I am looking to use an arduino for a project I am working on and have a few questions:
I am looking for a low cost board, so i am looking at the Freeduino by NKC Electronics or the Freeduino SB. Any recommendations on which one I should get? The NKC board I can only find on their ebay store, while the SB has almost $10 shipping. Are there any other board kits out there?
I am looking to possibly using the Xbee shield with the board. Will i be able to use the Xbee shield and the USB port on the board and communicate with both the outputs on the Arduino board and the USB port while using the Xbee?
Is there anything I should watch be aware of while i work on this project?
I use the nkc freeduino and am very happy with it and all the other boards I have purchased from them. You can buy directly from their web site if you want although I think the prices are similar to their ebay shop.
I have not seen the Freeduino SB in the flesh but the mini usb jack and layout for optional aref trimpot are very nice if you want these features. If you are going to be using the board with external power note that its rated for 6v only.
You can find the answer to your Xbee + usb question here:
If you are going to be using [SB Freeduino] with external power note that its rated for 6v only.
It's more like the current run of boards has a bug (caps pre-installed in wrong spots) that restricts the external power voltage, if I understand things correctly. I'd expect that to be fixed at some point...