I am new with Arduino and worse...i did not buy one yet. I hope someone can tell me which one is the best for me to begin with. I am a Software Engineer so the programming should not be any problem. The hardware is different
I want to make a datalogger which wil log data on an SD-card or USB. The data will be from a bleutooth GPC (Adapt Bluetooth GPS). So no GPS module on the board itself. But i have my doubts still. There will also be accelerometer and temperature sensors.
The Arduino must be expandable for sensors and i also want to put up text-lcdscreen to give a status back.
You can probably do it with a Duemilanove, but you need to do a little research on all the things (sensors etc) you want to use.
Logging data to SD can be done, displaying text on an LCD can be done, hooking up an accelerometer can be done.
You just need to know how each device is interfaced to Arduino to determine if the Duemilanove has enough I/O pins to do it all at the same time.
So you should take a piece of paper and write down exactly what it is you wnat to achieve. Then break it down and find out what sensors / input devices you need to achieve it, and then figure out what that requires from the Arduino board in terms of digital I/O, analog I/O, and storage etc.
There's really no magic way around this
EDIT:
Another importanat point is: if you decide to use some of the many Arduino shields available for easy interfacing of sensors etc. then you should figure out which pins thet use and wheter they block for the usage of other pins, which some of them do.
Yes, the Arduino is well suited. Any of the boards will work. Unless you have a large number of sensors, or are not planning on using a serial LCD, you do not need a Mega.
The Duemilanove and Pro are different form factors, not different chips, so the choice depends on what you are comfortable with. If you want to plug in, and unplug stuff, the Duemilanove is the way to go. If you want to solder stuff to the board, get the Pro.
USB is a data transfer protocol, not a file storage medium, by the way.
The fact that your GPS module is bluetooth limits you to the Arduino BT, which has bluetooth built in:
It is fairly expensive however compared to the other Arduinos, so it might be cheaper to use a Duemilanove and a different GPS module.
Lady Ada supplies a GPS data logging shield, which is available for $19.50 and the GPS module is $60. This works out much cheaper than buying the Arduino BT, and you get the logging ability (to an SD Card) built in. So I would think this would be your best (and cheapest) option.
You should be able to. I`ve bought successfully from Adafruit and had the parts delivered to the UK. Only took 4 days to arrive which I thought was impressive, and the post and packing charges were very reasonable (as some US companies charge a fortune to send overseas!).
