Arduino

[metatron]

Not sure if any of you have played with them,basically there just a dev board with a AVR microcontroller but people seem to be loving them.  I've recently picked up a couple after the barrage of internet articles and people from my local 2600 saying how cool they were.

My personal view is they're okay, I like the C programming language and have done from the age of 12, but I'm not sure if its any better than the basic stamp boards and a lot of the PIC stuff on the market. Its far too basic for the prototyping I do for work projects but its a fun little toy.

I was just wondering who else was playing with them?

[qwertos]

I love my arduino!!

[Soupdog50]

I've been looking at interface kits because I want to teach myself C and this seems like a cool sort of project.
I'm considering making a Veb controlled Rover like on Hak 5.
Would you recommend an Arduino over a Phidget Board?

[metatron]

To each his own, I'd say an Ardunio has a bunch of different expansion boards and example code if you're learning but I can't say I've ever used a Phidget, so I can not make any judgement on it and I can't see a detailed spec in their product manual. I still have a Qwerkbot laying about if you can find one it might be what your looking for.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Wkxn2PdpU-s&amp;ap=%2526fmt%3D18&amp;rel=0&amp;fs=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Wkxn2PdpU-s&amp;ap=%2526fmt%3D18&amp;rel=0&amp;fs=1</a>

(not me)
  

[qwertos]

I've been looking at interface kits because I want to teach myself C and this seems like a cool sort of project.
I'm considering making a Veb controlled Rover like on Hak 5.
Would you recommend an Arduino over a Phidget Board?

Arduinos are very different from Phidgets. An arduino can be used as a standalone controller, whereas a phidget must be hooked up to a host computer. Obviously, when one uses a phidget, there is more flexibility software side; however, using a computer as its brains will increase the size of the device. With an arduino there are many limitations (software and hardware), but one can place an arduino into a device that is smaller.