first-time possible user- what is the best fit?

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) General Frequently-Asked Questions
1

I am trying to work on a school project that creates a similar current-day GPS product. We will have a display feature, and require a GPS unit (find current location), a compass sensor (to find heading), and usb input (input data). I was referred to arduino to use as our microcontroller.

I was wondering what everyone's opinion on that would be. Is arduino a good fit? What specific models should I look for? And what GPS/compass sensor would be best?

Thanks in advance for your inputs!

2

I can assure you that the Arduino would work for this, but as to if the best, I wouldn't know. Arduino was my first and only microcontroller, so I can't compare to others such as mbed, etc.

The arduino you need depends on how many I/Os you need. If you can deal with only about 21, then you could use the Duemilanove, but if you need a lot more, you might want to consider the Mega.

3

Look at this thread:

http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1267027090