Available shields and shield ideas

I was looking around and could not find a post/place that stated every shield...

I am also wondering what cool ideas people have for arduino shields but have never actually made.

I may be doing a competition for the best idea for a new shield soon - the only limitation is that, not including board costs, the parts have to cost less that $25.

I know that there is the arduino site page but it does not cover all shield made by people such as the CCShield etc...

I will start by being lazy and copying off the arduino site:

  • TellyMate Shield - TV-Out from your Arduino. Uses the serial output of the Arduino to control a 38x25 character display on a PAL or NTSC TV.

  • ButtonShield, a shield with 32 buttons, mode A and mode B, a space bar, and a shift key with dual inline LEDs. It lets you turn the Arduino into a handheld, portable microcontroller computer, or gadget. It is controlled over serial and comes with libraries, and is paid for by the Open Source Hardware Bank.

  • Propellurino, a shield with open source software for the Arduino with a multicore prozessor. It has different interfaces like ps/2 mouse or keyboard, midi in, 2 channel analog out, VGA connector and additional I/O ports. It allows you to use as a synthesizer, display data on a VGA screen an many other things. The Arduino controls the functions of the shield.

  • 6-pack, an open-source shield for the Arduino that allows you to connect six sliders to the analog input pins.

  • Bjoern Hartman has published the Eagle PCB files for a shield that lets you easily use Phidget sensors with the Arduino

  • Eagle files for an L293-based Arduino motor driver shield.

  • Liquidware ExtenderShield - Put 2 shields on the Arduino at once (Wide) or (Tall)

  • Adafruit Servo/Stepper/DC Motor shield - A shield that can control 2 hobby servos and up to 2 unipolar/bipolar stepper motors or 4 bi-directional DC motors.

  • SID-emulator was developed by c. haberer and SGMK to use the arduino to control a SID-emulator chip and create old-school 8-bit sounds and lo-fi musical instruments.

  • Battery Shield - A shield from Liquidware that connects to the back of the Arduino, with a USB-rechargable lithium ion battery that can power an Arduino for 14-28 hours depending on the circuit

  • MEGA Battery Pack - One of the first shields for the Arduino Mega, that gives it between 15-27 hours of battery life in a lithium-ion battery that is rechargeable over USB

  • Prototyping shields: These boards are generic shields for building small prototyping circuits. One has a solderless breadboard and the other has a grid of solder holes. Details

  • Protoshield - Copyleft files for making your own Arduino protoshield.

  • Also, see todbot's DIY breadboard shield

  • Adafruit prototyping shield - A prototyping shield for Arduino.

  • DMX shield.

  • Liquidware InputShield - A shield with two buttons, a joystick, and an A-B selector switch for making games or controlling robots.

  • Adafruit XPort/Ethernet shield - Allows use of an XPort module for connecting to the Internet as a client or server.

  • RFIDShield: Connects ID-12 or ID-20 RFID readers to an Arduino. Contact me at sanctitiesrares@gmail.com if you want one.

  • RFIDuino - Reads and writes 13.56MHz ISO-14443A (Mifare) RFID tags. Available as an easy-to-solder kit, through-hole only. RFIDuino mounts upside-down on top of a Arduino, and has an integrated antenna. Mounting hardware included.

  • Liquidware TouchShield OLED touch screen shield.

  • TriangleShield Triangular shaped wedges to rotate other shields 45 degrees off the Arduino.

  • Adafruit Wave shield - Plays any size 22KHz audio files from an SD memory card for music, effects and interactive sound art

  • Adafruit GPS & Datalogging shield - Connects up a GPS module and can log location, time/date as well as sensor data to an SD memory flash card.

  • Simple Arduino Proto Shield Single Sided - This is a simple prototyping shield single sided for Arduino NG/Diecimila. No ISP connector, no reset button, and no leds. The advantage this board is not occupy space with something that you will not use.

  • TouchShield Slide Widescreen OLED touch screen shield for the Arduino with 320x240 resolution and runs Processing graphics commands.

  • Arduino Shield Scaffold - Eagle CAD schematic and PCB files with just the basic headers and Arduino outlines, a quick start for your own custom shield project.

  • Eagle Library with Arduino Shield as a Library Part for the Schematic and PCB - easy to use for your own Shield-designs created with the Eagle PCB Cad Software

  • TankShield - gives the Arduino dual addressable, PWM'd controlled tank treads with built in motor drivers. The Arduino snaps onto the backside of the TankShield, so other shields can be used on the robot

  • Eagle lib with Arduino pins/spacing and (working) 18S20 (Maxim 1-Wire temp sensor). Also a generic Arduino (Diecimila) shield with pads and labels ONLY. Also a 18S20 temp sensor schematic and board that can be daisy-chained with ordinary phone cables.

