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First, check that you have all the parts! Look over the parts list here and shown on the left |
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Put the two small buttons in. They will snap in and should be flush with the PCB. The buttons are symmetric so don't worry about putting them in backwards! |
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With your soldering iron, solder each of the 4 points on each switch |
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Next, place the 6 pin ICSP header. If you're never planning to use an external programmer you can skip this step! |
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Solder all 6 pins. You may have to tape or hold the part in place or it'll fall out! |
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Next its time to place the two 3mm LEDs. LEDs are directional, and if you put them in backwards they wont work. LEDs have a positive lead and a negative lead. The positive lead is longer. On the Protoshield PCB you will see a small + sign next to the LED silkscreen pictures. That's the side you should put the positive lead in. |
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Solder both LEDs in place |
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Use diagonal cutters to snip off the long legs so that they are about as long as the legs of the buttons or ICSP header. |
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Next place the two resistors for the LEDs. Resistors don't have a direction so you can put them in either way. |
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Solder in the resistor legs and clip them short. |
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Next, place the 4 8-pin and 6-pin female headers as shown. |
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Turn the board over and solder them in, you may have to hold the parts or tape them to keep them from falling out! |
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Next its time to make the male headers from the long strip. use diagonal cutters or pliers to clip off 4 parts, 2 6-pin and 2 8-pin, as shown. |
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If you have a Diecimila Arduino, put the long ends of the male header in to the female header on the Arduino, as shown |
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If you have an NG, you may want to use a 4 pin header for the power connector. You'll also want to place the 3-pin female header on the ICSP connector all the way to the left as shown. |
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Put the proto shield on top of the Arduino, so that the male header aligns with the solder holes. |
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If you have an NG Arduino, solder in the 3-pin female header. |
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Solder every pin of the male header. Keep the shield on the Arduino to make the job easy. Once you're done, you can remove the shield from the Arduino. |
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If you're using a half-sized breadboard you should stop now as adding the remaining parts will make the breadboard not fit as well. |
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Place the two ceramic capacitors. They are symmetric so you don't have to worry about putting them in backwards. |
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Solder and clip the capacitors |
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Solder in the 3 5-pin female headers. These are especially useful if you're using a tiny breadboard with the shield. One of the headers is all ground pins, another is all 5V pins. The final one is 'floating', which means you can use a jumper to make it Vin or 3.3V or any other value you need. |
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Solder in the headers |
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If you are using a tiny breadboard, you can just take off the backing and stick it on! (Or use double sided tape. |
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If you want to use the red and green LEDs or the general purpose button, simply solder solid-gauge wire (~22awg is good) into the large solder holes near the device. Then you can plug the other end of the wire like a jumper into any of the female headers. The two LEDs are tied to ground through 1K or 1.5K resistors. The button simply connects the jumper to ground when pressed (use an internal or external pull-up). Check the schematic on the download page for specific details. |
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