How can I connect more sensors when my lcd is blocking pin access?

Question

So, I have a lcd that takes up the whole board of an arduino mega. I want to connect a temperature sensor and make a really lame weather station, but the lcd screen is totally in the road. It's a shield so this is to be expected.

I've come up with wacky ideas, like soldering to the rear of the board but I think that's a bad idea. Surely there must be a better way? The lcd shield exposes no pins.

• Gerben: Which shield are you referring to?
• frarugi87: Just solder some wires to the LCD shield. This way you won't "ruin" the main arduino board

Answer 1

What you need is a shield that can go between the Arduino and the LCD shield and break out whatever connections you like.

They are generally available as "screw terminal" shields, such as this one from iTead:

• http://www.itead.cc/mega-proto-screw-shield.html

• Lewis Cianci: Like this? jaycar.com.au/Kits,-Science-%26-Learning/…
• Majenko: @LewisCianci Yep, except that's for the Uno not the Mega, so it would only give you access to a tiny proportion of the possible pins.
• Lewis Cianci: I see... I've had a look online briefly and the Mega 2560 compatible screw terminal shields have to be soldered together. Is there one that comes presoldered? EDIT: Sorry just realised that your link is for the Mega. My bad. EDIT UNO MAS: Why is it that these pre-made ones have to be soldered? I have a soldering iron but I don't really like working in such tiny spaces incase i solder two pins together or something :( but if i have to, I will
• Avamander: Uno shields are mostly all compatible with the Mega shields. So if the LCD is compatible with Uno and Mega then using a Uno proto shield it should not be a issue.

Answer 2

Sandwich an arduino protoshield in between and add the sensors to this board, or add some wires, so the sensor can be places "outside".