Hello all!
For Christmas I decided to buy myself another arduino board.
I was originally looking at the nano due to its bread board
friendliness, then I spotted the new mega for just £14.99
(excluding P&P)! I am planning on doing some big projects
this year, such as a self-balancing robot, however I do not
have any other plans. What I was wondering is: which one
should I get?
I am aware that the mega has more memory, more pins,
bigger EEPROM, a bigger SRAM and other things like that.
It is this that makes the mega so attractive to me (and
probably everyone else).
I use breadboards lots for all sorts of microcontrollerless
projects, however I was planning on making some of my
projects smarter by using the arduino as a brain for it.
At the minute, I use the duemilanove, and I find it fine
for connecting up to external components, however I
am aware that the nano would be better, especially for
bigger projects.
I am also aware that the mega has a massive potential for
BIG projects that need lots of pins.
I am in a dilemma as I have no idea which one to choose
Any help will be much appreciated!
Thanks, Onions.
If you're not afraid of the soldering iron, consider getting a Arduino mini pro, some pinheaders and a FTDI usb-to-ttl cable. That combo costs about 2? more than a regular Arduino, but it's perfect for breadboards. And if you ever get a second one or build your own Arduinos on breadboards, the next one will be a lot cheaper because you can recycle the FTDI cable.
There are less expensive options also - consider the ardweeny, just $9.95 from solarbotics. http://www.solarbotics.com/products/kardw
Could develop your own version, or a version for a ATMega644 or 1284 for exaple:
Grumpy Mike?
The layout and the schematic are mine. I used expresspcb.com software to make it. Easy to use, not hard to figure out, easy to make symbols for new symbols, like ATMega644/1284 electrical pinout. Plenty of footprints for making a layout.
I did a DIP layout also:
Little board that sits on top like the ardweeny, just solder the 11 pins that go to the chip. Big chunky pads to solder to (kinda thinking mangle leaded parts to fit).
Hi,
No worries mate!
Getting cold up here in northeast US, hows the weather down under? Is the start of your summer now? I could go for some warm weather today!
Robert
The gcc compiler as problems when the generated hex file is bigger than 128K because the native avr core can only address 64K of code, more than that and the flash gets in fact paged, although the 128K of code generation can work the 256K is indeed broken, so getting the new or the old mega will seems the same to you, or to almost anyone else in the world.
As far as I know only the IAR compiler can generate 256K of working code, but thats a comercial compiler, not a free one.
And, do you REALLY will even ever use 128K of CODE, and I say CODE and not one buttload of PROGMEM variables and the like.
Yes, getting warm here. I live in a state called Victoria, renowned for its variation in seasons. Yesterday was 29C. Today was 21. Tomorrow? Who knows.
We're also the land of pestilence and plague. Last year we had fires. This year we've had drought AND flood. Right now we've got a massive locust plague.
Every time there is a knock on the door I half expect it to be Jesus' second coming
Well, at least you don't have poisonous frogs - oh wait, its Australia! Of course you do!
Have you ever read "Down Under" by Bill Bryson? Its a great tale of a trip he made across Australia, very fun to read: Australia, the only island that is also a continent and the only continent that is also a country. It is the driest, flattest, most desiccated, infertile and climatically aggressive of all the inhabited continents. It has more things that can kill you in a very nasty way than anywhere else.
And at the same time, The people are cheerful, the cities safe and clean, the food is excellent, the beer is cold and the sun nearly always shines.
