I urge you to avoid the 32u4 based Arduinos (Leonardo, for instance), at
least
as a beginner.

The entire 32u4 implementation in Arduino is somewhat flawed, which allows
users to "brick" their boards fairly easily. In addition, between a press
of the
reset button and execution of code, 8 seconds elapses, which is a lifetime
if you find yourself resetting the boards at all during development. It
also puts
a floor on the code loading time which may or may not be acceptable to you.

As Russell mentions elsewhere, boards can be found cheaply hither and
thither;
quality is often suspect for those (e.g., expect to get shoddy solder
joints, if
not outright counterfeit chips) but may be good enough. Of course, if you
value
the work (and better quality), boards can be had for not too much more from
my employer <http://sparkfun.com> as well as many others who actually
contribute to the open
source hardware movement which make the Arduino (et al) possible.

Mike H


On Thu, Jul 3, 2014 at 3:25 AM, Richard R. Pope <mechanic_2@charter.net>
wrote:

> James,
>      Where do you live? Outside the US? You can ship books in the US for
> about $1 per pound after you pay the initial $5. Actually I learn a lot
> by reading. I'm leaning towards the BBLeo because it is setup to support
> the cpNode controllers. The other choice at this moment is the Leonardo
> board. I thought these boards are using the Atmel mega processors. I
> haven't bought an Arduino as of yet. I'm also kind of thinking about
> getting just the processor and building my own board. Lots of decisions
> to make. Yes, things do change but I still believe that the books stay
> relevant.
> Thanks,
> rich!
>
> On 7/3/2014 4:12 AM, James Cameron wrote:
> > On Thu, Jul 03, 2014 at 03:56:07AM -0500, Richard R. Pope wrote:
> >> I bought the little white Intro to the Arduino book from Radio
> >> Shack. It was somewhat helpful. Do you have any Arduino books that
> >> you would be willing to throw my way?
> > No.  In my opinion they would do you harm because they are out of
> > date, and besides it would be a major cost to ship them from where I
> > live.
> >
> >> The Arduino is all new to me.
> > It is an Atmel AVR microcontroller breakout board with a regulator and
> > serial connector.  It is also a community.  It is also an IDE.  This
> > could be confusing.
> >
> >> I have a much easier time with C. Assembly gives me a lot of
> >> trouble. That is why I am asking about C oriented books.
> > What Arduino hardware do you have?  No point proceeding until you have
> > something you can learn from.  A book before hardware is a waste of
> > time.
> >
> > (Changed the subject line topic tag).
> >
>
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