Hi!, On Fri, May 22, 2015 at 8:10 PM, RussellMc wrote: > On 23 May 2015 at 03:03, Denny Esterline wrote: > >> It's another lesson in irrational economics. >> James' actual expense for shipping is $5.25 - to say nothing of what it >> really cost him (trip the post office if nothing else) >> >> > In "defence" - James' board has far more processing power and peripherals > than a standard Arduino and much better chance of doing anything useful > than some of the Arduino clones I've heard about (micro-bricks) and > documentation level is about the same. [All that is almost not a joke]. > > I've had good results so far with one Chinese supplier with both small > microcontroller PCBAs very closely resembling the common ones whose name > begins with A (ssssssssssssh, Olin may be watching), and other stuff > typically old in the same environment. The A's work well. Dearer than yo= ur > ebay examples in 1's. Cheaper in 10's. Free shipping. Arrive in 2 to 3 > weeks in NZ. > > eg from $US1.44 for a Pro Mini ('168 version) I think that AVRs are a little overrated, nowadays I prefer using cheap ARM micro-controllers. For a little more, I can find this: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/STM32F103C8T6-ARM-STM32-Minimum-System-Devel= opment-Board-Module-For-Arduino/32277037380.html It has a faster micro, with native USB and many peripherals. Note that the board can be programmed via serial boot-loader, using a standard usb to serial adapter or via a SWD capable debugger, such as the stlink-v2, that also allows in-circuit-debugging. Note that I don't know the seller, link is only a price reference. I have used the stm32f103 and the newer stm32f030, later one is really cheap. There are also newer models with USB bootloaders, those are very easy to program without any other hardware. Daniel. --=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 .