Summary of Simple Arduino Wing Shield
The article describes using stackable Arduino header sets to create a custom "shield" similar to the Wingshield but designed for quick prototyping with jumper wires instead of screw terminals. The author uses leftover perf board cut into four separate pieces to avoid header interference and to better align female headers by spreading them out two pins apart. This approach provides a versatile breakout board for input and output header splitting, enhancing prototyping flexibility.
Parts used in the Simple Arduino Wing Shield:
- Stackable Arduino header sets (6, 8, 10, and 3 pin headers)
- Perf board pieces (cut from a 3" x 5" Radio Shack board)
- Arduino Protoshield (considered but not used)
- Standard jumper wires
I buy a lot of these stackable Arduino header sets because they are handy for a lot of things. I make some breakout boards with them, I use them to add some clearance between a taller shield and the next shield that I am stacking on top, and sometimes they are necessary when a shield doesn’t come with headers or comes with only male headers. I recently found this set of stacking headers on Adafruit that includes the standard 6, 6, 8 and 8 pin headers as well as a 10 and a 3 pin header. Also, Sparkfun has recently started selling R3 stacking headers, which include a 10 pin header instead of one of the 6 pin headers like the old sets.
My most recent use for them was to create a “shield” like the Wingshield. I don’t really want the screw terminals, so instead I wanted something that I could still use regular jumper wires for quick prototyping. I figured I could cut up some perf board and make something that would allow me to split the input and output headers.
Step 1: Parts
I had some perf board pieces leftover from another project. These pieces came from a 3″ x 5″ board that I got from Radio Shack. Unfortunately, all of the holes are drilled in different spots so things don’t really line up correctly.
I trimmed 4 pieces of perf board that gave me a nice little handle on one side, but nothing on the opposite side so each header wouldn’t interfere with the next one. I had to make them 4 separate pieces because the space between each bank of headers is less than the width of one pin on a standard perf board. I thought of taking a standard Arduino Protoshield and cutting the outer edges off with a Dremel, and while it would have been easier, it would have been a waste of a good Protoshield. This way, I was able to spread the additional female headers out 2 pins, where the protoshield would have had the new headers right next to the old ones.
