Bricktronics Breakout Board

Want to connect LEGO Mindstorms NXT motors or sensors to a breadboard, or prototype your own sensors for a LEGO Mindstorms NXT brick? The Bricktronics Breakout Board Kit breaks out the pins from a custom, injection-molded NXT-compatible socket to standard 0.1″ pinout. For sale at the Wayne & Layne Store.


Assembly Instructions:
To build the kit, you will need a few common tools for soldering and electronics work. A soldering iron and solder are the most important tools. You can use any soldering iron, although a higher-quality, temperature-controlled adjustable iron will be easier to work with and give higher quality results. Any standard solder for small electronics will do just fine.

We suggest soldering the NXT-compatible socket first. It will only fit in one way. It helps to first put the pins in the holes, and then push the pegs into the strain relief holes. Carefully solder each pin. They don’t need much solder! They definitely don’t need to be trimmed or cut!

Then, you need to solder in the 6-pin header to the bottom side of the circuit board. We suggest putting the header into one of the Arduino shield pin sockets to give you a steady base to work from.

Then, solder one of the header pins. Reheat that soldered pin and use your other hand to make sure the circuit board is level.

When you’re sure the circuit board is level, solder the other five pins. The breakout board PCB should be roughly parallel with the Arduino circuit board.