It seems to me that if someone already has a soldering set (iron, solder, stand, sponge) then the Freeduino is both more fun and cheaper. Does it require SMD soldering skills, or is it all through-hole components?
KermMartian wrote:
It seems to me that if someone already has a soldering set (iron, solder, stand, sponge) then the Freeduino is both more fun and cheaper. Does it require SMD soldering skills, or is it all through-hole components?
All of the SMD components are already soldered on.
I have an idea; let's all buy the kit from Sparkfun on Free Day so we get $100 off our order and only have to pay for shipping
Here are the base parts:
I2C EEPROM - 256kbit - $1.95
Graphic LCD 128x64 STN LED Backlight - $19.95
9V to 2.1 Barrel Jack - $2.95
One Wire Digital Temperature Sensor - DS18B20 - $4.25
Breadboard Clear Self-Adhesive - $5.95
Beginner Parts Kit - $24.95
Buzzer - PC Mount 12mm 2.048kHz - $1.95
Triple Output LED RGB - $1.95
Jumper Wires Premium 6" F/F Pack of 10 - $3.95
Hook-up Wire - Black - $2.50
Wire Strippers 30AWG - $4.95
If you don't want to solder anything, then add this (in addition to the stuff above) to your cart and you're done:
Arduino USB Board - $29.95
If you do want to solder (I highly recommend), then add these parts to your SparkFun order:
Solder Leaded 10-gram Tube - $1.95
Diagonal Cutters - $1.95
Soldering Iron - 40W - $5.95
Solder Wick #2 5ft. - Generic - $2.49
Then buy the Freeduino Kit from SeeedStudio ($22.90)
TL;DR
$5.25+S&H for solderless kit from SparkFun, or just pay for S&H from SparkFun and $22.90+S&H from SeeedStudio for the "solder yourself" kit (provided you get the $100 coupon on Free Day; I suggest you place your order right at 9 a.m. MST; otherwise it'll be $105.25+S&H from SparkFun for the solderless kit, or $87.64+S&H from Sparkfun and $22.90+S&H from SeeedStudio).
Looks good to me. 
I can't say I'm familiar with the Arduino (other than the animosity it generates on Hack a Day) but if it avoids having to build a programmer then it'll help.
It doesn't look like Sparkfun sell any larger breadboards, unless I'm not searching correctly.
I can't say I'm familiar with the Arduino (other than the animosity it generates on Hack a Day) but if it avoids having to build a programmer then it'll help.
It doesn't look like Sparkfun sell any larger breadboards, unless I'm not searching correctly.
benryves wrote:
It doesn't look like Sparkfun sell any larger breadboards, unless I'm not searching correctly.
Sparkfun does have larger breadboards, but they're expensive and since this is a beginner's kit I believe the 400-hole breadboard will be plenty large enough for the projects we'll be doing; plus, this breadboard is clear
If there are no objections I'll start a new topic advertising the newly agreed upon kit
Ultimate Dev'r wrote:
Sparkfun does have larger breadboards, but they're expensive and since this is a beginner's kit I believe the 400-hole breadboard will be plenty large enough for the projects we'll be doing; plus, this breadboard is clear
Fair enough, and as you don't need to insert a large microcontroller IC into the board I don't suppose you need that much space anyway. 
magicdanw wrote:
It's T minus 2.5 hours and the site's already sluggish. Good luck ordering, everyone!
It's been sluggish for a few days now
- 08 Jan 2010 11:20:31 pm
- Last edited by Ultimate Dev'r on 09 Jan 2010 12:47:38 am; edited 2 times in total
I noticed that the LCD that's in the kit right now is actually a parallel LCD that takes 13 I/O pins to use; we can either
1. Using a soldering iron, solder wires to the LCD and sacrifice 13 I/O pins on the Arduino
2. Buy the serial-equipped LCD for $15 extra
3. Buy a serial character LCD instead of a serial graphic LCD to save on costs
4. Buy a completely different serial (OLED?) LCD from somewhere else
Thoughts?
