For new developers getting started with electronics, it's often preferable to avoid soldering to take advantage of being able to change designs as needed. While the existing 0.1 Breakout Wirelings are excellent for the purpose of turning sensors or accessories into Wirelings, they require soldering, which can limit their marketable audience to only engineers who know soldering. And even if some of them would be willing to learn soldering, not everyone has the needed resources to solder components together.

To help new developers easily prototype and design, and to market to a wider audience, I suggest a 0.1" Breakout Wireling with either pre-soldered screw terminals or pre-soldered headers. Though it is an investment to pre-solder, the returns can be quite viable. The ease of buying and plugging in a pre-soldered system cannot be overstated, and having a pre-soldered option may prove the difference between selling a product or losing the sale.

Hi there! Thanks for sharing your idea. We have a proto terminal block for our regular line of TinyShields for this reason, but I'm not sure a pre-soldered option would be small enough or cost-effective as a product to offer. Hmm, did you have any components in mind for the pre-soldered board?

Here's the proto terminal blocks board: https://tinycircuits.com/products/proto-terminal-blocks-tinyshield

Cheers,
Réna

After doing some searching, I found two sellers that sell the needed 5-pin screw terminals. Screw terminals are my preference, but 5-pin headers (the style used on Arduino shields) will work as well.

The first seller is Adafruit/Digi-Key. I'll provide both links here - Adafruit is currently out of stock, but their page references to purchase it from Digi-Key, which appears to have the part in-stock. From both Adafruit and Digi-Key, a single 5-pin screw terminal is $1.85.

https://www.adafruit.com/product/2139
https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/adafruit-industries-llc/2139/6827102

The second seller is on Amazon, sold by Cermant. I've had good experience with Amazon-bought products before. A particular advantage for cost-efficiency is that Cermant offers the terminals in a bundle, which results in significantly cheaper costs per piece (the bundle of 10 pieces is $8.99, but per piece is $0.45).

(https://www.amazon.com/Cermant-XK128-2-54MM-Terminal-Connector-2-54MM-5P-10Pcs/dp/B09BVFT6MN/ref=sr_1_6?crid=1XWPYJFVLVE2T&keywords=5-pin%2Bscrew%2Bterminal&qid=1681835160&sprefix=5-pin%2Bscrew%2Btermin%2Caps%2C596&sr=8-6&th=1)

Both options are rated for very high voltages and high currents. The first option handles 5A, the second, 6A.

I did consider the proto screw-terminal shield for my design, and while it would enable me to directly access many of the microcontroller's pins (which is a very appealing option), I'd still opt for a 0.1" wireling breakout with screw terminals for a different design reason.

My project is very small, a handheld data storage unit, so I'm designing it to be as space-efficient as possible. The proto screw-terminal shield might not fit in the enclosure for my project, whereas the Wireling shield is much smaller.

Thank you both for your feedback!

I would still love to have a 0.1 Wireling breakout with screw terminals! There are so many advantages:

• Rapid prototyping. The screw terminals on the 0.1 Wireling breakout would make it easier to plug and unplug wires during the early stages of creating an electronic design.
• Smaller size. Not every project has room for the larger size of the Screw Terminal shield.
• Ease of use. Screw terminals are far easier to use than soldering, meaning more developers can use those 0.1 Wireling breakouts for their projects. And that means the 0.1 Wireling breakout with screw terminals can sell to more people!

@bekeanloinse56 Thank you for your support! Like you said, the compact size of these Wireling breakout boards is definitely an advantage the terminal shield just can't match. I'm glad to hear a screw-terminal 0.1 breakout board would be such a useful product for several developers in this forum!

While pre-soldered screw terminals are not yet an option, there are other ways to solve this problem. In the case of your workshop, you could buy 0.1 breakout boards and screw terminals in bulk, then solder them before your class. Then your students don't have to solder any wires!

After doing some searching, I found two sellers that sell the needed 5-pin screw terminals. Screw terminals are my preference, but 5-pin headers (the style used on Arduino shields) will work as well.

The first seller is Adafruit/Digi-Key. I'll provide both links wordle unlimited - Adafruit is currently out of stock, but their page references to purchase it from Digi-Key, which appears to have the part in-stock. From both Adafruit and Digi-Key, a single 5-pin screw terminal is $1.85.

https://www.adafruit.com/product/2139
https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/adafruit-industries-llc/2139/6827102

The second seller is on Amazon, sold by Cermant. I've had good experience with Amazon-bought products before. A particular advantage for cost-efficiency is that Cermant offers the terminals in a bundle, which results in significantly cheaper costs per piece (the bundle of 10 pieces is $8.99, but per piece is $0.45).

(https://www.amazon.com/Cermant-XK128-2-54MM-Terminal-Connector-2-54MM-5P-10Pcs/dp/B09BVFT6MN/ref=sr_1_6?crid=1XWPYJFVLVE2T&keywords=5-pin%2Bscrew%2Bterminal&qid=1681835160&sprefix=5-pin%2Bscrew%2Btermin%2Caps%2C596&sr=8-6&th=1)

Both options are rated for very high voltages and high currents. The first option handles 5A, the second, 6A.

Great find on the 5-pin screw terminals! That Amazon bundle from Cermant is a steal at $0.45/piece. Definitely beats the Adafruit/Digi-Key price.

Great find on the 5-pin screw terminals! That Amazon bundle from Cermant is a steal at $0.45/piece. Definitely beats the Adafruit/Digi-Key price.

Thank you so much! I appreciate the compliments! I double-checked that Amazon Cermant link, and strangely enough, that product page seems to only sell 2-pin screw terminals now. Plus, as a fair warning to any interested buyers, a lot of the reviews for that product are quite negative.

These screw terminals may work well! From my experience, as I have used these terminals myself, the screws are quite small, and the screws are also flathead instead of Phillips. But these terminals do function well in terms of conducting current, even after soldering! These terminals work best under low mechanical strain (don't pull any attached wires very hard). Still, I suppose less mechanical strength is to be expected since the terminals are so small.