Brads Electronic Projects Forum

I built a BoArduino for the first time. I had a problem with the pin headers.
The instructions said to put the pin headers into the breadboard and they wouldn't go. I used a thumb tack on the breadboard to make it easier but I worked at it for a while and now my fingers are sore as it was tough as nails. Pressing the pin headers into the breadboard made them lose form as they slide out of the plastic. I should have soldered them upside down again but it is one of those things where if you don't, you don't know if they will easily fit the breadboard.

I'm wondering how much abuse a breadboard can take before I start to lose continuity during random breadboarding by using the tacks.

I bought this a while ago because I saw plans on how to make an LED cube using the BoArduino. I haven't tested the BoArduino other than the green light goes on and the red light blinks on touching the reset button.

I built these at night without any bright lights and in lower lighting level conditions.

The six pin header on the right of the board is for an FTDI cable and I used the pin socket because I may want to replace the ATmega chip in the future.

Time to build my LOL Shield.

I'm wondering how much abuse a breadboard can take before I start to lose continuity during random breadboarding by using the tacks.

If you mean the solderless breadboard, I always wonder if plugging in .025" square posts (standard pin headers) is going to damage it, but so far it never seems to have. I have a lot of 5-pin modules I use as re-usable circuit modules to speed up the breadboarding of related circuits, and these get plugged into the solderless breadboard.


The picture doesn't show all of them, but it includes filters, voltage multipliers and inverters and a reference, a mic pre-amp, a full-wave audio peak detector, and the long one is a switching power supply that takes in anywhere from 4.5 to 9.5V and puts out 12V at a couple hundred mA.

Nice work Chuck, I haven't heard of the BoArduino before, did it cost much?

Also, what does the LOL shield do?

Garth - that does look handy to have a whole heap of ready made circuit components

brad wrote:Nice work Chuck, I haven't heard of the BoArduino before, did it cost much?

Also, what does the LOL shield do?

The BoArduino costs $17.50 for the FTDI version and $25 for the USB version. The empty PCB costs $5. A cheaper form of the Arduino is the Lira but you will have to build it yourself:

http://www.lira.cc/

I know a high school teacher recommended the Bare Bones Board because it is $17.00:

http://shop.moderndevice.com/products/bbb-kit

He lets his students share an FTDI cable so if they do something wrong, replacing the cable isn't the end of the world.


The LOL Shield uses a 9x14 matrix of LEDs which is available in different colors, uses Charlieplexing and online software to program the light sequence. I believe it only works with Arduino right now and might take some time to solder unless you put more than one LED on the board at one time to be soldered.



http://jimmieprodgers.com/kits/lolshiel ... lolshield/

That's very cool Chuck.

I know all too well what it's like to solder in that many LED's.

What plans do you have for yours?

brad wrote:What plans do you have for yours?

I like to build things that make me happy or other people happy.

It was an impulse buy. I saw it and I liked it. It basically sold itself and that is a good thing because salesmen can't really sell much other than what the consumer already wants. If I want to do a display for my child's school science fair then a display like this would cause interest because it already sells itself.

I wanted it to show off because I'm around negative people who say that electronics is difficult and that ordinary people like me can't do it so I have to create a positive self-fulfillling prophecy to offset the negative voices in people. I'm already a hobby programmer but other programmers don't want to try electronics because it is difficult and takes a long time.

As my ability gets better, I may make a snake game, marquee or other kind of display.

Couldn't have said it better myself

A lot of people see my projects as pointless and that I'm just wasting my time. But I thoroughly enjoy what I do and I have been able to help lots of people with their projects. Hope all goes well with your's and I look forward to your snake game