Wiring an LCD shield

If you have a temperature controlled soldering iron, set it to between 600F and 650F.  Be sure the tip is hot enough to melt the solder before trying to use it.  Wipe the tip on a damp sponge or paper towel to get rid of the oxidized solder then wet the tip with a little solder.  Place the tip next to the wire on the pad at the same time and apply the solder.  Don't hold it on any longer than 5 seconds.  Don't put so much solder on that it balls up.  Just a little more than enough to fill the hole.

Adafruit has one of the best tutorials I've seen.

It explains what the tools are, then a couple of pages in shows the process in detail.

http://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-guide-excellent-soldering/tools

Many beginners forget to heat the surface that the wire has to attach to, and hence have problems.

You'll need to strip and then twist the wires before 'tinning' them. (Tinning is applying solder to the wire.)

Cut them to a suitable length as the insulation sometimes shrinks back.

I would also suggest you apply a little solder to the shield pins, and then add the tinned wires.

You can practice on something else first.

The secret is not too much heat on the wires. If it isn't going right, stop and let the joint and wire cool down, then try again.

Mark

If you have the DFrobot LCD keypad sheild V1.0 the pins Allocated pins are Digital pins 4-10 and Anolog 0. So you'd have to use a different pin then D10, here are the Shematics for the shield and the Manual. Mark has the right good advice about soldering but I'd suggest soldering male or female headers on the shield for easier prototyping, hope this helps.

Fidel Salinas

This is great, but I am looking to put this as part of a working project.  Having the connections above and close to the lcd is a problem I am trying to over come.  I would like a way to get the connections from under shield....and over the uno.  I'm thinking I can put connectors on a proto-board above and below to accomplish this.  I would like a better solution.

Thanks!!

If thats the case you can always just solder the wire stright on to the pads on the sheild under or over it, just remember D10 is being used by the sheild. If you don't want to go straight and solder on the shield practic on these protoboards. One you've got the hang of it move on to the LCD sheild. just solder the wires to the same points you would have the headers, like i said over or under it wont matter. Hope this helps.

Fidel Salinas