1. Using a soldering iron, solder wires to the LCD and sacrifice 13 I/O pins on the Arduino
2. Buy the serial-equipped LCD for $15 extra
3. Buy a serial character LCD instead of a serial graphic LCD to save on costs
4. Buy a completely different serial (OLED?) LCD from somewhere else
Thoughts?
Well as I was planing on skipping the LCD when I was looking on sparkfun my question would be is an LCD really needed?
IMO a simpler one would suffice if one is needed at all.
IMO a simpler one would suffice if one is needed at all.
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<Michael_V> or create a Borg collective and call it The 83+
<Michael_V> Lower your slide cases and prepare to be silent linked. Memory clears are futile.
TheStorm wrote:
Well as I was planing on skipping the LCD when I was looking on sparkfun my question would be is an LCD really needed?
IMO a simpler one would suffice if one is needed at all.
IMO a simpler one would suffice if one is needed at all.
It's not required, but you can do a whole lot of interesting things with an LCD:
http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Code/LCD
http://www.freeduino.org/
I'd like to have a graphical LCD in the kit. Could be fun for making small graphical games or something.
5) Use a pair of 8-bit shift registers, and only use three pins for the display: bit, shift, and flush.
KermMartian wrote:
5) Use a pair of 8-bit shift registers, and only use three pins for the display: bit, shift, and flush.
Actually we'd probably end up using 5 I/O pins (6 if you want to read back from the display) if we use a shift register (you can't control the entire LCD using a pair of shift registers; read more here) - 2 for data/RS and clock of the shift register, and 3 for enable, chip 1 and chip 2 select on the LCD.
I'm thinking everyone should buy the soldering kit (the header needs to be soldered onto the LCD board), substituting the Freeduino with the Arduino Duemilanove if they're not up to soldering their own dev board, and buy a 74LS164 shift register if they want to free up some pins.
Thoughts?
Ultimate Dev'r wrote:
KermMartian wrote:
5) Use a pair of 8-bit shift registers, and only use three pins for the display: bit, shift, and flush.
Actually we'd probably end up using 5 I/O pins (6 if you want to read back from the display) if we use a shift register (you can't control the entire LCD using a pair of shift registers; read more here) - 2 for data/RS and clock of the shift register, and 3 for enable, chip 1 and chip 2 select on the LCD.[...]
Thoughts?
KermMartian wrote:
Ultimate Dev'r wrote:
KermMartian wrote:
5) Use a pair of 8-bit shift registers, and only use three pins for the display: bit, shift, and flush.
Actually we'd probably end up using 5 I/O pins (6 if you want to read back from the display) if we use a shift register (you can't control the entire LCD using a pair of shift registers; read more here) - 2 for data/RS and clock of the shift register, and 3 for enable, chip 1 and chip 2 select on the LCD.[...]
Thoughts?
After looking at the ks0108 Arduino code, it doesn't appear that CS1 and CS2 are ever at the same logic state as one another - maybe we can put in an inverter and save ourselves another I/O pin; I'll test it out once my LCD comes in the mail.
Well, it looks like we'll be needing a bidirectional shift register if we want to reduce the number of I/O pins on the Arduino taken up by the ks0108; the ks0108 has 8 I/O pins and 5 input-only pins, so using a traditional one-way shift register would open up maybe 2 I/O pins on the Arduino, which really isn't much.
Why on earth would anyone ever buy expensive breadboards? It's a piece of friggin plastic with holes in it! I've made them myself out of cardboard and Styrofoam. And if I wanted transparency, I could use old xbox 360 game cases...
DShiznit wrote:
Why on earth would anyone ever buy expensive breadboards? It's a piece of friggin plastic with holes in it! I've made them myself out of cardboard and Styrofoam. And if I wanted transparency, I could use old xbox 360 game cases...
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