I have a basic question about how the standard male to male pins provided with my purchased Adafruit motor shield are used. The standard male to male pins have a short pin on one side and a long pin on the other side. It appears the short male pin sticks slightly above the AFmotor shield, enabling me to solder the pin to the AFmotor shield. The longer pins stick down into the Arduino board, in my case, a Duemilanove.
My question is, how do I ever connect any wires to the Arduino if the AFmotor shield male to male pins have all been soldered to the AFmotor shield. All access to the lower Arduino is obstructed by the AFmotor pins if I do this. The short male pins that stick up above the AFmotor shield appear to be too short to connect to any other wire coming from the outside of the two boards. For example how do I connect to the Arduino analog pins, or 5V and ground pins, on the lower Arduino board?
How are connections made to the Arduino with this AFmotor pin design? Why would I EVER use the standard non-stacking short male pin, long male pin design that comes standard with the AFmotor shield?
soldering "standard" non-stacking pins on AFmotor
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- adafruit_support_mike
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Re: soldering "standard" non-stacking pins on AFmotor
The shield has a second row of holes on either side, parallel to the ones that accept the pin header. Those are connected straight across to the pin header holes, so every pin on the Arduino is connected to two solder holes on the shield. It's handy for making connections to external circuits, or circuits you build in the shield's prototyping area.
The kind of header to use depends on how you want to use the shield. For general experimentation, stacking header makes it easier to mix and match. For permanent installations, male pin header is stronger than the pins on the stacking headers, and wiring soldered into the second row of holes will be less likely to pull loose than pin-and-header connections. Soldered connections also tend to require less headroom when space is tight.
The kind of header to use depends on how you want to use the shield. For general experimentation, stacking header makes it easier to mix and match. For permanent installations, male pin header is stronger than the pins on the stacking headers, and wiring soldered into the second row of holes will be less likely to pull loose than pin-and-header connections. Soldered connections also tend to require less headroom when space is tight.
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Re: soldering "standard" non-stacking pins on AFmotor
Thanks. That's very helpful. Continuity checks confirm the one to one relationship between the inner and outer series of holes.
Say I solder the outer holes using standard male to male pins as your instructions suggest. How do I make use of the inner holes in an "adhoc" flexible way? The width of standard male pins pretty much requires soldering of these inner holes as well. Is there some sort of connector, like a fatter width wire, that the design supports for adhoc prototyping use without soldering? I don't want to commit the AFmotor board to just one project and solder wires directly to the inner holes. The only thing I can think of is to solder female to male pins in every inner hole. So instead of using stacking headers for each outer hole, I'm soldering female headers into each inner hole. In this use case, I'm not sure what the benefit is of this design. What do you recommend for adhoc use of the AFmotor shield?
Say I solder the outer holes using standard male to male pins as your instructions suggest. How do I make use of the inner holes in an "adhoc" flexible way? The width of standard male pins pretty much requires soldering of these inner holes as well. Is there some sort of connector, like a fatter width wire, that the design supports for adhoc prototyping use without soldering? I don't want to commit the AFmotor board to just one project and solder wires directly to the inner holes. The only thing I can think of is to solder female to male pins in every inner hole. So instead of using stacking headers for each outer hole, I'm soldering female headers into each inner hole. In this use case, I'm not sure what the benefit is of this design. What do you recommend for adhoc use of the AFmotor shield?
- adafruit_support_bill
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Re: soldering "standard" non-stacking pins on AFmotor
The shield design is very flexible. You can use stacking headers which allow you to stack other shields such as a proto-shield.
Or you can use female headers in the breakout rows next to the headers.
Or you can solder directly to the breakout holes.
The V2 motor shield includes a prototyping area on the shield itself for your custom circuitry.
Or you can use female headers in the breakout rows next to the headers.
Or you can solder directly to the breakout holes.
The V2 motor shield includes a prototyping area on the shield itself for your custom circuitry.
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Re: soldering "standard" non-stacking pins on AFmotor
Sounds like those are the options. - Thanks, Don
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.