Is there a such thing?

[Tealc]

Could you give me a link to the ones you have? Thanks

Something like this.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/44-4-3-Ke...arden_Lighting_Parts&var=&hash=item41685a7207

The 44 Key option, about £3. The 44 keys include some preset colours, some sequences and flashes plus some DIY ones which you set a colour you like. They'll drive a few hundred 20mA RGBs. It's a relatively simple unit with mosfet to drive the LEDs. Usefully they are IR controlled, which is pretty nice.

Off topic a little, I've been using these guys lately for my Arduino fiddling

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1x-ATMEGA...Supplies_ET&hash=item4ab6e20fe9#ht_5145wt_967

They also sell 2 for £9 on there somewhere. It IS an Arduino, just with out the fancy PCB

So what do you? Assemble on breadboard or something? Stripboard perhaps. I'd like to get into microcontrollers but really not sure where to start. I assume for every project you want to keep you have to buy a new kit?

 

[d_brennen]

So what do you? Assemble on breadboard or something? Stripboard perhaps. I'd like to get into microcontrollers but really not sure where to start. I assume for every project you want to keep you have to buy a new kit?

I'm surprised you haven't been all over arduino Tealc With your creative talents I don't dare to imagine the sort of things you could make!

All the basics are on the Arduino site and forum. They sell their own first party boards in a variety of shapes and different levels of functionality. The ATmega 328p is the chip for most platforms and probably the most useful to many projects.

The interesting part is that the boot loader is freely available, as are schematics, and they use standard ATmega chips which can be bought blank or burned with the bootloader (needed so you can program the chip from a PC/Mac/Linux computer). There are lots of "compatible" units made or supplied in component form by others far cheaper than official ones.

The kits I linked are just the bare bones of one of these

http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardUno

Minus a few niceties like onboard USB. But... those kits are like 3 quid each if you buy a few at a time, versus £20-30 or more in that M electronics store. They can be setup on breadboard, perf or strip (carefully). I like to make stuff which is semi permanent, so using official boards would get very expensive

An Uno would be best to play with to start as it has comms, DC socket and all the pins have nice female headers for jumper leads

Edit: Thread here

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17879361&highlight=arduino

Gone a bit quiet but some cool stuff in there. When I have more time I've got some stuff planned

 

[Tealc]

Still none the wiser I'm afraid. I suppose I should do some proper research.

It's been mainly cost that has put me off microcontrollers thus far. Mind you if I counted all the cash I've dropped on discrete components it would far exceed them.

So is that little kit something I'd add to a Uno board or something I'd need to etch my own board for.

Arduino sounds good but can the microcontrollers run without the board at all, or are they stuck on there?

 

[d_brennen]

The kit IS an Arduino. The ATmega runs the show. I breadboard mine until happy with the circuit and then transfer to strip or perfboard.

An Uno would make sense to start with, as it's reusable (jumper cables to each input/output pin) but if you want to integrate your Arduino permanently to a project, it's a costly commitment. That's where those kits come in

You can etch PCBs? Interesting, would you consider making a one off or two for a fee?