GeeekPi Screw Terminal Block Breakout Board HAT with Reset Button and LED Indicator, GPIO Expansion Board Breakout Module for Arduino MEGA 2560 R3

This Arduino Mega Shield breaks out all the pins into screw terminals. All the pins are connected, including the I2C pins beside AREF and the IOREF pin, which some Mega shields skip or not include. It even includes an acrylic bottom plate and standoff screws so you can secure it into the board. It also has stackable headers so if I want to use a different shield, I just stack it on top of this shield without disassembling it.I have it on my Arduino Due so I could easily screw in cables for my prototype USB controllers. With both Pin 20/21 and SDA1/SCL1 pins broken out, I could use both I2C controllers on the Due. Just note that when you're using a Due, pins labeled A12-A15 in the shield are not analog inputs, as the Due only has 12 ADC pins (rather than 16 for Mega), and these four pins are either for analog outputs (DAC) or CAN bus.It's an amazing piece of kit, so much that I had to write this review.

Makes your life a little easier when using an Arduino mega.

Good quality.... Solid feel, nice looking product. I wanted to like this.. but when I actually started using it, there were design issues. It has both screw terminals ( which I wanted this for ) and the original push pin headers. On the surface, you'd think having the option of screw terminals OR push pins would be preferred to one OR the other, but when you start using the product, the two different type of terminals just get in the way. In order to use the screw terminals ( they are mounted at about a 45 deg angle ) the orignal style push pin headers get in the way. During the process of screwing in my wires, I scratched and damaged the original style header blocks. They ended up just being in the way. And I needed to screw in 48 wires.... I started with the 39 - 53 ( odd ) ports..... once those 16 wires were in... I went to the even port row... but now my 16 wires for the 39 - 53 ( odd ) ports were in the way of the screws for the 38 - 52 ( even ) ports. You really need to start with the lower ports and work your way to the higher ports.... but I didn't go that way and don't like having to wire it up that way. I like the look / feel.. but the design when you start using it... just doesn't work well. I ended up going with a different product that JUST does the screw terminals and the screw terminals just have simple rows that match the headers in orientation. All ports, low to high, even and odd are equally accessible.

These screw shields are perfect for ensuring the wires are secure. While there are others making these shields, this one comes with standoffs for mounting which was an important feature for my project.

Good price. Good quality.

The media could not be loaded. Having used a mega to power a bedroom lighting successfully for years I found the pinout to be the weakest part. This largely solves that issue. By connecting to terminal blocks you can mount the wires a lot better.The mega is an awesome this machine and this makes it scalable. Fits perfect. Recommended.The bottomline is that most people with a mega will save a lot of trouble if they get one of these earlier on in their projects.

So far this has been a nice terminal breakout kit. I like the additional mounting hardware that it comes with. However, it appears that the 5V and GND terminals next to pin 27 are not connected to anything. On the back of the PCB, you can clearly see the 5V, 3.3V and GND traces going to those terminals, but there are no traces for the 5V and GND terminals next to pin 27. I tried to ohm out those pins to all other pins and it just seems that they are not connected to anything. Not a huge deal as there are other 5V terminals that work. Just a little frustrating as of course those were some of the first terminals I tried to use out of the box. Maybe if seller can confirm that those pins are not connected to anything, I could run some jumper wires and patch it up.

Bottom line is I am not a fan of the arrangement of the terminals next to one another in columns. WIres that are installed in one column cover up the screws adjacent to the wire holes. This would actually work better if the screws were all in one column and the wire holes were facing one another. The boards with the terminals around the outside are easier to wire.