Hi, I just saw the picture of the Arduino MEGA featured in hack-a-day
If there is an Arduino MEGA, then for sure you need a MEGAshield. Here are some pictures of the NKC MEGAShield:
Half Stackable MEGAShield = Monster MEGAShield (As called by ladyada)
I installed long legged 6-pin and 8-pin headers to make the Arduino MEGAshield stackable on the left half side (legacy Arduino side?). Here are some pictures:
A new version of this kit is available as V4
SCHEMATICS (click on images to enlarge)
The NKC Electronics XBee Shield V3.0 KIT is an enhanced version of the original Arduino XBee Shield. It is sold in a DIY kit format and it comes with all the components required to assemble a full XBee Shield that is pin-compatible with all Arduino format compliant boards (Arduino, Freeduino, Seeeduino, etc).
First, unpack the kit
and start with the PCB.
Let’s start with the power portion of the schematic using the following parts:
| IC1 | TLV2217-33 Voltage Regulator (TO-220 package) |
| C1 | 100nF ceramic capacitor |
| C2, C3 | 10uF electrolytic capacitor |
Next continue with the transistor, LEDs and other discrete components:
| R1 | 10K resistor  |
| R2 | 15K resistor  |
| R3, R4 | 1K resistor  |
| R5 | 330ohm resistor  |
| RSSI | 3mm LED |
| ASSOCIATE | 3mm LED blue (transparent) |
| T1 | BC547 transistor |
| reset | tactile switch |
Solder the sockets and pin headers:
Next step: Insert the jumpers:
There are 4 jumpers. J1 and J2 are for upgrading the firmware on the XBee module. Leave open for normal operation (both J1 and J2 open).
Pay special attention to the alignment of the female headers. The 2×3 female socket must be placed with the female portion facing down. This board takes some signals from the ICSP connector, so this socket is mandatory.
And this is the final picture of the XBee Shield V3.0 assembled and ready to use. XBee module is not included in the kit and must be purchased separately.
SCHEMATICS (click on images to enlarge)
The Arduino diecimila compatible Freeduino serial board is a special version of the Arduino serial board designed by NKC Electronics. The board is diecimila compatible (autoreset) and includes the 13 digital pin LED for easy diagnostics and basic LED sketch execution. The v2.0 board uses a MAX232 compatible chip for interfacing with RS232. The older v1.0 board used two transistors, but had some reliability issues with auto-reset and sketch uploading.
First, unpack the kit
and start with the PCB.
Let’s start with the power portion of the schematic using the following parts:
| DC1 | DC power jack |
| D1 | 1N4004 diode |
| C5 | 100nF ceramic capacitor |
| C6, C7 | 47uF (or 33uF or 22uF) electrolytic capacitor |
| IC2 | 7805 5V positive voltage regulator |
| Power LED | 3mm LED |
| R2 | 330 ohm resistor |
Plug a wall plug voltage regulator (+7V to +12V). The LED lights up, indicating that the Power supply is working.
NOTE: This board is shields friendly as the 7805 voltage regulator is mounted horizontally.
Next continue with the soldering of the RS232 components:
| X1 | DB9 female PCB adapter |
| IC3 | 16-pin IC socket |
| C4, C8, C9, C10, C11, C12 | 0.1uF (100nF) ceramic capacitors |
Solder the rest of the components:
| R3 | 1.5Kohm resistor |
| R4, R6 | 1 Kohm resistor |
| R5 | 10 Kohm resistor |
| C2, C3 | 22pF ceramic capacitor |
| C1 | 0.1uF (100nF) ceramic capacitor |
| 13 | 3mm LED (Arduino pin 13 status LED) |
| Q1 | 16 MHz crystal |
| RESET | Reset switch |
| IC1 | 28-pin IC socket |
| ICSP | 2×3 pin male header |
Now solder the headers and sockets:
| POWER & Analog In | 6-pin female header |
| Digital | 2 x 8-pin female header |
Pay special attention to the alignment of the female headers.
And finally install the ATMEGA168/ATmega328P MCU and the MAX232 (or HIN232 / ICL232 / ICL3232) chips.
The board is ready to be used. Start the Arduino IDE and load the BLINK sketch from the examples directory. Verify that ATMEGA168 (or Duemilanove with ATmega328) is selected in Tools –> Microcontroller (MCU) and Arduino Diecimila in the Tools –> board option. Select the COM port number corresponding to the serial interface where the Freeduino serial board is connected to. Press the “Upload to I/O board” button in Arduino and the board should autoreset and complete the programming. If you selected correctly the BLINK sketch, the LED “13” must start blinking once every 2 second (0.5Hz).
The board has space for an optional 3.3V regulator (78L33 TO-92 footprint) with it’s associated decoupling 0.1uF capacitor (C13).
SCHEMATICS (click on images to enlarge)
The Freeduino Arduino Motor Shield is the original Motor Shield V1.1 designed by David Cuartielles of the Arduino Team. This product is not certified nor endorsed by David or the Arduino Team.
The new version of the KIT features a white PCB. The capacitor placements were slightly changed to avoid touching the USB connector. The board has 2 parts, the motor driver and the encoder. The KIT only includes the components to assemble the motor driver. In the new PCB, the components for the motor driver are marked with a *. You only need to solder the components market with * to have the fully functional motor shield. The encoder components soldering is optional.
First, unpack the kit
and start with the PCB. The PCB has some extra space for an encoder. It is optional to assemble the encoder section. The kit only includes the components to assemble the motor control section of the PCB.
