[HH] local source for $15 Arduino boards

[Tom Metro]

I heard Radio Shack is planning to stock Arduino boards:
http://blog.radioshack.com/2011/11/04/we-listened-arduino-is-coming/
  We Listened: Arduino Is Coming

  A few months ago, we reached out to our community and asked what DIY
  parts and pieces you wished you could find at your local RadioShack
  store. We were overwhelmed with the response, and promised to bring in
  a top list of suggestions from you - including Arduino.

Radio Shack cares about DIY customers? I thought they were pretty much a
cell phone store now, with a few components stuffed into a drawer on
some back shelf.

Here's the product search link:
http://www.radioshack.com/search/index.jsp?kwCatId=&kw=arduino&origkw=arduino&sr=1

A whole 13 items found. A $25 and a $65 main board, an $85 development
kit, and a few books and peripherals. According to the blog posting the
lits of items will be expanding.


But the subject of this post refers to the latest email ad from Micro
Center, which includes a promotion for the Sparkfun version of the
Arduino main board for $15:

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0383623

(Apparently on sale for 1/2 price, and currently showing as out of stock
in Cambridge.)

I get that they want to use an inexpensive device to catch people's
attention, but this $15 board is probably of limited use to a new user
to the platform. (Correct me if that's wrong; I haven't played with
Arduinos myself; Maybe you just need to add a USB cable and some
downloaded software.) They do, however, also carry starter kits in their
"Robotic Kits & Electronic Parts" category:

http://www.microcenter.com/search/search_results.phtml?N=4294950343

Not a bad selection of items (over 75), covering several starter kits,
maybe a dozen different main boards, and a pile of peripherals.

(And all of the items below were shown as in-stock locally, so they
aren't just a pile of "online-only" items.)

The first item in the category is a $99 Sparkfun starter kit:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0383941

Further down is the O'Reilly "Getting Started with Arduino Kit" for $65.
It includes the same main board as the one above, but fewer peripherals.
Also includes "Getting Started with Arduino" book:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0376454

And there is also the O'Reilly "Mintronics: MintDuino" for $25 which
seems to be a bare chip (plus a handful of other components) and a
solderless breadboard. Apparently to you need a $20 cable
(http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9718) to attach it to your computer
for programming, which oddly isn't included in the starter kit:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0372915


As for the main boards I see Netduino for $35:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0381878

Given the name I thought this would be a version with Ethernet, but
instead it says, "using the .NET Micro Framework." As in Microsoft .NET?
Embedded and .NET don't seem like two things that would go together. (I
notice the clock rates on this family of boards are 48 MHz instead of
the typical 16 MHz. To compensate for the .NET overhead?)

Also interesting to see several "mini" boards that use surface mount
components and have solder pads instead of connectors. Ideal for
embedding into other tiny gadgets. A couple of options under $20:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0382292
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0356751

 -Tom