most useful capes?

Question

OK, let's get the Batman thoughts out the way first. OK? Done now?

Right, I was wondering what people thought were the most useful capes / shields to have for the Beaglebone Black, Arduino and Raspberry Pi. I know that it depends on what you are working on but I wondered what people had in their tool boxes that you look at and think to yourself "What can I use that for today?" I have a RF shield with ZigBee module for my Arduino, a GSM shield on back order and a 4.3 inch LCD display from my Beaglebone at the moment and I have been thinking "where next?". So, what have you found most useful and what sort of projects have you been using them for?

Over to you!

Mark

toxxn · Accepted Answer

I have a small variety of shields/ capes for each of these myself, although I can easily say I have more for Arduino.

// Beaglebone Black;

MikroBus Cape
USB Camera Module
BB View
Bluetooth Click Board

// Raspberry Pi;

Arduberry (RPi to Arduino Adapter)
RS232 Shield
HiFi DAC Shield
Ir Infrared Remote Shield
Camera Module
4.3'' Touchscreen
3.2'' Touchscreen
PiFace Digital I/O Expander

// Arduino;

Motor/ Stepper/ Servo Shield
Proto-ScewShield
Proto shield
Data Logging Shield
GPS Logging Shield
Wave Shield
Wifi Shield
Bluefruit EZ Link
RGB LCD Shield
2.8'' TFT Touch Display Shield
1.8'' Color TFT Shield w/ Micro SD and Joystick
NeoPixil Shield
Gameduino 2
Video Game Shield Kit

I think I might have a few others laying around here somewhere, I just recently moved houses and these were the ones I currently had in my box.

As far as most useful goes, like you said that really depends on the application. That is also a tricky question because some could misinterpret the question by giving you a list of their "favorite" shields. Although I do have some favorites, I will answer your question based on the shields/ capes I use most often.

For the Raspberry Pi I use the Ir Infrared Remote, Arduberry, PiFace Digital I/O Expander, and 4.3'' Touchscreen the most. Depending on which Arduino I am messing around with I use the Proto Shields, Wifi Shield, and 2.8'' TFT the most. Otherwise I am usually messing with NeoPixil, Gameduino 2, or the Video Game Shield kit. As for Beaglebone Black, although I love the board, I don't use it very often.

As far as most usefulness goes, I think any TFT display and/or prototyping shields are some of the most useful possible.

The rest really are based on the application and I love all the shields/ capes I have.

gadget.iom · Answer

I stared out learning arduino with the LCD Keypad Shield ( http://www.dfrobot.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=51 ). Was great for learning how to write to LCDs based on the Hitachi HD44780 chipset, reading button inputs, and designing simple user interfaces. The current generation of shields now include pass-through connections for the analogue and digital I/O.

most useful capes?

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