I recently put this together from some parts i had around, and it fits my arduino precisely. It's not the largest homemade shield... but it works.
i was trying to think of a way to use it though... and i'm having a hard time deciding. i'm thinking maybe some people on here could think of some cool things to build onto this.
i was thinking of putting all of the components needed to monitor a plant, such as soil moisture sensors, light sensor, temperature sensor... but i'm not sure if that is the best use for this... I'd like to do something that utilizes more inputs and outputs on the arduino too... i want to get as much use out of this shield as possible...
thanks for your input and ideas for what to do with these homemade shields
Not bad... Good work for a DIY shield. ( I am building a fews of my own at this time )
Well, you can add a mini breadboard, some female headers ( 2 x 8 pin and 2 x 6 pin ) so you can put wire into these headers toward the mini breadboard and add a reset button ( most shields has a reset button ). Come think of it, I will make one for myself - I have a fews "blank" PCB, cut them in size, make a DIY PCB shield, add a reset, a mini breadboard and the heathers. ( I just order from HVW Technologies for the parts - heathers , breadboard ) The heather from Digital pin 8 will be a problem, I have to draw/drill the holes just right, because I don't want to "force" the digital pins section.
Thanks for the link of the header pins. ( the site has an another link to explain ). I will not buy those, but I will bent the header pins that I have and the ones I order from HVW Technologies. Thanks for the idea.
@plato_03
Here an idea : Take a Led, connect in serie with a limiting resistor of between 220 ohm to 470 ohms, connect the Cathode of the LED to the Arduino GND, repeat this procedure 8 time ( from Digital pin 5 to Digital pin 12 )
like example : Pin 12 - resistor - LED - GND , do it 8 time using pin 5 to 12.
The rest, do a code to test the shield. And do a lot of code to do experiment with you new DYI shield. I am presently built a shield like that using 8 led, some switch and a reset switch - the PCB design is done, just need the etching and the drilling stage and testing my DYI shield board.
Or build constant current supplys, and high current switching circuits and control multiple high power leds,
Or a laser power supply and a laser diode mounted on a completly articulate mount witth 2 servos that can aim the laser around, maybe controlled with processing on the computer
Or both and make a light show XD
Here's the cube I am envisioning. I think you can see the columns of anodes, each driven by an arduino pin, and the rows of cathodes, each pulled low by a ULN2803 output.
You would write the 16 anodes for a layer, and turn the cathode for that layer on for some mS, then off.
Write the next layer, next cathode.
Repeat.
The layers could be stored in a 4x16 array, updated between the blocks of 4 anode display patterns.
