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[on:]

I am looking at two different boards, can someone offer an opinion of which of these two would make the better proto board?

The first is the Arduino Mega 2560, and the other is the Sanguino. Which of these 2 would be most flexible for developing on?

[Reply #1 on:]

What do you mean by "proto board"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breadboard

By proto I mean the unit that is sitting on my desk that would be used to develop, modify and test "sketches" on. Not the final product, but the prototype. I would prefer the prototype while in development stages to not require soldering when possible as I am not an all knowing master of engineering and am prone to mistakes. With all due respect this is why in my other thread I specifically asked if there was a place for beginners.

Is there anywhere that the Sanguino board excels on where the other is lacking? So the Mega 2560 is the best board that can be bought at the moment? Do all boards do the same thing? There is no difference between the Uno vs. Lilly?? There are certainly variations this is why I am asking a forum of people that might know these variations and how they would correlate to a beginner.

If you need more I/O pins than Sanguino, your selection is already done.

I don't know that I need anything, this is why I am asking the questions. I don't know everything I would like to try however if I buy a Nano board and discover 2 months later all I can do is make some lights blink and a couple beeps then I would clearly be disappointed if I find that another board would have suited my interests better. All I am asking is what Arduino (or Arduino compatible) board would be considered the most powerful and lending the most features, thus offering the most options for development on. I tried to make it a black and white question, again sorry for the confusion. To make it as clear as I can, what is the best Arduino board?

Thank you for your time and efforts KE7GKP, I appreciate your help.

[Reply #2 on:]

I thank you immensely and love the link in your signature!

[Reply #3 on:]

I am building a clone that is like a Duemilanove, but with Sanguino processer but with more memory (uses the ATMega1284P vs the 644P), will accept standard shields, has an RTC, battery backup, SD uSD or both card slots with 2 non-shield SPI SS lines, JTAG, FTDI USB interface and RS232 driver out to a 3-pin header.
The ATMega1284P is the 40 pin DIP package, so one could remove it after development and drop into the project board with a crystal, two 22pF caps, and 1--nF decoupling caps.
Am hoping to assemble the first units this weekend.

[Reply #4 on:]

And, until they fix the boot loader so it ignores the three exclamation points and repair the watchdog timer, don't buy a mega 2560.  It can be really annoying to create a sketch and have it not load and have the watchdog timer kill the board until you physically power it down.