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[on:]

Hey guys,

I was wonder about the Mega recently, even as a newbie I've already managed to use up my Seeeduino (somewhat anoyed at myself for getting the Catalyst Mega128 :/, bad value) capabilities and, rather than setting up some crazy dual-pcb, the Mega seemed like a good choice.

At the moment, $65+SH is pretty standard accross all shops (which is odd, surely thered be some sort of difference?

Obviously the Mega is fairly new, does anyone have any thoughts when we'll start seeing the clones creep out?

[Reply #1 on:]

Well it doesn't seem too odd that thy're all fairly evenly priced at this time in he product's life; in this market.

Also, the Mega is one way to go but things like Expansion shields and the like could be a way of getting over the Sanguino's limitations.

What are you being limited by? Speed, Memory, I/Os?

Ben aka /me

[Reply #2 on:]

Mainly PWM ports for driving servos. Generally hooking various bits and peices up.

I totally agree, for the moment $65 is perfectly reasonable for a new product. If anything it's reasonable, custom PCB, no demand etc

FYI: Seeeduino, not Sanguino (they kickass)

[Reply #3 on:]

Patience grasshopper, it's open source, so clones and enhancement mega boards are bound to be brought out as time passes. The fact that the Arduino IDE now has built in support for the Mega1280 chip means that more variations of this hardware platform are sure to follow. I suspect that there would have been more 644P hardware offerings if the IDE had built in support, but so far that has not come to pass so the 1280 may become the most viable upgrade up from the 328 offerings.

Lefty

[Reply #4 on:]

Sorry, first one I had in my memory beginning with S.

Have you considered the TLC5940 library? It now has Servo function.

There is also SoftwareSerial.

Ben aka /me

[Reply #5 on:]

@PA, ah I hadden't seen that before.

That may be precisely what I need. Can you suggest any linkage?

[Reply #6 on:]

SoftwareSerial: http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/SoftwareSerial

TLC5940: http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Learning/TLC5940

Everything you need's on the Playground!

Ben aka /me

[Reply #7 on:]

There is less room for a "clone" to save money on the Mega.  For example, the Sparkfun PRO and Seeeduinos probably both save some assembly cost by having more surface mount (automatically assembled) parts, but Mega starts with more SMT, and as parts costs go up, assembly issues start to be less significant.