If you are thinking about buying a cheap clone arduino board, you should probably read this.
Short version: cheap boards may have poor-quality components and they fail.
Long version:
I have a clone Arduino MEGA board that I've used for a few years. Most of the time it is just sitting there doing nothing. I've recently started to use it as a platform to run some tests on shields I made. I would have a dozen or so shields at a time. I would plug the shield on top of it to do some tests and then remove the shield and went to the next shield.
So after testing less than 100 shields, and some occasional use with other shields, the contacts inside the female headers mostly wore out. I only discovered this today. One of the shields didn't past my tests and I checked everything. Then I suspected the headers and tried them with a resistor. Most of the headers could not retain the resistor's leads so they were too loose to make good electrical contacts. I loaded the test program to a newer board and the shield passed the tests.
I've recently started to use it as a platform to run some tests on shields I made. I would have a dozen or so shields at a time. I would plug the shield on top of it to do some tests and then remove the shield and went to the next shield.
Clones aside, are there any figures for the expect life (number of insertions/removals) of official Arduino boards.
How accurately made are your home made shield ? Are you certain that the pins are on accurate centres, vertically aligned and are you inserting and removing them vertically ?
To be truthful, whether "clone" or "genuine" (and frankly, I would be substantially surprised if the actual connectors were any different between the two!), these connectors are clearly not intended for hundreds of insertion/ removal cycles - or even dozens.
I have a new clone and a genuine mega 2560 that I tested their headers with a resistor. The clone has consistently less retention force than the genuine arduino. I think there ARE quality differences between certain parts you buy from ebay and those you buy from more reputable vendors.
The shield has 6 rows of 8-pin headers. I can't test it with pogo sticks. It's not flashing firmware via ICSP. It's testing its on board hardware and connections.
Paul, I disagree. I tested a few boards, genuine and clones. The clones have less quality headers. They LOOK the same but qualities are different. Please read this:
I did some more reading. Here is a part from mouser. It's not too cheap:
I think I did about 100+ but not near 200. Next time I buy a board, I'll test its headers. Note: new clone vs. new genuine, genuine feels a lot more extraction force.
I'm not advertising for genuine arduinos. Most recent ones have huge problems with regulators. You should stay away from them until they use better-quality parts.
Stacking headers won't solve this problem. When you unplug, a number of them get unplugged from arduino board. That gets counts as extraction as well.
I designed a little jig that, if you have access to a 3d Printer (if you don't, check 3dhubs for an available printer near you), will help hold female header pins perpendicular to the board.
For those with the design skills and the appropriate hardware available, printing things is sometime easier than making it. I'm going to design the device somewhere, either on paper, or in a CAD program, might as well use CAD, cause then I can just hit print and do something else.
As to cost, design something in sketchup or other cad program, and send it to shapeways or 3dhubs to see what it will cost. Usually one off items I charge $15-$30, which for what you want is really expensive, shapeways will probably be way more than that.
