Arduino shields are boards that will expand the functionalities of your Arduino. You just need to plug them over the top of the Arduino board. There are countless types of shields to do countless tasks.
I’ve also wrote a list of 21 modules that you can buy for your Arduino for less than $2.
1. Ethernet Shield
The Ethernet Shield allows you to connect your Arduino to the internet . You just have to plug the shield onto the Arduino board and then, connect it to your network. Pretty simple.
2. Relay Shield
The Relay Shield is a module with 4 mechanical relays that provides you an easy way to control high voltage.
3. ProtoShield
The ProtoShield is a prototyping Shield that makes it easy to prototype. It allows for easy connections between the breadboard and the Arduino.
4. Motor Shield
This Shield allows an easy control of motor direction and speed. It makes it easy to incorporate a motor into any of your projects.
5. LCD Shield
This Shield makes it easy to use a 16×2 Character LCD. With this, it is possible to control a 16×2 Character LCD, up to 3 backlight pins and 5 keypad pins using only the two I2C pins on the Arduino.
6. Capacitive Touchpad Shield
The Touchpad Shield allows you to build simple capacitive touch interfaces.
7. CAN-BUS shield
The CAN–BUS Shield adopts MCP2515 CAN buscontroller with SPI interface and MCP2551CAN transceiver to give CAN–BUS capibility to the Arduino.
8. Smoke Detector Shield
This Shield can detect concentrations of combustible gas in the air and read it as an analogue value. Useful to make a smoke detector system.
9. Negative Voltage Generation Shield
This shield generates negative voltage for Arduino. It is useful if you need negative voltage.
10. Wave Shield
This Shield solves many problems related to audio low quality with electronic projects with audio. It can play up to 22KHZ, 12 bit uncompressed audio files of any length. Audio files are read off of an SD/MMC card. With this shield, it is possible to add high quality audio to your projects.
11. CISECO ProtoX Shield
The CISECO ProtoX Shield is a Prototyping board with SMT pads and serial breakout.
12. 64-Button Shield
With this Shield you can connect up to 64 buttons to your Arduino. Some cool projects with this shield include musical intruments, cool computer interfaces, etc.
13. Joystick Shield Kit
The joystick Shield provides simple analog inputs and four separate buttons and one button under the joystick itself.
14. GSM/GPRS Shield
The GSM/GPRS Shield allows you to connect your Arduino to GSM/GPRS cell phone network. It allows you to dial a phone number or send a text message to  a friend via easy to use AT commands.
15. Gameduino Shield
This Shield is a game adapter for Arduino or anything with an SPI interface. It has plugs for a VGA monitor and stereo speakers.
16. microSD Shield
The microSD Shield equips your Arduino with mass-storage capability, so you can use it for data-logging or other related projects.
17. NFC/RFID Shield
This Shield is perfect for any 13.56MHz RFID or NFC application. It can read and write tags so, it is perfect to use for RFID-tag projects.
18. Adafruit NeoPixel Shield
With this shield from Adafruit, you can control a 5×8 matrix of RGB LEDs using only one pin.
19. MP3 Player Shield
The MP3 Player Shield provides a simple way to add sound effects or music to your projects.
20. Camera Shield
With this Shield it is possible to reduce the complexity of the camera control interface.  It uses I2C interface for the sensor configuration and SPI interface for camera commands and data stream.
21. GPS Logger Shield
The GPS Logger Shield comes with a GPS module and is designed to log data to an SD card.
22. Wireless SDÂ Shield
The Wireless SD Shield allows the Arduino to communicate wirelessly using a wireless module. The shield includes a SD car slot.
23. cc300 Wi-Fi Shield
This Shield is a well-equipped network processing unit that can simplify the network connecting process. It can lower the MCU’s demand on software, which makes it a perfect solution for embeded applications of low-cost, low-power consumption MCU.
24. ESP8266 Wi-Fi Shield
ESP8266 Wi-Fi Shield is an Arduino compatible shield for the ESP8266 WiFi SoC – a leading platform for Internet of Things (IoT) or Wi-Fi related projects.