Let’s start with the IC sockets using the following parts:
| IC Socket 1 | 14-pin IC socket |
| IC Socket 2 | 16-pin IC socket |
Then, we can solder the resistors and the LED.
| PWR | 3mm LED |
| R7 | 1K resistor |
| R3, R4, R5, R6 | 100K or 68K resistors |
The LED has two legs, one longer than the other. The longer leg is called ANODE (+) and the shorter is CATHODE (-). The LED goes in the PWR LED space. Insert the long leg into the left hole.
Then solder the 1K R7 resistor, and the four 100K (or 68K) R3 to R6 resistors.
We continue with the capacitors:
| C4, C9 | 100uF electrolytic capacitor |
| C10, C11, C12, C13 | 100nF ceramic capacitor |
This is the board with all the components installed, before we solder the sockets.
NOTE: The C9 capacitor was installed backwards in the picture. Follow the marking on the PCB, which is positive down, negative up.
NOTE 2: In the new version of the PCB (white), the picture shows the capacitor C9 correctly soldered.
Solder the rest of the components: male sockets to plug the shield to the Freeduino / Arduino board, and the 4-pin female socket to plug the motors. The 4-pin female socket was replaced by male pin header.
The motor shield, completely assembled and ready to use.
You can connect two DC motors. One goes on the first 2 socket holes (MOTOR B), from the top. The new version (white) includes male headers for the motors.
The second motor (MOTOR A)goes on the 2 bottom socket holes.
A simple Arduino code to test the shield:
// Motor Shield test
// by NKC Electronics
// Test Motor B
int dirbpin = 12; // Direction pin for motor B is Digital 12
int speedbpin = 9; // Speed pin for motor B is Digital 9 (PWM)
int speed = 200;
int dir = 0;
void setup()
{
pinMode(dirbpin, OUTPUT);
}
void loop()
{
digitalWrite(dirbpin, dir); // set direction
analogWrite(speedbpin, speed); // set speed (PWM)
dir = ((dir == 0) ? 1 : 0); // change direction
delay(10000); // 10 seconds
}
Motors can be any DC motor that can work up to the Vin voltage. Vin is the power supply voltage – 0.6V. If you are using a 12V transformer, then Vin is 11.4V. You can use a 12V motor. If you are using a 9V transformer, then Vin is 8.4V and you can use a DC motor rated at 9V.
The motor driver can support 3.6V to 36V motors (1A). But the shield is designed to take Vin from the Arduino / Freeduino power supply, before the 5V voltage regulator. You cannot supply Arduino / Freeduino with 36V without burning the voltage regulator.
If you need to use a motor rated < 7V or > 14V, you will need to modify the shield. Do not install the Vin pin header to the Arduino / Freeduino board (or install the Vin and GND pins upwards, to plug a connector from where you can supply this shield with a different voltage range than the Arduino / Freeduino board)… and install a socket and supply Vin in the Shield from a different regulated DC power source, using the same GND connection.http://www.nkcelectronics.com/arduino.html
SCHEMATICS (click on images to enlarge)
The Arduino diecimila compatible Freeduino serial board is a special version of the Arduino serial board designed by NKC Electronics. The board is diecimila compatible (autoreset) and includes the 13 digital pin LED for easy diagnostics and basic LED sketch execution.
First, unpack the kit
and start with the PCB.
Let’s start with the power portion of the schematic using the following parts:
| DC1 | DC power jack |
| D1 | 1N4004 diode |
| C5 | 100nF ceramic capacitor |
| C6, C7 | 47uF electrolytic capacitor |
| IC2 | 7805 5V positive voltage regulator |
| Power LED | 3mm LED |
| R2 | 330 ohm resistor |
Plug a wall plug voltage regulator (+7V to +12V). The LED lights up, indicating that the Power supply is working.
NOTE: This board is not shield friendly, as the 7805 is too tall and there is no room to install it horizontally.
If you need to use shields with this board, mount the 7805 on the bottom side of the board following the next pictures:
The result is shown with the XBee shield, Motor controller shield and NKC Electronics protoshield.
Next continue with the soldering of the RS232 components:
| X1 | DB9 female PCB adapter |
| T1 | BC547 |
| T2 | BC557 |
| D2, D3 | 1N4148 |
| C8 | 10uF electrolytic capacitor |
| R1 | 4.7K resistor |
| R3 | 1.5K resistor |
| R4 | 1K resistor |
Solder the rest of the capacitors and resistors:
| R5-R9 | 10 Kohm resistor |
| C2, C3 | 22pF ceramic capacitor |
| C1, C4 | 100nF ceramic capacitor |
Now solder the crystal, switch and the 13-pin LED:
| S1 | reset switch |
| 13 | 3mm LED |
| Q1 | 16MHz crystal |
Now solder the headers and sockets:
| ICSP | 2×3 pin male header |
| POWER | 4-pin female header |
| Analog In | 6-pin female header |
| Digital | 2 x 8-pin female header |
| IC1 | 28-pin DIP socket |
Pay special attention to the alignment of the female headers.
And finally install the ATMEGA168 MCU.
The board is ready to be used. Start Arduino0009 or Arduino0010 and load the BLINK sketch from the examples directory. Verify that ATMEGA168 is selected in Tools –> Microcontroller (MCU) and Arduino Diecimila in the Tools –> board option. Select the COM port number corresponding to the serial interface where the Freeduino serial board is connected to. Press the “Upload to I/O board” button in Arduino and the board should autoreset and complete the programming. If you selected correctly the BLINK sketch, the LED “13” must start blinking once every 2 second (0.5Hz).
