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| The Arduino branded Duemilanove Board | MC-NOVE - MultiComp branded Duemilanove Board - exact form, fit & function as the original. SKU code 18134121813412 |
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| MC-MEGA - MultiComp branded Arduino-Compatible MEGA board - exact form, fit & function as the original. SKU code 18134131813413 | Video - Introduction to Arduino |
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| MC-NANO - MultiComp branded Arduino-Compatible NANO board - exact form, fit & function as the original. SKU code 18134141813414 | MultiComp - member of the Premier Farnell Group / Cadsoft EAGLE is property of Premier Farnell |
Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software, intended for multitude of users with or without electronics background.
Projects can be stand-alone or pc based supported with free downloadable software. The hardware can be acquired as pre-assembled boards or hand-built. The hardware reference designs (EAGLE CAD files developed from Premier-Farnell's CadSoft) are available under an open-source license and adaptable to individual projects. For further information and guidelines for self-production of hardware, see 'So you want to make an Arduino?' at the Arduino website.
So what is open-source hardware ....it is sharing of the principles and approach . The Arduino community encourages users to study the hardware, understand how it works, make changes to it, and share those changes. To facilitate this, Arduino release all of the original design files (Eagle CAD) for the hardware, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license, allowing for personal and commercial development of derivatives, crediting Arduino along the way, and releasing the derivative designs under the same license.
The Arduino software is also open-source. The source code for the Java environment is released under the GPL and the C/C++ microcontroller libraries are under the LGPL.
There are multiple versions of the Arduino board, including the popular basic USB board, the Duemilanove, based on the Atmel ATmega328.
It connects to the computer with a standard USB cable, containing the necessary parts to program and use the board, extendable with a variety of 'shield' boards, including :
Nano - A compact board designed for breadboard use, connects to the computer using a USB Mini-B cable.
Mega - A larger, more powerful Arduino board, shield compatible with the Duemilanove.
Shields are boards that mount onto the Arduino board and extend the functionality of Arduino.
Availability of Arduino boards: a number of outlets are available including group of Premier-Farnell Companies, namely, Farnell, Newark, Premier-Electronics.
Alternatively, individuals may prefer to build their own, hence the open-source data, including the EAGLE CAD files.
Producers of Arduino boards: the official Arduino boards are primarily manufactured by SmartProjects of Italy, with a number manufactured in the US by SparkFun Electronics and Gravitech.
Premier-Farnell provide the 'MultiComp' Arduino-compatible boards, including the Duemilanove (MC-Nove), Mega (MC-Mega) and Nano (MC-Nano) alternatives, as shown above with images, all produced to the exact form-fit-function specification as the original boards. The official boards, including the MultiComp alternatives, are quality products, made in the Arduino spirit to leave a good user-experience, with plenty of support material available. The 'Arduino-Compatible' MultiComp boards and the official 'Arduino' boards are produced with the use of EAGLE-CadSoft files, a contributing factor to the movement, especially for the benefit of the potential users of Arduino through workshops facilitated by Premier-Farnell, provided via 'Tinker-London!'
For those wishing to produce their own boards with own names or brands, the reference designs are available - look up the hardware data on the Arduino site, www.arduino.cc.
"Arduino" is a trademark of Arduino team and should not be used for unofficial variants. To have a design included in the official Arduino product line, see 'So you want to make an Arduino' and contact the Arduino team.
Getting Started with Arduino - follow the OS instructions. It runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. The environment is written in Java, based on Processing, avr-gcc, and other open source software. The open-source Arduino environment allows for easy code writing and uploading to a board.
Arduino boards are programmed with C/C++ functions, passed through a C/C++ compiler (avr-g+), infact all standard C and C+ constructs supported by avr-g++ should work in Arduino.
It is possible to compile programs for Arduino using other IDE tools.
Arduino boards can also be used without Arduino software - effectively behaving as an AVR development board, with AVR C or C++ to program.
Equally, Arduino software can be used with other AVR boards with some modifications to the core libraries.
For updates, blogs and announcements, regular visits to forums would be recommended, with knowledge-base, tutorials and instructions to be found in the playground wiki.