Where are pin headers placed?

Development Other Hardware Development
1

I need to build a shield for Mega 2560. Once again I ask where exactly are pin headers placed. I know and can see that one is in non standard place. The Mega 2560 page had a DXF for the board, that is a good start of course. But my CAD SW is old and the file seemed to contain only board dimensions. For a shield pins are important too.

2

If you google it , you will find some dimensioned drawings .

3

The header with pins 8-13 is offset by .040" (1.016 mm) towards the 0-7 header.

Here is an explanation of what happened.

4

Thanks. Posts 13 and 14 are interesting. But there is no link to the prototype.
Now I plan to leave that odd connector empty. It looks like there is nothing essential in it.

5

trying to position connector components based on a drawing can be very frustrating, even if the drawing is "accurate." Mechanical Engineers seem to think differently than Electrical Engineers, so the measurements in the drawing never seem to match up with the coordinates that you PCB program wants (I run into this all the time trying to generate new EAGLE parts from MCAD drawings provided by the manufacturer; It's not just Arduino!)

Usual techniques are:

  • Find a "shield" package that has already been defined for your particular CAD package.
  • Find one of the Arduino reference designs ported to your CAD package, and delete all the components except for the connectors and board outline, and then add your circuitry.
6

Yes, I agree, tested design is always best. But I don't know anything made for Pads.