I have a quick question concerning stacking arduino shields. Can you stack as many shields as you want as long as none of them use the same pins?
I have Ro-Bot-X's robot builders shield as well as a xbee shield that I would like to stack onto an Uno. From my understanding, the xbee shield just uses pin 0 and 1 for serial and breaks out the rest. And then the robot builders shield doesnt touch pins 0 or 1.
The other concern I have is about the external power. I'm providing external power to the robot builders shield to control the motors but I want to power the xbee from the arduino. Can i stack the xbee shield onto the arduino and then the motor controller shield on top of that?
Here are links to more information on the shields http://robotxdesigns.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Robot_Builders_Shield_V3_Guide.pdf http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9976
I hope this helps. Some of this might be a bit general, in scope.
Typically, a shield that supports high powered components is, or can be, isolated from the Arduino. Your Robot Builders Shield has that option. As to whether or not it can pass through Arduino power to another board above it–All of the ones I’ve seen can do that, but that’s not a large number.
One thing that might help you is a new product Sparkfun has called an “In Between Shield.” It goes between shields and allows you to re-route Arduino pins when there are conflicting shields.
You can place the xBee shield between the Uno and the RBS and use them witout any problems. You can also transfer power from the RBS to the Uno and from the Uno, the regulated voltage will go to the xBee shiled and to the RBS too. I don’t think there will be any problems with that.
Thanks guys for all the suggestions, I appreciate it. I saw the “In between Shield” introduced last week by sparkfun and it might come in handy down the road. I’ll try stacking the shields and see how everything goes. Hopefully i’ll have the robot posted within a few days
