How do i use the optional button on the proto shield?

[ronaldrperez]

Hi,

How do i use the optional button on the proto shield?
Which pins is it connected to?

Thanks,
Ronald

[ahdavidson]

It's not connected to any pin, but you can connect it to one by soldering a wire to the board and then using that wire in a pin. It's very handy!

There's an explanation and photo in the penultimate step of the instructions on this page.

[ronaldrperez]

Thanks

-Ronald

[hlship]

I'm very new to hardware and arduino.

It seems to me that the protoshield could be more useful if there were built-in pins for the switch and the two leds.

Forgive me if I get the terms wrong.

I'm thinking about adding a male header with three pins. One could be connected to a digital input pin to read the button. The other two could be connected to digital output pins to light the leds.

So I should be able to run a wire from the header to the holes marked led 1 and led 2 ... each of these leds appears to have a current limiting resistor already. I think I can see how power can run to that hole, follow the trace to and through the resistor, and then into the led itself. I know its on the schematic, but I have a hard time relating that to the board (everything's so tiny).

From what I've read, I need a pull up resistor to use the switch ... I'm a bit confused, but I think this means that I should connect the header to +5V via the resistor, but also connect the same header to the switch. I have to assume this would be to the hole marked "+". End result: the input pin will read HIGH until the button is pressed.

To be honest, this is like thinking in a foreign language; I'm really confused about the switch part (for some reason, I "get" pull down resistor easier than pull up).

Anyway, just looking for comments, criticisms and thoughts.

[adafruit]

http://www.ladyada.net/learn/arduino/