New 'duinos

I haven't posted in a while. I have still been busy tinkering, but for one reason or another haven't gotten around to posting. I have made some progress on my design for a color fading juggling ball, and have started some other projects, but I think I will save them for another post. Instead, I'll say a word or two about some new purchases.

When I built the web cam pan this summer, I sent with it my one and only Arduino. It was an older one with an Atmega 168 and 16 k of memory so I was looking to upgrade. Prior to sending it off, I first bought an Arduino Pro Mini 5.5v / 328 from Sparkfun. I also had to get an FTDI breakout board for it as it doesn't have on-board USB communications.

Man, that thing is tiny! It's about the size two postage stamps! Pictured here is what it looks like after putting pins all over it so I can snap it into a breadboard.

I did learn one thing with it - solder carefully. The picture you see here is actually my second Pro Mini. With the first I had put straight male headers facing up - and then later decided I didn't like them, so I tried to remove them with an iron and de-solder gun. I got the right angle header on only to learn it wouldn't communicate any more. It still ran the last script I had on it, but that's not a lot of good. So I ordered another and hung my head in shame.

Not long after that I decided I needed a screw-shield for my project, so I used the opportunity to get another Duemilanova. It's pretty much the same deal as the other but with twice the processor speed and twice the memory.

It also has a nifty sticker up in the corner indicating Italy or some such.

Once I was done with the web cam pan and had sent it up north I started looking into next projects. The Pro Mini I decided would be dedicated to my lighted juggling ball project. The Duemilanova would have to run the motor-shield for my plotter project.

That left no spares for just messing around, so I ordered a "Really Bare Bones Board" from Modern Device. At $12.50, this is has to be the cheapest Arduino out there. I ordered the kit (of course) so I could assemble it myself. Like the Pro Mini, it doesn't have an FTDI/USB chip on it, so you need a converter - which I already had purchased for the Pro-mini and could use with this one.

I like this board. It plugs directly into a bread board and is actually slightly more narrow than the Pro Mini, freeing up one more row of slots on the board. It is, of course, also an Atmega 328, so its faster and has more memory.

It is, however, very long. If I were to use this in a juggling ball, the ball would probably end up rather big. You can chop it down to almost the length of the chip itself as long as you are willing to provide very clean power to the thing.

A big juggling ball is not impossible for a good juggler, but I do, for some reason, have a desire for a fairly compact ball. We'll see what I end up with. The RBBB is definitely in the running for the main unit anyway because of it's price. If I want to make 3 of these - and possibly more later if this works out - then I'll want the cheapest components I can get. And that means RBBB. If I order 5 they're only $10.50!

Though I do fear this will mean I have to learn to solder an accelerometer "surface mount" chip directly. Sparkfun has one for $7.95, but a quick spin through Digikey reveals some cheaper options.

I do have a photo of this one, really. I didn't have at the time of writing this, though. I also have a video of a little test jig I worked up, but have that either. I'll add them both at a later time.