25 Useful Arduino Shields That You Might Need to Get

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.

View this shield on eBay ->

Ethernet shield2. Relay Shield

The Relay Shield is a module with 4 mechanical relays that provides you an easy way to control high voltage.

View this shield on eBay ->Relay shield

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.

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protoshield

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.

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motor shield

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.

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lcd shield

6. Capacitive Touchpad Shield

The Touchpad Shield allows you to build simple capacitive touch interfaces.

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capacitive touchpad shield

7. CAN-BUS shield

The CANBUS Shield adopts MCP2515 CAN buscontroller with SPI interface and MCP2551CAN transceiver to give CANBUS capibility to the Arduino.

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can-bus shield

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.

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smoke detector shield

9. Negative Voltage Generation Shield

This shield generates negative voltage for Arduino. It is useful if you need negative voltage.

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negative voltage generation shield

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.

View this shield on eBay ->

wave shield

11.  CISECO ProtoX Shield

The CISECO ProtoX Shield is a Prototyping board with SMT pads and serial breakout.

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CISECO ProtoX shield

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.

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64 button shield

13. Joystick Shield Kit

The joystick Shield provides simple analog inputs and four separate buttons and one button under the joystick itself.

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joystick shield

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.

View this shield on eBay ->

GSM_GPRS shield

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.

View this shield on eBay ->

gameduino shield

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.

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microSD

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.

View this shield on eBay ->

NFC_RFID shield

18. Adafruit NeoPixel Shield

With this shield from Adafruit, you can control a 5×8 matrix of RGB LEDs using only one pin.

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neopixel shield

19.  MP3 Player Shield

The MP3 Player Shield provides a simple way to add sound effects or music to your projects.

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sparkfun MP3 player shield

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.

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camera shield

21. GPS Logger Shield

The GPS Logger Shield comes with a GPS module and is designed to log data to an SD card.

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GPS logger shield

22. Wireless SD Shield

The Wireless SD Shield allows the Arduino to communicate wirelessly using a wireless module. The shield includes a SD car slot.

View this shield on eBay ->

Arduino_WirelessSDShield

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.

View this shield on eBay ->

cc300 wifi

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.

View this shield on eBay ->

esp82 66 shield

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.

View this shield on eBay ->

hc05 bluetooth

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“.



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Learn how to build a home automation system and we’ll cover the following main subjects: Node-RED, Node-RED Dashboard, Raspberry Pi, ESP32, ESP8266, MQTT, and InfluxDB database DOWNLOAD »

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31 thoughts on “25 Useful Arduino Shields That You Might Need to Get”

  1. 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

    Reply
  2. 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.

    Reply
  3. 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

    Reply
    • 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

      Reply
  4. 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

    Reply
  5. 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.

    Reply
  6. 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!

    Reply
    • 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

      Reply
      • 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!

        Reply

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