Ludus Protoshield Hookup Guide

This Tutorial is Retired!

This tutorial covers concepts or technologies that are no longer current. It's still here for you to read and enjoy, but may not be as useful as our newest tutorials.

View the updated tutorial: Wireless Motor Driver Shield Hookup Guide

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Contributors: Nick Poole
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Easy Prototyping with Ludus

The Ludus Protoshield is an Arduino shield designed to make it easier and faster to connect motors and sensors to your Arduino compatible development board. It's really handy for throwing together remote control rovers and small autonomous robots. This guide will get you up and running with your very own Ludus ProtoShield or Ludus Protoshield Wireless!

SparkFun Ludus Protoshield

DEV-13310
Retired

SparkFun Ludus Protoshield Wireless

DEV-13295
Retired

Required Materials

Aside from the Ludus Protoshield, you will also need to stack the shield to a microcontroller. We recommend the SparkFun RedBoard or any other Arduino form factor boards such as the Arduino Uno or the Arduino Leonardo.

One of the main features of the Ludus Shield is to make working with motors easier for those just learning. In order to fully utilize this shield, you'll also need some motors to drive. Check out our Motors Category for some ideas.

Suggested Reading

You may find some of the following concepts useful before using your Ludus ProtoShield.

Serial Communication

Asynchronous serial communication concepts: packets, signal levels, baud rates, UARTs and more!

What is an Arduino?

What is this 'Arduino' thing anyway? This tutorials dives into what an Arduino is and along with Arduino projects and widgets.

Installing Arduino IDE

A step-by-step guide to installing and testing the Arduino software on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Serial Terminal Basics

This tutorial will show you how to communicate with your serial devices using a variety of terminal emulator applications.

Motors and Selecting the Right One

Learn all about different kinds of motors and how they operate.