User Manual

Connecting Using a Proto

Shield

As mentioned on the “Jumper” page: if you hold a ribbon cable flat — no folds — and with both connectors facing you,

keys pointed the same direction — there’s is a 1:1 correlation between the pins. The top-right pin on one plug links to

the top-right on the other plug, and so forth. This holds true even if the cable has a doubled-over strain relief. As long

as the keys point the same way and the plugs face the same way, pins are in the same positions at both ends.

Either end of the ribbon cable can be plugged into the matrix INPUT socket.

The free end of the ribbon can point toward the center of the matrix, or hang off the side…the pinout is still the same.

Notice below the direction of the “key” doesn’t change.

A dual-row header gets installed on the proto shield, similar to the connector on the matrix. Just like the ribbon cable

lying flat, as long as these two headers are

aligned the same way,

they’ll match pin-for-pin; unlike the jumper wire

method from the prior page, mirroring doesn’t happen.