The perfect Arduino board for raw beginners

Hello,

I am a mechanical engineering student and would really like to learn more about mechatronics since I am studying construction and there is very little mechatronics involved in the studying process. I am asking you guys what would be the perfect Arduino board to start with? I was looking to buy the Arduino Uno rev3 or Arduino UNO smd. What are your suggestions?

Thanks in advance for any kind of help!

Regards,

L

Just about any - but cheap is good. I use Pro Minis with a breadboard, also Unos and have a Mega2560 or two just in case.

Buy two or three, not because you expect to destroy them, but because you will likely want to work on a few projects at once. :slight_smile:

I would recommend starting where I started. I started with an Arduino Nano. There are few differences between this an an Uno, but not many.
The Nano is small and very easy to breadboard. The boards can be had for less than $10 all day long. After my first Nano, I acquired 2-3 other as well as many other Arduino. The Nano is still my favorite.

Hope this helps. :slight_smile:

Arduino Nano.JPG

Thanks guys, after reading a few articles I ordered the UNO REV3 version. Could any1 tell me if there are any good guides, books or links to teach the basics because don't forget, at this moment I have no mechatronics skills or what so ever, only some electronics basics. So any books or other guidance would really help me :slight_smile:

Regards!

L

Good choice on the UNO. It is probably the best place to get started. As for books...

Spark fun has good tutorials for most of the products they sell. They also sell some good books. https://www.sparkfun.com

Bildr has some good tutorials. http://bildr.org

Also, just search the Arduino forum.

Best of luck!

Books? I would not buy into books for beginners or those "everything" editions - the Internet is too ripe with ad hoc material.

Review the Arduino learning, Reference materials on this site. Go through these tutorials:

Many universities have online materials as does YouTube. Once you find your area of concentration, you may want to dig deeper into published resources. Just keep in mind, behind the Java Arduino GUI is a full AVR-GCC compiler.

Since you only purchased the one board, be sure to read an understand how you can create your own Ardunios using Atmega328P-PU chips and a few easily obtained parts.... Search on Arduino + Barebones + ArduinoISP. And do google Nick Hammond + Android where a wealth of knowledge resides.

Ray

I already knew C so I stated with Arduino - Home.

I then spread out to http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/HomePage and others.

I now subscribe to the Arduino and EEVBlog channels on YouTube.

There is a lot of information out there.

So I should obviously start to learn C...

Most of the projects online and in the books that I have downloaded are made with duemilanove, I bought the UNO rev3, is it okay to do projects based on duemilanove with uno rev3? Because I have checked the properties of booth and they are very close, nearly the same...

Thanks for any help,

Regards,

L

Learning C is a great start. It is a rather simple language with limited reserved words.

After that you will want to learn C++ and the use of "Objects".

The Uno is a fine platform and like you say VERY similar to the Duemilanove. The biggest difference is the chip used to convert the USB to TTL serial data. The difference is so small, you might never see a difference.

mcluka:
I ordered the UNO REV3 version.

Very wise. It is versatile, systematised, comprehensive, and very well-supported. Your best guidance is not on paper (this is the 1990s, after all) it is right here. The great thing about Arduino is that, whatever you want to do, somebody has probably done it, or something like it, before, they probably did it on a Uno, and you get to hear about it here.

Suggest you also look at the ArduinoInfo.Info WIKI.

Often just making good connections can be a hassle. See: http://arduino-info.wikispaces.com/Cables

A low-cost Arduino-derivative that has built-in 3-pin connectors for many Analog and Digital ports is here:
http://yourduino.com/sunshop2/index.php?l=product_detail&p=225

DISCLAIMER: Mentioned stuff from my own shop...

terryking228:
A low-cost Arduino-derivative that has built-in 3-pin connectors for many Analog and Digital ports is here:
http://yourduino.com/sunshop2/index.php?l=product_detail&p=225

DISCLAIMER: Mentioned stuff from my own shop...

Mmmmm. Nice board, well packed, nice coloured pinouts. Lots of jumpers. Reasonable price too (but what postage? Slow $3).

If the A13 LED is where I think it is, it's a bit close to the mounting hole, but that seems to be a common problem anyway. I can't see a power LED, but they are not infrequently annoyingly bright and beyond testing, you don't need them.

I can't see a power LED

The LEDs were moved to the edge of the board so you can see them when a shield is plugged on top:

  • Power LED bottom left corner
  • Tx-Rx LEDs upper left corner
  • Pin13 LED upper left edge

The two added VCC pins and two added GND pins on the right edge are really convenient too, but every 3-pin connector also has VCC and GND so I often use those when I have multiple GND wires etc. You can see this stuff here:

I'm looking at doing a similar Mega derivative but it's not possible to do all the I/O with 3-pin connectors in a Mega footprint. But even a subset could be good. I'd also like a make a Mega with the better 3.3V regulator and the option to run at 3.3V like this board. In my Other Spare Time!