Not to step on mrOmatic’s proto shield, I have come up with my own proto shield specifically to make powering the Photon (or Spark Core or bluz) with larger loads a bit easier. So, I present to you my Photon Power Proto Board.
The board includes a barrel jack, filter caps, and a diode. I’ve sent out several for beta testers and stocking stuffers and have quite a few in use for my own projects from simple sensors (a Photon + DHT22 with a small footprint) to powering a 100-pixel strand of NeoPixels off the broken-out VIN and GND rails.
It can also be used without the extra power components and used as a small sensor board.
I have a couple ideas for updates like adding a mounting hole (there’s really only room for one), and creating another version that uses a screw terminal for power. If anyone has other ideas that might be useful, let me know!
I plan on releasing this as open source once I’ve recouped a little bit of my material expenses. Hopefully I can use this as a springboard for other boards if people are interested!