Mike,
     That isn't good about being able to easily brick a board. You can=20
do the same thing with certain PICs. So how do you keep from bricking an=20
Arduino?
     When your a hobbyist and you are practically trapped in your home=20
what is a few seconds here or there. But I can see that if you are=20
working against a timeline where this can be a huge problem.
     I don't buy by price. I look at value. My dad thought me a long=20
time ago that you get what you pay for and he was correct. I try to buy=20
locally as much as possible. I pay a little more but it helps my family=20
and friends. Where does Sparkfun have their boards made?
Thanks,
rich!

On 7/3/2014 10:24 AM, Mike Hord wrote:
> 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 allow=
s
> 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 lifetim=
e
> 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 yo=
u.
>
> 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
>

--=20
http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist
.