The board I got (pictures here: EmbeddedMarket.com ) comes with bare pins instead of the plastic socket(s) that the Arduinos have..
Is there any alternative to looping wires around the pins ? (Which is what I'm doing right now, but the wires keep getting unhooked easily or get connected to neighbouring pins)
Is it a good idea to permanently solder short wires to the pins to which I can connect other wires as required?
I am not averse to soldering but would really appreciate it if someone could suggest a better (elegant / stable) alternative...
The female headers for an Arduino are not expensive. Perhaps you can find a local source and either un-solder the pin headers or solder the pins of the female headers to the existing pin headers.
If you are using the Arduino with a breadboard then you might want to instead get a set of female-to-male wire jumpers. The female end would go to your Freeduino pins and the male end would go into the breadboard.
I called up my local hobby electronics shop -- apart from the female to male jumpers he stocks female to female headers too (both single and multi-socket)
But I've come to read that Arduino uses non standard pin spacing..
I'm taking my Freeduino to the store where he's agreed to help me out and see if any of the headers fit.
Too bad he's already closed until Monday.