Shield Base Module (Beta) - Netduino Go

I bought this product because the vendor promised many other modules that could be attached to this. After YEARS of waiting and the vendor delaying and never coming through with their promises, I can only say, STAY AWAY from anything Secret Labs / Netduino. This product appears dead.

It does work correctly, but the IO performance is very slow. It took me a only about 2 days for performance testing to determine this board is just a bad idea. The onboard IO on the Go will handle about 23,000 IO/S (IO operations -reads or writes- per second). Therefore, the Go itself is fine. However, this Shield Base over the GoBus only can do about 110 IO/S (yes, one hundred ten only, no thousands there). I don't know if this is because of Shield Base, or the GoBus, but I am no longer using this product, as it was way too slow for what I need. I switched to GHI's FEZ Hydra, and it's IO performance is ~12,000 IO/S at worst (Analog In); Digital IO for it is ~20,000 IO/S.

If you have a Netduino Go, you might not be able to live without this Shield Base Module once you've had a taste, especially if you're new to the world of Netduino.Why? The shield base module allows you to create your own inputs and outputs, both digital and analog, with little effort. This means you can use low cost components to add additional functionality to your project, such as a temperature sensor or LCD display, with ease. The sky is the limit when you add a shield base.While the shield base was still in beta when this review was written, there have been multiple firmware updates to improve the shield base. You can even use beta units in a standalone mode if so desired, which makes the shield base even more valuable. The community support and examples have been excellent.The shield base does not come with a bus cable so be sure to buy a Go Bus cable to go along with your shield base if you do not already have a cable. The cable isn't included to help keep the cost low and reduce waste, where the cable length varies depending on how you plan to use your shield base.