Arduino Driver Shield Problem

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Arduino Driver Shield Problem

Postby naPS » Sat Jan 07, 2012 12:36 am

Hey there Bart - not sure if this is the correct place to put this or not, if not, I'm sorry.

I put together the driver shield a couple of days ago, and ran into a small issue. Using a Duemilanove board, the Y-axis terminal block and driver socket pins on the bottom of the board come into contact with the USB port enclosure on the Arduino itself. I had to install another 'layer' of pin headers between the arduino and the shield to prevent it from shorting.

I had the same issue with the patch shield from Adafruit - so I'm starting to think that it might be an issue with the Duemilanove layout, and not with the newer Uno's. I tried looking at the pictures you posted, but there wasn't anything super clear showing the arduino.

Am I doing something wrong here?

ps. I'm having the same problem on a Mega.
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Re: Arduino Driver Shield Problem

Postby bill.french » Sat Jan 07, 2012 2:52 am

It's a common problem with arduino, I think most folks just put a piece of electrical tape on the USB jack.
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Re: Arduino Driver Shield Problem

Postby naPS » Sat Jan 07, 2012 5:13 am

I plan on having this thing move with the carriage, and getting it's signal wirelessly. Not too comfortable with metal resting on metal with just a thin piece of tape between them and a bunch of vibration. I think I'll just leave the pin header extension in there and zip-tie it together.
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Re: Arduino Driver Shield Problem

Postby bdring » Sat Jan 07, 2012 1:23 pm

That is a common problem with shields. I mention that in the user guide right at the beginning. I just put a piece of tape on the top of the USB connector.

It is kind of silly to use such a large USB connector on these things. The smaller phone or camera connector would be better choice. Although I do wonder why there are so many choices of USB mini connectors. I have two different camera flavors plus the new "standard' phone connector in use in my house. Maybe the the smaller ones are limited in current.
Bart
"If you didn't build it, you will never own it."
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Re: Arduino Driver Shield Problem

Postby RyanoH » Mon Jan 09, 2012 2:36 am

The Diavolino from Evil Mad Science http://evilmadscience.com/productsmenu/tinykitlist/180-diavolino is one of the best solution I've found for any application where I need a striped down, super low profile, shield compatible board. I mean, pin headers are an optional item! Depending on how daring you want to get, you could solder the shield directly to the Diavolino and achieve a super low stack implementation. You will need a FTDI USB-TTL cable to program it, as it has no on board FTDI chip. It also lacks a voltage regulator, but has space on the PCB for one to be added. I picked up the five Diavolino starter kit which is a great deal and scores you the programmer as well. http://evilmadscience.com/productsmenu/tinykitlist/310-diavostart

Note: I'm not connected with this company in any way, but I think my wallet is.

Also.... Hi everyone! I will more formally introduce myself soon.
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Re: Arduino Driver Shield Problem

Postby edward.ford » Tue Feb 14, 2012 6:43 pm

This thread is a little stale, but I thought I'd interject real quick:

FWIW: One of the solutions we use, is to just add another set of headers to the bottom of the shield. There are a couple of pictures here: http://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/index.php/ ... lectronics

Lots of people like us (makers) have them laying around, so it's a quick and easy fix. Also, seems to work pretty well and I think it looks better with both components parallel to each other, as opposed to the shield sitting at a slight angle due to the interference of the USB jack.

If you wanted to get fancy and make it even more rigid, you could use some spacers then run a bolt through the mounting holes of the shield and the arduino.
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Re: Arduino Driver Shield Problem

Postby AndrewR » Tue Feb 14, 2012 7:44 pm

EMS makes the PERFECT solution for this issue:

http://evilmadscience.com/productsmenu/ ... 438-googly
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Re: Arduino Driver Shield Problem

Postby edward.ford » Wed Feb 15, 2012 5:13 pm

That thing is awesome! Thanks for the tip.
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