Protoshield KIT for Arduino R3

This shield is very nice. It is very well labeled and the craftsmanship is excellent. It only took me about 10 minutes to put it together. I paid $11 for it, and am very glad I did so instead of paying $3 for simple blanks from Radio Shack.Word to the wise: buy this as a separate purchase if you are also buying anything large or heavy. Mine came thrown into a box together with a soldering iron. Fortunately all that was bent were a couple of the pins on the switches and they were easy to fix. I can't believe the board wasn't broken.One thing to be aware of is that stackable headers do not allow the board to seat completely on the Uno rev 3. It does not effect functionality but looks kind of tacky. This is because the USB port on the UNO sticks up about 1mm above the headers. Hopefully rev 4 will include a mini USB port instead.

Pros:Easy to assemble. Board is pretty well designed; the center grounding and power strips make connections shorter, and the bus strips make connecting certain components easier. Voltage levels are controlled by a jumper.Cons:The headers (with the exception of the ICSP header) are simply too short. This causes the PCB to rest on the power plug, the USB plug, and the ICSP headers, and prevents the pins on the side from making full contact. This, in turn, creates all sorts of problems with your shield.I eventually ripped off the shrouded headers and replaced them with super-long headers from another vendor.The terminal block requires an insanely tiny screwdriver, and (at least for me), it would be nice if there were more sets of holes joined in twos or threes, as I find it difficult to solder a wire from a through-hole component directly to another wire.

Very flexible in terms of what you can put on the board. The output terminals are a great feature. It was easy to assemble, and was ideal for the Engineering project that I bought it for. Unfortunately, however, the pins do seem to be a bit fragile and flimsy. They often bent when removing the shield from the arduino. For the price, you can't beat it.

Perhaps this was a one-of problem, but mine came with no instructions whatsoever. I have been scouring the net and still haven't found any. "Support" for this so far appears to be zero. (I did look on the mfg's website). For a kit, this is a very serious omission.

I recieved the Arduino Proto Shield R3, which while itself is a quality product, it did not include many of the parts shown. It came assembled with a reset button and the headers to line up with the Arduino. It is not a kit. I was a little disappointed that I did not get the terminal block and other extras, and that i did not get at all what i was expecting, but for a nice proto shield the price is still good. If you want to know what the Proto Shield R3 looks like it is on their website arduino(dot)cc under hardware.

Pros:First, this is the 1st protoshield I've bought that's actually redesigned for the R3 with the extra pins (IOREF, SDA, SCL, etc.) passed through and available on the shield itself.Mine came with an extra wire-wrap header for some reason...Also like screw terminals available, though I'm not sure if I have a screwdriver that small to turn them (one for eyeglasses maybe?)Cons:I've bought other protoshields that do the connections for switches. Meaning to make the switch usable as a digital in, you just have 1 connection to the io you choose. This is more flexible and results in fewer pre-built components, but at the loss of simplicity.No LEDs - usually there's a LED on pin13 at least and sometimes a general purpose one or two - usually with resistor already in place.No capacitors for voltage stabilization - probably not a problem for most applications.Overall, I'm happy with it... it's a quality product. Just be aware it doesn't do some of the niceties for you.

I received an arduino brand proto shield, requiring no assembly and is lacking some parts that the kit pictured has.however at the price its about 7 dollars cheaper than the arduino brand proto costs, so I'll keep it.

The Item was shipped on time and arrived faster than I expected, quality was good but I am rating it four only because I have not assembled and used the item yet.