Electronic – Arduino pin spacing

arduinopinsspacing

How do you get around the annoying pin spacing on the Arduino?

Where pin 7 and pin 8 are not standard spacing.

Why is it set up like this?

Best Answer

I got to meet Massimo at Flourish Conf in Chicago this year... and I actually asked him this same question. What is up with the odd pin spacing?! This had been a subject of debate among friends, with the general agreement being that it help you from putting shields on backwards.

Turns out, the actual reason for the odd pin spacing was an error in the original CAD/gerber file. So yea, the odd pin spacing was completely unintentional. Massimo also mentioned that there was a proposal to remove the odd pin spacing starting with the Duemilanove, Mega and future models (a so called "restart"), but was voted down in favor of reverse compatibility with old shields, etc.

Hope this helps with the odd pin spacing question.