Has anyone tried it? How compatible is it with arduino? Can this replace the need for FTDI? What are the differences in hardware?
Well, it's pretty slick. You would still need some form of FTDI chip (or similar serial interface) if you want to capture serial print statements. It looks like it uses the USB for Bootloader only.
Not clear how compatible it is with the IDE... but it looks like that's been addressed somewhat. The "so called" mistake on the pin spacing seems to have bothered the developer enough that they "fixed" it.
Otherwise... it looks very compatible since it uses the same basic design.
Yep i've tried it.
http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1207039713/6
I like the "inbuilt" USB sketch loading, but I missed the native serial port stuff, which makes debugging too frustrating for me.
I have try it and it really can work without FT232 .. But in your project you can not use the Metaboard communicate with PC via serial port to USB.
http://iteadstudio.com/application-note/download-the-code-from-arduino-ide-to-metaboard
It's a high performance-price ratio DIY platform ;D
http://iteadstudio.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=122