25. HC-05 Bluetooth Shield
This Shield includes an easy to use Bluetooth SPP (Serial Port Protocol) module, designed for transparent wireless serial connection setup.
Wrapping Up
Do you have all these Shields?
Are you thinking about ordering one of theses Shields listed above? Or are you thinking about doing a project with one of these?
Leave a comment down below!
Share this post with a friend that also likes electronics.
Thanks for reading,
-Rui
P.S. Here’s a another blog post that you can read that it is dedicated to Arduino modules: “21 Arduino Modules You Can Buy For Less Than $2“.
greatest
Thank you!
Hi Rui,
I thought I would look at this email from you as I had nothing to do for 5 minutes. I am so glad I did… I have ordered two prototype shields – they will do just great for a project I am doing right now. Thank you for taking the time time to compile this list as it was very interesting, I had no idea they made some of these boards.
Thanks very much.
PJ
Thank you for reading PJ!
I’m glad you found the list useful.
Have a great day,
Rui
Hi Rui,
Thanks for this list and all other informations you give.
It’s very useful for me.
Bruno
You’re welcome Bruno.
Thanks for reading!
This list is really useful.
I also downloaded your 18+ projects tutorial some time ago. Haven’t had time but am looking onward to doing some soon.
Thank you! I’m glad you found this post useful 🙂
Hi,
I just got the WIFI shield (24. ESP8266 Wi-Fi Shield) and I don’t know where to start from… Should I flash the module first or it’s ready to use out of the box ?
Having some demos code would help and a description of the options to.
I’m planing to use it to collect datas from sensors and send them to a mosquitto broker service on my network.
any help would be appreciated.
Sylvain
You might find this useful: gitbook.com/book/fineshang/esp8266-based-serial-wifi-shield-for-arduino-user/details
And the quick start guide: fineshang.gitbooks.io/esp8266-based-serial-wifi-shield-for-arduino-user/content/chapter4.html
i got an idea about a project involving some of shield presented above, though i got not $
That happens sometimes!
Easy and very helpful
Thank you very much!
Rui
thank you rui.
You’re welcome!
Rui
Thanks for sharing this helpful list! I myself am in the PCBA business, so I’m always interested in stuff like this. An easy but excelent list I must say 🙂
Andrew
Thank you Andrew!
how do i program the arduino along with ethetnet shield to control the devices from any where in the world?
the code provided in your book 18 adruino projects can be used to control the devices in the single LAN.
You could do port forwarding with your router in order to access your web server from anywhere.
Thanks Rui
can i directly connect the ethernet cable to arduino (without router) to control server from any where?
The Ethernet cable is connected to your router.
Then you need to configure your router and do port forwarding to make your web server accessible from anywhere
Thanks Rui
I got it !!!
I got it !!!
thanks
You’re welcome!
I believe that the top of them all is 1Sheeld board, it’s kinda all in one board, worth buying
Yes. The 1Sheeld is just awesome.
We made a list with the top 10 most useful Arduino shields, and the 1Sheeld is included.
ESTUPENDO
First, your tutorials have been extremely helpful in rapidly coming up to speed on both ESP32 as well as implementing many IOT areas I was not familiar with. Great tutorial subjects and very easy to follow/learn/implement -THANKYOU!
A Question: What is your recommendation for how to best connect a ESP32 to the standard physical shield layout?
Is there a adapter board to MCU32, etc or a ESP32 in a Arduino physical format?
Thanks again!
Hi.
To use the shields with the ESP32 you need to check the shields datasheet to see which pins they use to communicate with the board. Then, you can use wires to connect the pins used by the shield to the ESP32. There is an ESP32 in an Arduino formart: the ESPduino32. However, I don’t think these shields are compatible with that board.
I recommend using sensor modules instead of the shields to use with the ESP32. Here you have a list of some modules: https://randomnerdtutorials.com/21-arduino-modules-you-can-buy-for-less-than-2/
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Sara
Appreciate your thorough reply especially about being wary of the pinouts on the ESPduino. Also, it is not very available so your suggestions are well taken.
Thanks!