  • S65-Shield for Arduino Duemilanove or Diecimila. Hardware: 65536 colors / 132x176 pixel LCD, rotary encoder, microSD socket, expansion port for wireless transceiver

  • microSD module by http://libelium.com to read/write data from/to SD cards easily. Get the latest code by BlushingBoy

  • pHduino This is a pH meter using Arduino board for pH measurements with a glass electrode.

  • ServoShield The Renbotics ServoShield uses two 4017 decade counters to drive up to 16 servos using only 4 pins (digital pins 6 to 9) and as little as one 8bit timer (Timer 2) in standard mode or two 16/8bit timers (Timer 1 plus Timer 2 for Duemilanove and Timer 3 for Mega) in high accuracy mode.

Also

CCShield - can't sind the page for it at the moment...

Mowcius

I've been tinkering with the idea of a MIDI shield for simple MIDI projects. Mostly for the jacks, but also status LEDs, I/O busbar, test button, perhaps a dip switch to set channel manually. But also perhaps a variant with MIDI-controlled relays behind the busbar...

I've been tinkering with the idea of a MIDI shield for simple MIDI projects. Mostly for the jacks, but also status LEDs, I/O busbar, test button, perhaps a dip switch to set channel manually. But also perhaps a variant with MIDI-controlled relays behind the busbar...

I haven't done a massive amount of midi stuff myself but it sounds cool... Do a few designs and maybe it will be a best seller...

I am currenlt working on an LED matrix display shield with a 16x16 matrix on the top (4 8x8 matrices). I am working on a touch shield with a touch screen and a matrix of surface mount LEDs under the touch screen. That should make it a hell of a lot cheaper than current touch shields...

And a few other projects...

Mowcius

Lots more shields - you may not even know some of these existed (some only just do...)

7 Segment display shield:

Nokia 3310 LCD shield with Joystick:

http://www.nuelectronics.com/estore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=12

Voice Shield (for speaking projects):

Shifty VU Shield (filters audio input for sound reactive projects):

GSM Shield (for all purpose monitoring etc):

LCD Keypad Shield for Arduino:

http://www.nuelectronics.com/estore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=2

Arduino Nixie Tube Shield:

http://www.arduinix.com/Main/Store.htm

Wifi Shield:

http://asynclabs.com/store?page=shop.browse&category_id=6

Mini Keyboard Shield (34 Button):

http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1244690702

CCShield (found the page...):

http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1235795499

Screw terminal block shield:

http://oomlout.co.uk/screw-shield-terminal-strip-kit-for-arduino-p-218.html

5x7 matrix shield (prototype):

http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1239020801

USB power shield:

http://brettinman.com/2009/08/07/usb-power-shield-v2-0/

Danger shield (not dangerous unless you hit someone with it!)

http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/danger-shield-complete-kits-p-141.html

RGB LED Shield:

http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/rgb-led-shield-v14-kit-p-430.html

Stepper Shield:

That's about it I think,
Mowcius

You may want to include this one as well:

RG (dual color) 8x8 LED matrix shield

Yep, any that you can think of should be included...

:smiley:

Mowcius

I think the Arduino Mega would be a nice and cheap platform for WSN research. What it lacks is a good radio shield however. The xbees are relatively expensive, especially as you buy a separate shield for it. They're also not really interesting for researchers as they already have all the routing built-in.

I'd like to see something like an nRF905, CC24xx or CC25xx on a shield with both a trace antenna and a connector for an external one. Adding a few extra leds, buttons, and maybe screw terminals or headers for sensors wouldn't hurt either.

If you can add a few more details on your idea then I can have a look and maybe do a first production run of a few. I have also been looking for a cheaper alternative to the Xbee...

Mowcius

I know of a CC2500 shield that works much like the xbee shield in that it is designed to carry separate board which has the actual radio chip on it (in Dutch):

http://static.knutsel.org/kits/CC2500_Arduino_Shield_v03/

I would rather have a shield which doesn't rely on a separate board. A temperature sensor and a few leds/buttons would be nice as well. Apart from that I'm not sure what kind of details you're after - I'm not an electrical engineer :3

Ok, I have been having a look and I am wondering what you are wanting on the other end. Say there was an arduino shield with a transmitter/receiver on it, what would you want for the 'other end of the link.

A 5v serial board? A USB (serial) transmitter/receiver?
An option of another arduino board/boards so data from one can be ttransmitted to more than one other arduino?

Also what kind of range would be good? I think that 100m max with only a few kb (5-10) data transfer speed would be satisfactory for most uses. But I presume that from your recommendations you were wanting something more substantial say 100kbs correct?

Have you got a site/sites that the modules can be purchased from at a competetive price for a small order?

Mowcius

Ah, I'm getting your point now. I'm looking mostly for arduino<->arduino communication. I want to build a network of several arduino mega based sensor nodes that form an ad-hoc, multi-hop wireless network. For integration with other networks I would probably either hook an arduino with said radio shield up to a PC via serial or use an ethernet/wifi/bluetooth shield.

