RTFA: http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Tutorials/Protosh…

Here is a design for an Arduino protoshield that sits on top of the main Arduino board. You can use the files below to order a board from a PCB manufacturer, or you can make them yourself. The file is in Eagle format; you’ll have to generate your own drill and gerber files appropriate to your PCB house.

I built an Arduino Protoshield v.4 today, and it’s really cool. I’ve been working on an infrared decoder for a few days, and the solderless breadboard does become pretty cumbersome, after long enough. The protoshield makes it a lot easier!

When I got down to it, it was really hard to find good information about assembling the protoshield v.4. The tutorial from atomicsalad is useful, but it’s not for the specific protoshield I am using. This isn’t a big deal if you’re familiar with this stuff, but I had a hard time getting started. I decided to post some of the information that finally got me rolling.

First, I am using an Arduino Protoshield v.4 that was purchased from FunGizmos. So you know, this comes with absolutely no instruction on how to assemble it, nor does it include a 1k ohm resistor. I happened to have one lying around, so it’s not a big deal, but be aware…

The protoshield “source code” is actually an image, and it’s a matter of printing the image onto a PCB to actually make something useful out of it. Well, I got a printed protoshield v.4 and a few documents came in handy for understanding how to assemble it.

The two most helpful documents came from sgBotic:

1. PCB Diagram, which is the source image that the PCB was based on. Looking at this picture, it is easier to tell what hooks up with where, since the physical traces can be a little hard to see on the physical board itself.

2. Schematic Diagram, which is a high-level explanation of the components that need to be soldered to the board, and where they attach. I referred to this image to get the placement of the two resistors right.

Also, Lady Ada’s adafruit store has a very useful picture of the final product. I didn’t do anything about the ICSP interface (which is in Lady Ada’s picture), since I only use the one ATmega168 chip and I won’t be changing the bootloader.

There is another useful picture from sgBotic here.

In the end, everything worked out great. I had to position the breadboard in a pretty strange way, and that did require a few modifications… The following pictures show off the finished product, with a small project already on it.

Check out this soldering! …I think it looks really great.

Since the breadboard hangs off the side, I cut the insulation off the bottom of the portion that extends beyond the board. As you probably know, a solderless breadboard connects columns of pins with a piece of metal that is called a rail. Well, since my breadboard was right on top of the protoshield’s power connections, I had to remove one of the rails to prevent the shield from shorting the Arduino. Also, since I had removed the insulation from the breadboard, I covered the back with several pieces of electrical tape.

Anyway, the protoshield v.4 is definitely a good one. My primary criticism is that the breadboard I got for it doesn’t fit right, but as I’ve demonstrated, it’s not too hard to work around it. Enjoy!