Here’s another adafruit product launched today: a prototyping shield that compensates for the Arduino’s stupid oddly spaced headers.
Related: The Seeeduino has an alternate row of headers with protoboard friendly spacing.
15 thoughts on “Arduino Shield With Offset Headers”
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anyone have any info about why the arduino has those offset pins? Is it to prevent/deter people from making their own shields? If so wouldnt that kinda ruin the whole open source initiative?
@jamieriddles – naa, don’t assume the worst in folks – there are tons of shields, so that didn’t stop anyone nor was it designed to. according to the arduino team (i was told this story in person, we asked this).. it was a mistake, they messed up. they could change it, but if they did current shields would not work – but look at the positive, the shields can only be plugged in one way.
@pt And there was I thinking it was to prevent people from inserting shields the wrong way ;D (in case the not matching pin count wouldn’t stop them)
I would almost say something about how hackaday seems to report on every new product adafruit releases lately. I would complain how it’s looking like LadyAda’s own ad space. I would, perhaps, if I weren’t totally in love with her. She’s directly responsible for so much of my knowledge now. From my first minty-boost to my first Arduino Starter kit. Those tutorials of hers really launched me into the uC world. If not for her, I never would have a project featured here.
@mike:
Ditto, her tutorials are very helpful and she does have some pretty snazzy products.
mike/taylor: I agree. I particularly like how open and descriptive she is with her tutorials. I haven’t actually bought anything from her, but I have used some of her tutorials. This makes me want to buy kits from her in the future.
Yeah and with the make magazine guy involved in adafruit it really is all over the place.
They deserve it though.
(limor’s also pretty cute)
does that trivial thing really deserve an article on a website called “hack” a day just because it is related to the similarly trivial arduino board?
what i would like to see is homemade quantum cryptography devices, homemade transistors, homemade vacuum tubes, homemade microwave equipment, homemade cyclotrons, and the like. _this_ deserves the hardware hacking name. and yes, there are actually people building such things. arduino and related crap is not hacking.
The arduino is nice, but as soon as I need another board, I think I’m going this route:
http://sanguino.cc/
More space, more pins, etc – and it works just fine with the arduino software.
@lekernel – hack a day is what you make it – they respond in part based on what folks send in. right now * a lot * of people are doing arduino projects, this a good thing, later they will do more intense projects, but everyone needs to start somewhere.
when i started hack a day (and later the make online site) i would look for things that were interesting to me, but you also need to make sure you serve the audience what they’re interested in… and right now, a whole new generation of makers/hackers/crafters are getting their start with the arduino.
all the projects you’ve listed have appeared here, and MAKE and pop sci – but send them in to the tips line here, i’m sure they’ll post them as well.
panem et circenses
vouloir, c’est pouvoir.
The arduino are created for very inteligent people.The strange pin spacing are not error, arduino is free , but not to much,very technologies about your making are very complex and no simply free and eliminate the wish for diy arduino clones, that is the fact
What they should do is make the extra offset row as in the seeeduino standard, installing headers in both of them. then it will be compatible with old shields in addition to protoboards, plus it would be handy when using jumper wires to have the duplicate row too when you need to connect more than one thing to a pin. It’s win win.
http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/seeeduino-v30-atmega-328p-p-669.html