Applications are mostly research, such as development of routing protocols and WSN middleware. The typical WSN application is the gathering of sensor information (temperature, humidity, soil moisture, wind speed, that type of thing) and send it over some ad-hoc, multi-hop network to a base station. There exist several hardware platforms that allow for this, using mostly CC1000, CC2420, or nRF905 packet radios in combination with either an MSP430 or AVR MCU, some leds/buttons and maybe a temperature sensor. These are quite expensive however, often around 100 USD for a single node. Since arduino mega's are cheap to buy a shield for WSN research would allow for larger testbeds at constant cost. There exists a node that integrates an arduino (328) with an xbee called 'squidbee': http://www.libelium.com/squidbee/index.php?index.php. I want something that's cheaper and with a bigger MCU (32kB program flash is not enough for our purposes).

As for the chips, mouser carries the cc2500 at a unit price of $3.33, $2.67 and $2.08 USD for 1, 25, and 100 units respectively. Atm they have 800+ in stock.

Mouser link: http://nl.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Texas-Instruments/CC2500RTK/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMvQdkNSkjJ8MkrqFaehF5L4
CC2500 datasheet: http://focus.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/cc2520.pdf

edit: the CC2500 has an 400m line-of-sight range according to the datasheet, bandwidth isn't important for my application (in fact, I'd be in the business of efficiently supporting ultra-low data rates, as in a few packets per minute).

edit2: fyi, the CC2500 uses 3.3v, and communicates over SPI.

I found this:
http://www.quasaruk.co.uk/acatalog/DSQFM-TRX-2.pdf
which is the module used on the board you commented on. It is £5.50 but would be considerably easier to implement on a small scale basis than soldering all the surface mount chips. It would then be 'on board' - permanently soldered on (removing the current connector on it) but would not all be built in to the main board.

From what you have been saying, you seem to know how all this stuff works. I have not done a lot of stuff with wireless networks so if you know what components you are wanting and if you have a vague idea of how you want them implemented together (multiplexing sensors on minimal pins or on seperate pins etc) then I will have a play on EAGLE and see what I can come up with...

I'll reply to anything else you say in a bit - i'm just going to have lunch!

Mowcius

Also, are you looking to log data to the shield? MicroSD/EEPROM on board (256kbit EEPROM would be easy to add)

Mowcius

Right, the cafe's a bit full so I'll have lunch later...

Ok, looking at that CC2500 chip, I will need to add a logic level converter on board because it is 3.3v rather than the Mega/duemilanove's 5v. I am taking a closer look at the shield page you linkied to...

Mowcius

I guess that if I wanted one of these shields I would simply have 100+ made and populated. In your experience, could this be done for a unit price of <20 USD including parts (CC2500 chip, headers, resistors, etc) ?

And storage? Well a microSD card slot wouldn't add too much to the unit price I suppose.

I see the Arduino Mega has a 3.3v pin, reading the specs it says it's coming from the FTDI chip. Is that only under power when the USB is connected?

Again, I'm just a computer scientist, so I'm just guessing here :wink:

In my experience, boards can be produced for about $5 for arduino sized board. (much less for a second run from ourpcb - but that's another topic completely). Deal with board pricing when you get there in my experience.

Are you including somone populating the board or are you thinking that you would solder them yourself?

The components end everything obviously depend on how cheap you can get them. I would have thought that with that wireless module and a microSD slot, EEPROM, headers, resistors and all that other stuff, you could easily build the board for less than $20 if you are making 100. I would have thought that you could do about 25 for less than $20 per board also...

Mowcius

I see the Arduino Mega has a 3.3v pin, reading the specs it says it's coming from the FTDI chip. Is that only under power when the USB is connected?

Again, I'm just a computer scientist, so I'm just guessing here

As far as I understand it, it is just a 3.3v power pin, not a 3.3v data pin. For those wireless chips you need 3.3v digital data rather than the 5v digital data that the arduino gives out. So you then need a logic level converter...

Mowcius

I would like to have the boards populated in the factory, and I'm still talking about having the CC2500 on the shield itself, so i'm supposing you'd need a machine to do that?

$20 usd is fine, that's roughly 12 pounds uk or 13.5 euro. At that price point you could have a operational sensor node for 45+20 usd, or ~44 euro.

edit:

As far as I understand it, it is just a 3.3v power pin, not a 3.3v data pin. For those wireless chips you need 3.3v digital data rather than the 5v digital data that the arduino gives out. So you then need a logic level converter...

makes sense, thanks.

I would like to have the boards populated in the factory, and I'm still talking about having the CC2500 on the shield itself, so i'm supposing you'd need a machine to do that?

If you have a company in mind then they would normally do eveything, surface mount and all. You don't necessarily need a machine to do it...

$20 usd is fine, that's roughly 12 pounds uk or 13.5 euro. At that price point you could have a operational sensor node for 45+20 usd, or ~44 euro.

If you are interested in getting the cheapest sensor node you can then you could add the atmega1280 chip to the board and have it all in one...