Pin-throughs with TFT on Uno?

Question

I'm getting a little confused on how some of the shields work with an Arduino Uno. I want to be able to connect a touchscreen and, at the same time, drive some ADCs and DACs. Take as an example this screen from Adafruit (but the question isn't really specific to these, the Newhaven ones look good too):

https://www.adafruit.com/product/1651

It says it leaves digital pins 2,3,5,6,7 and analog pins 0-5 for use and yet all the pictures show that the shield completely covers the UNO with no passthroughs. I can't even see how I can attach to the 5v and GND pins to power the thing (I don't want to use the USB or DC adapter once it's in an enclosure! I've done very little with an Arduino to date and never used a shield so I'm unsure how these things work - could someone advise please?

Something like a Nextion screen looks very useful but I only have a Mac so can't use the required editor program. If there's something similar available that I haven't been able to find I'd be interested in knowing.

Thanks,

Andrew

shabaz · Accepted Answer

Hi Andrew, Shields are for solving various problems, but as you've observed, can cause problems when you want to use multiple shields simultaneously. There are some shields that allow stacking, so that may be an option (not always possible). Another way to solve the physical issue of attaching more than two connections together, is to assemble some cables to attach to the shields (i.e. do not plug them on the Arduino directly). Here's one example in the photo below (this is not using an Arduino, but it's the same principle). The photo below shows an Arduino-like board (black, bottom-left) but other boards are not plugged on top. Instead, cables are used to connect to the green boards in the photo. To make the cables, you need thin wire (e.g. 10/0.1 wire), 0.1" header pin crimp sockets 0.1" header pin crimp sockets , and a crimping tool crimping tool . Plastic shells Plastic shells are also available. You'll still need to make sure there are no clashes. If you run out of useful Arduino Uno pins then you may need a different Arduino, or consider different ways (e.g. using a port expander chip (google will provide more information on this, and your code will need to change if you use it). Here is a closeup of what the tool does (this is not the same crimp socket as the one linked above, but similar). The photo shows two wires into the same crimp socket (stripped cat-5 cable!).

beacon_dave · Answer

You could use a Proto Shield between the UNO and the TFT shield for your additional connectivity. https://www.adafruit.com/product/2077

shabaz · Answer

Hi Andrew, If you've got ready-made dupont wires, that would work. Optionally, if you wanted to, you could buy the type of plastic shells linked earlier, and they have a tab, so you can remove the single plastic shells on your dupont wires, and insert into (say) a 8-way or 10-way shell. It's not essential, but handy sometimes. The crimp tool is cheap ($36USD/£20GBP+VAT), so longer term you might want to buy that anyway, to roll your own custom-length cables.

Pin-throughs with TFT on Uno?

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