Has anyone purchased any of the arduino boards from ebay? I have been looking at them some look like the boards on say the NKC site but some have some of the wording and graphics changed around (if you can believe the pictures). So my confidence level is not very high that I will get a real Arduino board. The board I am looking at is the MEGA..
Second question I have, is there a WIFI shield for the MEGA? or will any of the shelds work no matter if they are the MEGA or Duemilanova or whatever??
I ordered one Mega from NKC on fleabay. It came with a prototyping shield, but I had to buy headers and various pins to meet my needs.
I ordered a second Mega directly from NKC.
No problems.
I have heard of issues relating to shoddy construction of the 2009 boards; I am not sure if this would translate to the Mega versions or not. More or less issues like certain parts being misaligned (but not shorted or anything) or things like headers not being installed completely vertically (easy to correct with a soldering iron, if you want).
Some of the boards I have seen seem to use interesting styles of parts (more thru-hole parts and larger parts than what you see on other boards) - they probably work OK, but if aesthetics is an issue...?
Also - if this is a concern for you - many of these sellers and/or manufacturers use the name "Arduino" everywhere, with little or no attempt to direct people back to arduino.cc or any way acknowledge the fact that the designs spring from there, and are being reproduced. While not wrong or unlawful (the team behind the Arduino failed to secure the copyright/trademark on the name "Arduino"), for some people this may still leave a "bad taste" in their mouth to support these thru purchase. It is a choice only you can make.
Personally, I don't so much care about the name issue (sucks that it didn't get secured, but them's the breaks!), but I think they should at least acknowledge where the original design originates from and provide a link back - something, a small nod at least to the creators of the system.
The only issue is the name "Arduino", the hardware is open source so anyone can rip it off, i agree it's not fair to use the Arduino name on "Clones" though and i have to hold my hands up i did buy a Mega off ebay, simply because im on a budget, it cast me the same as my duemilanove did and i bought that from a uk mail order (not ebay), i do however support the same uk company for all the shields i have bought, 4 shields at the moment.
with regard the mega, it was cheap, if it breaks it will be my problem and i'll know better for next time, one thing i hate is when uk companies profiteer of a community such as arduino, i know hardware does'nt cost as much as some companies charge but still they do it because they know there are people out there that will pay the asking price and have no idea of the worth of the product they are buying.
oh well, sorry lots of typos, im too tired to care
goodnight
I just got a Arduino Duemilanove off eBay.
I am no electronics expert but I can spot bad soldering and mis-aligned componentry.
This seems well made, headers are aligned. SMD soldering and alighments looks good, no overheated spots on the board, everything cut right underneath on components. My only real complaint is the ATMEL was slightly cocked on the socket
I think I may spot/resolder analog in #4 on the header, PIN 16 on the 20 PIN socket and get the backpin on the power plug for a full around soldering job simply due to me being anal.
Also - if this is a concern for you - many of these sellers and/or manufacturers use the name "Arduino" everywhere, with little or no attempt to direct people back to arduino.cc or any way acknowledge the fact that the designs spring from there, and are being reproduced.
I got Arduino Mega from Hong Kong, and it has arduino.cc printed on it. The board is flawless and looks very professionally made.
Ordered my arduino 2009 from ebay, only problem was the caps physically inbetween the power jack and headers are ceramic, not metal, and it came with a 168(or w.e). Works fine though. Bought a 328 and upgraded it.
Thanks guys, I knew about the name thing.. and it bugs me that asian sellers use the name but dont give credit. However what I was interested in was the quality of Asian construction. THere have been several posts on the forums about poor quality, and boards that had the wrong parts and misaligned headers etc.
THere have been several posts on the forums about poor quality, and boards that had the wrong parts and misaligned headers etc.
The problem is that I'm sure there are some Asian sellers that are building quality products and some that are not, so unless posters here post the sellers web site or E-bay name (or link to the E-bay page containing the listing used) it's hard to utilize the positive or negative feedback posted here.
Just being from Asia is not enough information to go on to be useful. Seeeduino is a very high quality Asian Arduino clone vendor (although not selling on E-bay I think) and I have been very happy with their products and service.
Lefty
unless posters here post the sellers web site or E-bay name (or link to the E-bay page containing the listing used) it's hard to utilize the positive or negative feedback posted here.
Not sure if want to start a list of good and bad experience with boards... bought I bought from "wgbstore" off ebay. He listed it as an "Arduino Duemilanove" and I got a pretty shotty counterfeit copy of one... one of the shield headers was soldered at an angle, and all the solder joints were gloopy and done with the incorrect type of solder. I am also suspecting I have one with a bad voltage regulator; when I attach a 12V adapter (wallwart) the motors I have with a motor shield get burning hot when they were design for 5v usage; also the led on the board is noticeable brighter using the 12v adapter.
Not sure if want to start a list of good and bad experience with boards... bought I bought from "wgbstore" off ebay. He listed it as an "Arduino Duemilanove" and I got a pretty shotty counterfeit copy of one... one of the shield headers was soldered at an angle, and all the solder joints were gloopy and done with the incorrect type of solder. I am also suspecting I have one with a bad voltage regulator; when I attach a 12V adapter (wallwart) the motors I have with a motor shield get burning hot when they were design for 5v usage; also the led on the board is noticeable brighter using the 12v adapter.
Well some knowledge comes with experience. First you should understand that the vase number of Asian sellers (probably all on E-bay listings?) are selling locally manufactured boards built from the open sourced documentation. Surly almost all are not buying Arduino Duuemilanoves made in Italy and reselling them, their prices just don't reflect any reasonable wholesale/retail mark-up.
One thing that might have tipped me off to avoid that seller is the wide assortment of totally different kinds of products they are listing. They are not just a electronics supplier as many of the other Asian sellers of Arduino 'clones' are. I would bet the seller you have didn't have a thing to do with the boards manufactures, just something he was able to try and flip in this E-bay store, probably bought 'seconds' from someone else from the manufactures side.
Not that any of that helps you with your present situation.
Also ordered a Haceduino board from Amplebiz, but it's not working properly under OSX (works fine in Windows though); can't program it with the Arduino IDE. Their after-sales was incredible (they even paid for return shipping), received a new board with the same issues. So, great boards if you don't use OSX ;). Boards are great quality otherwise, really a shame that they don't work properly under OSX. Would be my favorite otherwise ;).
i'm looking to buy arduino too. on ebay ther's a mega version with 2560.
Difference with 1280 is few $ or euro.
So what u suggest me to buy?
my initial project is to try to log a can-bus and store data in sd card.
i'm looking to buy arduino too. on ebay ther's a mega version with 2560.
Difference with 1280 is few $ or euro.
So what u suggest me to buy?
Note that the existing Arduino IDE core and bootloader do not support the added flash memory for the 2560 at this time. There are users working on this but you would have to do the manual changes to the IDE and reburn the bootloader yourself. I would stick with the Mega 1280 board at this time.
the seller i bought form obviously knows what he sells is crap; he kept asking me to remove the negative feedback i sent then he would give me a refund.
