Complete Microcontroller Newbie: What should I buy?

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dg10050
 
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Complete Microcontroller Newbie: What should I buy?

Post by dg10050 »

So I'm looking into some hobbyist microcontroller programming and I think I've decided that the Arduino is a good place to start. I currently plan on ordering a Arduino Duemilanove, some various sensors (light, tilt, tempurature) and just seeing what I can do. But I'm not so sure I fully understand what a protoboard is. From what I can tell, it's just something similar to a breadboard that you can later solder your project to. Could someone please give me a more in-depth description of what a protoboard is and how it differs from a simple breadboard?

Also I was wondering what other kinds of components people would recommend for me to get. I'm looking for some sort of LCD display that I might be able to learn how to use, but I'm not quite sure what I should be getting. If someone could point out some sort of a good display (LCD text display or maybe LED matrices, not really sure) that would be great.

eil
 
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Re: Complete Microcontroller Newbie: What should I buy?

Post by eil »

From what I've seen, a protoboard can refer to two things: a breadboard, which is a white plastic board that you can stick components and wires into without having to solder them, and a perfboard which is a circuit board with bunches of holes that you solder components into. A perfboard might have copper rings around each hole (to give the solder something to stick to) or it might have rows of copper traces so that you don't need as many jumpers.

If you're just starting out with Arduino and electronics, you probably need a breadboard. Although you can technically learn to program an arduino without one, your education would be incomplete since Arduino is made specifically to interface with other electronic circuits. When you're ready to make something cool, you'll want some kind of perfboard to solder your project into for a more permanent installation.

As for Adruino peripherals, start out with whatever sounds cool and is within your budget. If your goal is loads of blinky lights, stock up on LEDs and resistors. If robotics might be your thing, buy a servo or two. Since you've indicated an interest in LCDs, pick one up. Maybe an inexpensive one at first. But do your research and make sure whatever you get can talk directly to a microcontroller because it's my understanding that some need a driver chip to do anything useful. I believe there are some LCD shields that snap right onto the top of an arduino.

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karlgg
 
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Re: Complete Microcontroller Newbie: What should I buy?

Post by karlgg »

Actually the protoshield is (or was, I'm feeling old) a breadboard,the white plastic thing is a 'solderless breadboard'. Traditionally perfboard has been a simple plain board with holes in it... no solderpads or anything, often for wire-wrap. Almost nobody uses that anymore, near as I can tell. And then slowly the terminology has gone all to pot. [shakes fist at kids on lawn]

If you haven't already (this is a couple months old) make sure you get an LCD with a serial interface. You don't want to have to use all your IO pins to run pixels individually. Or as mentioned, one of the shields various people make would fast-track you there.

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karlgg
 
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Re: Complete Microcontroller Newbie: What should I buy?

Post by karlgg »

And after leaving this, I stumbled upon an old 70's description calling the board-with-holes a "Vector-board". So many names... I surrender. :)

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