We were trying to create our own PCB that would mate with the Arduino. However, after ordering male connector pins, we realized that the separation between the two 8pin digital female connectors does not equal to the spacing between any two adjacent holes. This is inconvenient as our plan was to solder a 16pin male header and a 12 pin male header on either side of our PCB and simply insert them into the Arduino.
It would be nice if the spacing the digital ports was similar to the spacing between the analog ports.
Yer a lot of people say that. However it was an original mistake that has been propagated to all other official boards so as to remain compatible with existing shields.
If you are laying out a PCB it doesn't really matter, it's only an issue if you are making your own boards from strip line board.
You are correct about PCB. I made a mistake there. We wanted to test it on a prototype breadboard. It's ok. Our workaround for now is to mate it using the analog pins and use angled connectors for the digital.
Hmmm...actually I considered doing something similar (only using male-male pin headers). Off course I'd have to bend the thingies myself, but perhaps it is the best solution after all...
