Work with an engineer to get a PCB designed that ties it all together for you.
If you fele like learning more, download a copy of PCB design software like Eagle from http://www.cadsoftusa.com/ (free slightly limited version available (80mm x 100mm max size) and take a shot at doing your own shield to plug onto an Arduino, or a card that an Arduino like Promini or Nano could plug into/onto, or a standalone design that incorporates the Arduino components, and just get pro help when you get stuck at the end. Likely will get suggestions on other software that can be used also.
As an example of what can be done: here's a card I offer that combines Arduino functionality with 328P, headers to connect pots & servos to, FTDI interface for serial downloading, power regulator if not powering from 5V directly, and 12 high voltage/high current shift registers for controlling LED strips or other high current items. http://www.crossroadsfencing.com/BobuinoRev17/
Bob, er CrossRoads, makes a beautiful circuit board. Many of us are not so skilled, so we use perf-board, wire and solder to cobble the backside together as best we can:
Use graph paper to arrange the components and tracks. Try to use vertical trace and horizontal links rather than diagonal wires. It takes longer but looks better than a rats nest (Sorry, ChrisTenone )
Use graph paper to arrange the components and tracks. Try to use vertical trace and horizontal links rather than diagonal wires. It takes longer but looks better than a rats nest (Sorry, ChrisTenone )
Weedpharma
I'll be the first to admit this thing is a rat's nest! If I was better at soldering, it would look better, I'm sure. The front side is all rows and columns, but the back never gets seen, so I just put the wires where I needed them. I used graph paper to lay it out as well:
CrossRoads:
For one-offs, I use sockets & wirewrap.
CrossRoads - I started with wirewrap back in the 80s & loved it. It's too expensive now (a spool of wire is like $28!, the tools are $40, and the sockets with wirewrap pins are 4 times as much as the solder kind.)
weedpharma:
We were tough, we used graph paper. It worked for our parents etc etc etc.
I change my mind so often that a paper version quickly becomes a mess.
Word processors were a great improvement for me also - or perhaps more so for the typists that did not have to decipher my crossings-out and insertions. Of course they also made the typists redundant !
Before DIYLC I used a spreadsheet with the cell width set to make them look square. But making the sides of the cells appropriate colours to represent wires was very tedious.
)
