I am using the El Escudo shield for an Arduino duemilanove to drive 8 lengths of El Wire. Currently i am waiting for the El Escudo to arrive, but my El Wire and inverter has. I had trouble sourcing the inverter suggested in the El Escudo Guide ( i live in the UK) but found one similair that runs from 5 volts.
My problem, is that i have just noticed that the El Escudo shield takes its power from the arduino’s regulated Vin pin (which is 3 volts regulated) and not the 5 volts pin.
I want to know that if by simply leaving out the headers from the Vin( 3.3volts) and gnd on the El Escudo board (meaning that they wont connect to the arduino), instead solderering my own 5volt supply directly to the raw voltage pins on the Escudo shield, i can get it to work? I would be effectively bypassing the connection to the onboard arduino power supply.
Alternatively could i leave out the 3.3 volts header and use a jumper from the 5 volt arduino pin to that connection to achieve the same thing?
If by doing this successfully, would i incur any problems from the code?
The El Escudo page is here: http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/produc … ts_id=9259
The El Escudo guide is here: http://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/DevT … _Guide.pdf
An image of the El Escudo board is here: http://static.sparkfun.com/images/products/09259-2.jpg
Help is apreciated