Which Arduino Platform to use

Hi,

i am currently developing some sort of LED display thing with several 7 segment displays driven by MAX7219 clones, which are connected to an Arduino Uno Board with 5 wires (VCC, GND, CLK, LOAD, SDATA). The Uno itself recieves data over the built in USB/Serial connection from a PC periodically (lets say at 10Hz).

The whole hardware and software works just fine, everything is just as I wanted it to be. So far so good.

It now comes to the point where I want to integrate the whole thing into its application environment, so that arises the question of with which Arduino Board I want to do that.

My problem with that is, that i am not sure, which one that would be, so i am showing you the requirements i have:

1. Most important : I really do need the Data from the PC, so the USB Connection MUST be present as it is with the Uno, that is acting as a serial port in Windows.
2. Second important : The board must be as small as possible, as the environment dont offer much space, the Uno is too big.
3. I at least need those 5 wires plus 4 for an extension i currently have in mind. So lets say 10 digital i/o would be fairly enough.
4. Power supply : The whole thing is currently running on USB power. I might be around the limits of USB, but everything is working stable, so i think that is good to go. Anyway i don't know if other Boards than the Uno can forward the same amount of current (USB is up to 500mA i think).

I had the Nano in mind, but it seems to be discontinued (?) as it is not available at most of the dealers. I saw a HK-clone on ebay, but i dont wanna take the risk of it not being 100% compatible.

I also saw the LilyPad. It has beautiful dimensions for my application, but I am not sure, how the USB/Serial connection will work on that one, plus i am not sure in terms of power supply and stuff (see above).

I also would be able to build the whole Arduino-Boardy myself, but not with SMD stuff, so i suppose that kills req #2...plus i dont have things available to burn the Bootloader and stuff (i think ). So forget that idea

I would appreciate any suggestions to clear my undecidedness in that questions

Thanks, looking forward to your answers.

Chris

The smallest option might be a ATmega32u4 (as in Arduino Micro and Arduino Leonardo) on a breakout board. This is the first Arduino-supported ATmega that has built-in USB support. Adafruit makes a nice little board:

Cool !

Looking good

But as far as i understand, the board is NOT Arduino compatible, right ?

I mean, i dont have a problem migrating my arduino-code to AVR Studio, as i dont really use arduino-language constructs which i couldnt replace by "proper" AVR C constructs

The only functionality that then would concern me, would be the easy-to-go use of the serial connection in arduino (Serial.available() and stuff).

EDIT:

What about this little guy ?

EDIT2:

or this one:
http://www.watterott.com/de/Pro-Micro-5V/16MHz

The Teensy is smaller but not as Arduino compatible. Here is what Lady Ada says about it:

Why not use a Teensy
We've also carry a similar board from PJRC called the Teensy . The Teensy uses the same chip so you may be wondering, why did we design a different-but-still-basically-the-same board? We've used the Teensy in a few projects and like it a lot but there are a few details that we wanted to change. We wanted…

…a bootloader that would work with avrdude since that is our preferred software
…another LED, for power-good indication
…a 500mA fuse on the USB power-source pin
…mounting holes so we could attach it easily
…reprogramming ISP header so we could program the board directly without the bootloader
…a larger reset button
…all the pins broken out for use with a breadboard
…open source bootloader that works with AVRdude
That doesn't in any way mean that it is better or replaces the Teensy. Here are some reasons we will still use the teensy for many projects

It's really really small. A third the size of this breakout
The bootloader that is programmed in uses only 512 bytes (instead of 2K)
It works nicely with Teensyduino and auto-resets right before programming

The Adafruit breakout board should work with the Arduino IDE if you uncomment the "micro" lines in boards.txt.

Hi, There are some well-done Nano clones, like this one: http://arduino-direct.com/sunshop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=84

It's nice having the USB right there...

DISCLAIMER: Mentioned stuff from my own shop...

Thank you, that also is looking nice, but i'd prefer a dealer in my country (Germany), as I don't want to pay more for shipping costs than for the actual wares

I found a shop with the Adafruit-Board suggested from johnwasser, but it is currently outofstock :~

don't want to pay more for shipping costs than for the actual wares smiley-wink

Yes, that's an issue, especially for heavy items.

One or two Arduino type boards ship for $3.50 with tracking number, but have the other attribute: SLOW..

nano's are GREAT and you can get them all over on ebay etc for like 14 usd they are chepest, and work great! that is what i would use if you dont need a ton of pins or have a huge program

terryking228:

don't want to pay more for shipping costs than for the actual wares smiley-wink

Yes, that's an issue, especially for heavy items.

One or two Arduino type boards ship for $3.50 with tracking number, but have the other attribute: SLOW..

I might consider that
What exactly is SLOW in your vocabulary ?

thebfs:
nano's are GREAT and you can get them all over on ebay etc for like 14 usd they are chepest, and work great! that is what i would use if you dont need a ton of pins or have a huge program

I saw them, but they are some asia-clones, and you dont get any support on ebay stuff....

I might consider that (smiley)
What exactly is SLOW in your vocabulary ?

We quote 8 to 14 days typical to USA from Shenzhen, China (HongKongAirmailRegistered) . This seems dependent on the month/season.. Now things are slow. So shipping is faster..

The 8 days is the best we have seen to USA.. DHL is great, 2-3 days but costs $24 minimum... There was CNS-Fedex which shipped air freight to New York then Fedex, but now they will only deliver to commercial companies... I'd love to find something between $3.50 = 14 days and $24 = 3 days !

When I was a kid (OK, that was a LONG time ago..) there was RocketMail in the year 2000

Regards, Terry

( LONG in my vocabulary >= 70 years )

terryking228:
( LONG in my vocabulary >= 70 years )

hahaha superb answer

Thanks for the Info Terry, i might consider ordering after i ran out of other options. 8)

You should be able to order a teensy directly from the developers site: Teensy USB Development Board. I think Paul's shipping charges are quite reasonable (less than the cost of the $16 board).