html
http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=17&products_id=55

Porque no bajas algún diseño que está en http://www.freeduino.org/freeduino_open_designs.html?

En el sitio principal de Arduino hay muchos diseños con PCB y diagramas, pero en general son de modelos viejos.  Freeduino es el diseño mas reciente que existe y es 100% compatible con Arduino.  Los diseños están en fase de prototipo, pero hay un diseño que ya está a la venta que utiliza componentes thru-hole para un facil ensamblaje y está super probado.

have you tried moving the jumpers to the XBEE position?

I saw the pictures... the problem is probably below the LCD.  The tiny thin PCB that is used to attach the LCD to the board does not tolerate well the huge solder pieces that you have... i am assuming, based on the soldering of the other through hole components.  I will reply to your email with some follow-up information.  I will also include in the assembly guide page to be careful with the soldering of the LCD to the board, and check for any shorts before continuing the assembly.

@WestNQ: can you send me hi-res pictures of the top and bottom of the board to support at nkcelectronics dot com?

Thanks

Hi Earl, you just tested the encoder part of the board, which is not used by the motor driver at all.  You need to connect a motor, power the board and the Arduino board with the appropriate power supply and run the test sketch that is available online.

I recommend you to read the information in the playground

http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Code/LCD

I found the answer to this mystery.  You need to set the physical SS pin to HIGH before setting the Arduino in SPI Master mode, and SS is physically wired to pin 10.  Once you set it in Master Mode, you can use pin 10 for other uses.  It is explained for a specific case and problem I had with the Arduino Ethernet Shield, while trying to make it work for the Arduino MEGA: http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1239058804/0

In your code:

Code:

 
  digitalWrite(SS,HIGH); //disable device  
  SPCR = B01111111; //data lsb, clock high when idle, samples on falling

When SS is 9, you need to add the following:

Code:

 
  digitalWrite(SS,HIGH); //disable device
  digitalWrite(10, HIGH); //physical SS pin high before setting SPCR  
  SPCR = B01111111; //data lsb, clock high when idle, samples on falling

Not sure if anyone will read this, as this thread is several months old.

I'm attempting a similar project as the one described. I'm having some problems driving the motors with my SN754410 H-bridge using PWM.

Setup is basically as follows: Arduino Diecimilia wired to one side of the H-bridge, driving an FA-130 motor. I'm supplying 5v from the Arduino's 5v pin to the H-bridge's pin 16 (Vcc1, according to the datasheet) and approx 3v to the H-bridge's motor supply pin from 2 AA batteries.

This seems to work alright if I do a simple digitalWrite to the H-bridge's enable pin (pin1). But I can't get my motor to run if I attempt to analogWrite a PWM signal to the, even at the full 255.

Does anyone know a reason why the H-bridge would send more power to the motor with a standard digital signal controlling the enable pin versus maximum PWM signal?

Make sure that the Arduino pin you selected can do PWM.

I have a Diecimila and a SN754410 H-bridge.

I was trying to follow this tutorial:

http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/Labs/DCMotorControl

But I'm not sure how to attach the Motor Power Supply.

In this photo, it shows a yellow wire going from the Vcc2 of the H-bridge (Motor Power Supply) to what looks like a 9V power pin on the Arduino:



But I do not see a 9V power pin on my Diecimila.

Am I totally off base here?  The tutorial makes referrence to a 12V power supply: "The example above uses 12V, run in parallel with the 5V voltage regulator that supplies the Arduino board. "

Is there a better tutorial I should be following?  

I think in the Diecimila it says "Vin", as it is not necessarily 9V, but the actual input voltage (before the 5V regulator)

I have a Diecimila and a SN754410 H-bridge.

I was trying to follow this tutorial:

http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/Labs/DCMotorControl

But I'm not sure how to attach the Motor Power Supply.

In this photo, it shows a yellow wire going from the Vcc2 of the H-bridge (Motor Power Supply) to what looks like a 9V power pin on the Arduino:



But I do not see a 9V power pin on my Diecimila.

Am I totally off base here?  The tutorial makes referrence to a 12V power supply: "The example above uses 12V, run in parallel with the 5V voltage regulator that supplies the Arduino board. "

Is there a better tutorial I should be following?  

I don't see a ground wire going from the Arduino board to the breadboard

I also ordered the "Arduino Diecimila compatible USB board complete KIT with pre-soldered FT232BL" from eBay..
I hope I don't have this problem while I'm messing with it :o

do you think i should order some spare ATMEGA168 chips just in case?  :-/ seeing as I am a total noob at Arduino, microcontrollers, and programming  

not that i don't understand what its about

The Arduino/Freeduino are prototyping boards, and it means that a lot of bad things can happen to them while developing new electronics applications.  It is always a good practice to have a couple of spare atmega168's, maybe you want to keep one with a sketch programmed, or you want to deploy it using some barebone Arduino boards, etc.  I received only a couple of problem reports with the kits.  I burned an USB chip on a freeduino board just by placing the board on top of some wires by mistake, while it was connected... so a lot of things can happen to these boards while you are prototyping projects with them.

Anthony, what Freeduino board do you have?  Is it the KIT based board or the assembled prerelease board?

Hello.  It's an assembled Freeduino pre-release board; when I received it, it was the board alone with its own ATMEGA168, and it came with nothing else.

Were you able to solve the problem by replacing the atmega168?  If not, then contact me to my email freeduino at nkcelectronics dot com.

Anthony, what Freeduino board do you have?  Is it the KIT based board or the assembled prerelease board?