Monday, June 04, 2012

Board of Education Shield

Plug this shield into your own Arduino® module to give it the useful features and form factor of the original Board of Education®. This shield makes circuit prototyping simple and convenient with a 2 row x

17 column breadboard. Headers along the side. top, and bottom provide easy access to supply voltages and the Arduino module’s digital I/O and analog inputs. The Board of Education Shield’s four corner mounting holes and servo ports make it compatible with the Boe-Bot robot chassis, continuous rotation servos, and many sensors and accessories from Parallax.

The 3-position power switch allows you to turn on power in stages, first to the power header above the breadboard, and then to any servos plugged into the ports. This is especially useful for cutting servo power so that you can monitor sensors on your breadboard while keeping motors from moving. This board also has a RESET button for restarting the program and pass-through headers for stacking more shields on top.

Features
 17 row x 2 column breadboard with adjacent headers for Vin, 5 V, 3.3 V, GND, digital I/O and analog in

 Onboard 5 V regulator supplies up to 1 A for robotics and animatronics applications
 Onboard 3.3 V regulator supplies up to 250 mA for project circuits and accessories such as Digi’s XBee® RF modules

 4 servo ports with power selection jumper for regulated 5 V or Vin (Arduino’s supply voltage) <0x 77.5 mm)



Application Ideas
 Mount your Arduino microcontroller brain on the Boe-Bot robot chassis—see Robotics with the Board of Education Shield for Arduino at http://learn.parallax.com/ShieldRobot.

 Use in the classroom for electronics, robotics and STEM lessons with the Arduino.
 Make an inexpensive Propeller microcontroller prototyping platform with the Propeller ASC module from MGH Designs (http://mghdesigns.com).