First off, I'm painfully new to all this. I've set up an Arduino Due with a CTE TFT LCD shield which is connected to the TFT LCD as illustrated in the two photos below. I've successfully sent data over a serial connection to the Due and render the data I want to the display. I mention this only to underline the fact that this is all I know about Arduino as up until today this is all I have had any interested in.
Now I want to connect about 25 or so LED lights to this assembly but in my early searches for tutorials on how to do so I've already found myself in a situation not being able to access the sockets on the Due as they are blocked by the LCD shield itself.
My question is, how do I get around the shield to get these set up?
Buy a Due protoshield/proto shield. Plenty on eBay.
Put it between the Due and the TFT shield.
This will only help if you can use pins that are not used by the TFT.
Thank you but what if they are used by the TFT (as they do seem to be)?
Then you are out of luck.
The datasheet for the TFT will tell you which pins it is using.
Oh dear, so just how out of luck am I? Will splitting the jumpers (not sure of the correct term here) like a Y splitter or soldering on top of the current TFT shield to the desired pins out to a breadboard to lay out the LED's, resistors, and TLC5940 not work?
kona023:
Oh dear, so just how out of luck am I? Will splitting the jumpers (not sure of the correct term here) like a Y splitter or soldering on top of the current TFT shield to the desired pins out to a breadboard to lay out the LED's, resistors, and TLC5940 not work?
As I wrote before, if the TFT is using them as in it must have the pins to work, then that is end of story.
I am not familiar with that TFT.
You need to research it.
I apologize, I suppose I was intimating, though failing miserably, as to whether there was a hack or other undocumented workaround, be it via the TFT shield or the proto shield you previously suggested. I'll look elsewhere I suppose. Thank you.
Why would you think there could be a hack?
If a pin is used by the TFT then it needs it 100%.
Because I'm still learning. Also because I come from a software engineering background where, in my career, I've taken some quite unorthodox paths to achieve the intended end result when a specific technology or programming API didn't suffice. Now just getting my bearings in the world of hardware and asking dumb questions and making poor assumptions as I go along. 
I don't understand your problems with the pins. The connections go from the controller board to the prototype shield, from there to the TFT shield. Even if all pins are connected to all shields, each shield will only use some of them for signals. On the prototype shield you can use all pins which are not used by the TFT shield, you can connect to them whatever you like.
By looking at the picture of you TFT you seem to use a 5V to 3.3V shield with SD-card as interface to the TFT module,
does this setup really work reliably?
You should be able to interface to the TFT directly with the Due (via a prototype shield).
DrDiettrich:
I don't understand your problems with the pins. The connections go from the controller board to the prototype shield, from there to the TFT shield. Even if all pins are connected to all shields, each shield will only use some of them for signals. On the prototype shield you can use all pins which are not used by the TFT shield, you can connect to them whatever you like.
Thanks DrDiettrich, I'm thinking there's a fundamental bit of knowledge that I'm lacking (which is why I just put an Arduino book on order). If the TFT shield makes physical contact with the prototype shield and they are sandwiched together, how do I physically access the sockets if the headers are flush with the TFT shield?
Second, the TFT shield is accessing the 3.3v pin that I'd need to share with the LED lights but apparently the TFT needs 100% exclusive access to that pin?
Whandall:
By looking at the picture of you TFT you seem to use a 5V to 3.3V shield with SD-card as interface to the TFT module,
does this setup really work reliably?
You should be able to interface to the TFT directly with the Due (via a prototype shield).
Hi Whandall. So far it does work quite well for my needs. And I'm content with a direct connection to a prototype shield if the TFT shield is redundant when stacked. I certainly have no use for the SD-card feature. Because of my limited knowledge of the dedicated TFT shield I assumed it couldn't easily be substituted for anything else.
A simple prototype shield contains nothing but connectors. I don't understand how the SD card enters the scene.
The Gnd and Vcc (3.3V or 5V) power pins don't carry signals, they have to be connected to every component that needs a power source.
DrDiettrich:
A simple prototype shield contains nothing but connectors. I don't understand how the SD card enters the scene.
The Gnd and Vcc (3.3V or 5V) power pins don't carry signals, they have to be connected to every component that needs a power source.
I only mentioned the SD card feature because it's included on the TFT shield I have and if my not needing it makes the TFT shield any more redundant so that I only need the prototype shield, I'm all for it.
And thanks for the info on the Gnd and Vcc pins, I wasn't aware of that so that's very helpful.
