ENC28J60 Based Ethernet Shields - Worth it?

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) Hardware Interfacing
1

I'm seeing a lot of ENC28J60 based ethernet shields for sale, that are generally at least $10 less then the official one from the arduino guys.

One major difference that I'm seeing is that the ethernet library that comes with Arduino does not support these shields though.

Has anyone tried these shields? If so, what's your opinion of them?
Are they (and the software) easy enough to use? Are they worth the discounted price, or should I spend my money on the official board?

2

I'm also interested in them boards as I have gone and got just the ENC28J60 chip and plan on building the board myself :slight_smile:

3

Here's another one (and yes, i have one on order), including eagle file and schematic.

http://cafe.jeelabs.net/lab/ec1/

Will let you know how it turns out.

Greetings,
EriSan500

4

Are they (and the software) easy enough to use? Are they worth the discounted price, or should I spend my money on the official board?

If I remember right, these boards require a lot more in the way of code (and variable space) to support them; so much so that you are left with little room even on a 328 to do anything interesting. Whereas in the case of the "official" boards (which I think use wiznet?) the chipset handles that extra stuff on the chip itself, reducing the footprint.

5

Are they worth the discounted price, or should I spend my money on the official board?

How much of your time is $10 worth?