We Want Your Input on Arduino Prototype Peripherals

As you may be aware, the LogiSwitch WorkBench is a three-bank extender shield designed for prototyping with the Arduino Uno and compatibles using few (often zero) jumper wires. Each of the three banks provides a direct 23-pin breadboard connector for wireless prototyping

This innovative approach eliminates the conventional “rat’s nest” jumper wire maze that can impede efficient design and debug. We eliminate the jumper wires by bringing out the Arduino pins to three sides of the board. each of the 23-pin banks includes +5V, +3.3V, GND, all 14 digital input/output (I/O) pins, and all six analog I/O pins. In addition, the standard stackable shield socket is available in the center of the board.

Well-known editor Clive “Max” Maxfield has written some good articles on this and has created a short video comparing the LogiSwitch approach to conventional methods.

LogiSwitch is currently developing a line of Arduino peripheral products for the WorkBench that will offer the designer a convenient alternative to the popular Shield architecture for use in prototype development.

This VisiShield product line will consist of a number of commonly used peripheral boards designed to plug directly into the user’s choice of the three WorkBench banks in place of a breadboard. All the LogiSwitch VisiShield plugin boards will have the following basic attributes:

• Utilize the I²C 2-wire protocol so that all pins of the Arduino except for pins A4/(SDA) and A5/(SCL) are available for the user’s prototype.
• Unlike the piggyback-stacked shield, all VisiShield boards are unobscured (and troubleshootable) and are free of size limitations in area and component height.
• A schematic is included with each VisiShield plugin board to assure the designer can replicate each circuit used in the prototype for future designs.
• Where orientation is necessary, each VisiShield plugin board includes three different connector orientations allowing the designer to plug the peripheral into the WorkBench in the needed orientation.

We are currently developing a keypad/LCD peripheral that supports 3×4 or a 4×4 keypads and a 4×20 character LCD display peripheral. We want to understand if this keypad/LCD combination meet your needs, whether you want separate keypad and LCD modules, and what additional peripherals would you like us to develop.

We look forward to your feedback. You can comment on this blog or send us an email at product_request@logiswitch.com.