Motor driver shield released for chipKIT

Created Mon, 01 Aug 2011 01:39:07 +0000 by RuggedCircuits

RuggedCircuits

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 01:39:07 +0000

Hello all,

Rugged Circuits has released the Basic Motor Driver, a motor driver shield for Arduino that is also easy to adapt to chipKIT. Only 1 simple cut and jumper is required. It has been tested with the chipKIT Uno32.

Not allowed to post off-site URL's as of yet, but I'm sure you can figure out how to get to our web site ;)

whoover

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:15:15 +0000

Nice shield... Although, I never understood why Arduino chose to design shields to go on top of Arduinos instead of maybe under them (or some other configuration). If an Arduino spinoff creates a board with more pins (like chipKIT) the shield covers the the expanded pins making them inaccessible while the shield is plugged in (unless of course, the shield itself has the additional pins, but this is rarely the case). I always find myself jumping to the shield or bb. The Papilio wing concept added a little more flexibility :?

Anyway, great shield regardless of its setup!

RuggedCircuits

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 14:26:17 +0000

Nice shield... Although, I never understood why Arduino chose to design shields to go on top of Arduinos instead of maybe under them (or some other configuration).

Just speculating but my guess is the original Arduino design didn't plan for shields and the socket headers were just there for inserting wires. In that case it makes sense that the openings are on top rather than the bottom.

If an Arduino spinoff creates a board with more pins (like chipKIT) the shield covers the the expanded pins making them inaccessible while the shield is plugged in (unless of course, the shield itself has the additional pins, but this is rarely the case).

Perhaps nudge the chipKIT designers to move the extra pins on the "outer" side of the existing pins rather than on the inside (in the next hardware revision).

I always find myself jumping to the shield or bb. The Papilio wing concept added a little more flexibility :?

There are several pin-breakout-type shields (like our own Quick Shield) that allow you to plug in a shield and still jumper to the wires. I can see the benefit behind a chipKIT-specific breakout shield that brings out the extra pins.

Anyway, great shield regardless of its setup!

Thanks!

GeneApperson

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 22:43:03 +0000

Perhaps nudge the chipKIT designers to move the extra pins on the "outer" side of the existing pins rather than on the inside (in the next hardware revision).

We considered whether to put the extra pins on the outside or the inside. We decided on the inside so that the chipKIT boards would have the same outside dimensions as the Arduino boards. We thought that the form factor was an important compatibility issue.

We could do a version with the extra pins the other way, but then they would be incompatible with any shields designed for the current boards.

Gene Apperson Digilent

OppaErich

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 16:43:49 +0000

We considered whether to put the extra pins on the outside or the inside. We decided on the inside so that the chipKIT boards would have the same outside dimensions as the Arduino boards. We thought that the form factor was an important compatibility issue. Gene Apperson Digilent

I've opened a thread with this suggestion some weeks ago but no one was with me. Based on the reactions to that thread, your decision was right. ;)