Suggestions for helping newbies

Hi all,

I'd like to get started with Arduino, and after taking a look at the site I'm afraid I'm still confused. I thought I could explain my questions/doubts here, just in case you want to improve the site for newbies like me.

The list of question/doubts is as follows:

1.- The Arduino Mega 2560 Rev 3 board is more powerful than the Arduino Uno r3, right?
2.- Arduino UNO r3 is not available in the store (Categories/Arduino/Boards). Is it obsolete? If so that's weird because the photo of the main page is an Arduino UNO, right?

Yes, I assume it's obsolete because when I go to the hardware section (http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Hardware) and then go to the Uno board (http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardUno) and then click on the "Buy" button I'm redirected to a "not found" page (http://store.arduino.cc/ww/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=11_12&products_id=72).

3.- I'll need a motor shield. I know I can build one with a whiteboard and some components, but I think I prefer an already built one. I've seen there's a motor shield rev3 there (http://store.arduino.cc/ww/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=11_5&products_id=204). My questions are:

3.1.- What does rev3 mean? Does it mean it works with the Arduino Mega 2560 Rev3?
3.2.- What does "This shield has the 1.0 standard pinout that consist in" mean? Does it mean it's only compatible with Arduino Uno?

Talking about shields: I think "shields" should be defined somewhere in the web site. I've seen somewhere else that "shields" are circuits that can be attached on top of the arduino main board. That should be explained somewhere in the site (for newbies like me).

By taking a look at the photo of the motor shield (http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoMotorShieldR3) I see that there're two input plugs in there (white color) named 'In 2" and "In 3". In the schematics these point to "A2" and "A3". I assume these are A2 and A3 of the underlying Arduino board, right? So I can use these for my own purposes (not related to the motor shield per se).

These are my basic questions/suggestions. Of course I'd appreciate some answers :slight_smile:

Thanks in advance,
Antonio

Uno wouldn't be obsolete, I read a paragraph somewhere saying the UNO was released to coincide with Arduio 1.0,
the revisions are hardware only i'm pretty sure.

MEGA was revised to add some more pins ( not general IO pins ) in the corner, and maybe some other stuff.
Uno was revised due to the reset problems associated with upload, and maybe some other stuff too.
MEGA is no faster, infact it is slower.
ATMega2560 uses an extra cycle with conditional statements, and UNO does something else faster too. ( due to the memory address lengths )

So code on a UNO will be smaller and faster,

the uno revisions are the same physical pinout.
I think the MEGA moved a pin header to match UNO's board layout,but pins are the same.

This shield has the 1.0 standard pinout that consist in

That is an unfinished sentence. and no, I'm pretty sure all UNO shields will be fine on MEGA.

By taking a look at the photo of the motor shield (http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoMotorShieldR3) I see that there're two input plugs in there (white color) named 'In 2" and "In 3". In the schematics these point to "A2" and "A3". I assume these are A2 and A3 of the underlying Arduino board, right? So I can use these for my own purposes (not related to the motor shield per se).

Yes the shield is simply bringing the pins up for you to use, look in its instructions, some sheilds may share pins.

Ah, I didn't know UNO was faster. Good to know, thanks.

I assume that Arduino UNO rev3 is not in the store because it will be upgraded to Arduino 1.0 firmware.

Thanks for the clarification!