Arduino questions

[Mint.]

I am planning to start off with micro controllers now and I have a few questions about arduino.

1. Is it a good kit to start of with?

2. I am buying the ardunio uno and I heard that you can use it to program different atmel chips and then use them wherever you want without the ardunio board, is this true?

3. Would it be worth it saving money making my own ardunio?

4. Would it be worth it saving money buying from ebay such as this listing
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Arduino-UNO-R3-Free-USB-Cable-AU-Stock-Fast-Postage-/171014223340?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&hash=item27d13df5ec&_uhb=1#ht_2476wt_1397
OR
buying from an authorized dealer such as Little Bird Electronics
http://littlebirdelectronics.com/products/arduino-uno-r3 ?

5. What language is ardunio using?

6. Anything else that you can recommend that I buy with the ardunio?

7. What's a shield?

[AlphZeta]

This seems to be a very polarizing topic (ATmega vs. PIC), but since I have been using ATmega chips in most of my projects I will give it my acocunts:

1. Is it a good kit to start of with?

I'd say yes. It's very simple to program and yet using Arduino does not prevent you from using any of the more advanced techniques using good old gcc-avr. And the IDE works cross platform (for me this is a big plus because I use Linux exclusively) Also, Arduino has amassed a big community and if you run into any problems, chances are that someone had already been there and a solution had already been found. Even if it's is something unique, the community is always very eager to help you with your issues.

I am buying the ardunio uno and I heard that you can use it to program different atmel chips and then use them wherever you want without the ardunio board, is this true?

Not sure about different ATmel chips, but it definitely can be used to boot-load and program ATMega328p.

3. Would it be worth it saving money making my own ardunio?

If you like doing it yourself, why not? The essential parts are just a couple of 22pf caps plus a 16 MHz crystal (along with a few decouple caps and a pull up resistor on the reset line) and can be easily built using a proto-board or even on breadboard. To bootload it you can use a FT232RL board with the bitbang method.

4. Would it be worth it saving money buying from ebay such as this listing

Well, I wanted to support the guys who built it initially so I bought mine directly from them. That said, it's an open hardware design so if you wanted to save some money, by all means.

Arduino isn't a language, it uses avr-gcc. So it is technically C with limited C++ capabilities (e.g. you can declare class, etc.)

Anything else that you can recommend that I buy with the ardunio?

Well, depends on what you want to build? I'd start with the basics (e.g. make LEDs blink) first and depending on your interests you can pretty much do anything you want with it (within reasons of course). Once you are comfortable with it, you can check out Arduino's official sites (especially the forums) and you can find a lot of cool projects there.

Most of my projects on my websites are also Arduino related.

Good luck!

[Ax_6]

1- Yeah I think so
2- If you mean the microcontroller on the uno, yes It's true but you will need some extra hardware like the crystal but you will surely find some schematics
3- I don't know if you save money actually... but If you are experienced in soldering it could be fun
4- Well I use one of those duplicate and they are pretty much the same as the original the main difference is that the hardware is cheaper, not the chips themselves (they have to be the same) but the pcb the connectors the leds and so on.
5- Basically is C
6- I would recommend to buy a breadboard some leds resistors and anything that you would like to work with.
7- A shield it's a board that is specially suited for any arduino and every shield have it's own purpose for instance: motor control, wi-fi connection, ethernet connection and so on (so for example you could buy an ethernet shield plug it on the arduino and make some cool stuff with the internet, there are already a lot of code examples... I don't know =D)

[Mint.]

Just ordered the eBay ardunio, thanks for the prompt response AlphZeta and Zx_6!

[westfw]

1. Sure.
2. yes, for AVR chips that support SPI-based SPI programming.  That's not all of them.
3. yes, but not for a beginner's first attempts.

(2 and 3) are essentially "advanced" topics where you would be well served to have some experience with electronics, microcontrollers, programming, and the Arduino environment before you attempt.  They are essentially, duplicating the sorts of things that hobbyists had to do back before there were "easy" solutions like Arduino.  There are a lot of  "face palm" moments over in the Arduino forums of the form "I bought an ATmega32 and want to program a bootloader using the tutorial at xxx, but it looks different.  Isn't the m32 the same as a m328?   Does anyone have an updated tutorial?  Do I need to connect both ground pins to a common ground with my programmer?  What's this "avrdude" that I hear people talking about; I don't have to use the Command Line, do I?"  (Sigh.)

4) Maybe.  It would "be worthwhile" to support the official Arduino manufacturer/distributors, or at least the vendors that are somewhat less blatant in there violations of the Arduino trademark and license terms.  (say, http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Arduino-compatible-UNO-Mega328-ATMEGA328P-2012-R3-for-Arduino-IDE-01052-/281084664051?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&hash=item4171f398f3 )  But saving money is also worthwhile.

5) C (avr-gcc) with a smattering of C++ (avr-g++)
6) Lots of stuff, all dependent on what you want to do, and what you've already got.  Jumper wires, LEDs, random electronic parts, speakers, switches, pots, motors, shields, chips...

7) A "shield" is a daughter-card that plugs directly into the connectors on the Arduino, and provides some (usually small) bit of functionality in an easy-to-use package.  They tend to be pretty drastically overpriced for the parts they contain, but ... not so bad if you would have had to make your own PCB to do the same thing.