Review on 🔧 Enhance Arduino Mega Prototyping: KEYESTUDIO MEGA Prototype Shield V3 Board with Breadboard, Ideal for Circuit Building Projects by Jason Tinnen

Not sure what I bought here. No diagrams, no printed documentation, one has to guess what connection can or cannot be made to copper on a circuit board. Their website has a "descriptive" video with an annoying music title, poor English, and what appears to be a verbal schematic that you can build on a breadboard using a photocell and an LED. However, there is no description of the built-in circuitry on the prototype PCB itself. Overall, this is a well-executed product, in some ways better than most comparable Arduino prototype boards. However, I give it flaws in the following aspects: A. Pin 1 of the ISP connector is not marked. B. There are no provisions for ground, 5V and 3.3V, except for the solder connections of the interface connectors. Good PCB prototypes have through-hole strips dedicated to these signals as they are widely used in every circuit implementation. There is no ground test point to which an oscilloscope probe or DVM probe could be attached. It's like building a car without a dipstick. Supplied with pre-assembled (soldered) I/O connectors. Not such a good idea for Mega cards because: 1) They rarely use more than a few signals in a prototype circuit. 2) Mega is a bear that needs to be squeezed and pulled apart with all those connectors in the game. You only damage the Mega or Proto card by repeatedly connecting and disconnecting all pins. The manufacturer must have thought he was doing me a favor by soldering the connectors for me. Thanks very much! But no thanks. It's nice to include a SOIC pattern as well as a unique one, but it would be more useful if its pads were widened inward so it could also be used with narrower SOIC packages (e.g. 8, 14, 16). Also, it is desirable to have a SMD bypass capacitor next to it, pre-connected to Gnd and Vcc. Nice try. I give Keyestudio a B+ for effort but a C for execution.