Hello Everyone,
I am total newbie to the subject of microelectronics, related programming and tools and techniques. The arduino and the world of possibilities it brings has sparked my interest, so trying to learn the very basic ropes.
Trying to start my exploration with a rather more basic version of electronics kits using http://www.littlebits.cc so gradually advance to controlling and integrating arduino in the equation. Just planning to buy and procure the building blocks, although littlebits has released its own arduino at heart module http://littlebits.cc/bits/arduino, but it somehow seems a bit limited as being unable to provide pin headers for connecting more arduino sheilds.
So the idea of buying a basic electronics kit with snap-on arduino board led me to search a possibly low cost and compatible electronic blocks by Chinese manufacturers called “PinyNiq” https://translate.google.com/translate? … edit-text=or “Funmetas” http://www.funmetas.com.
They provide lego compatible bricks with same philosophy as littlebits ( and I assume they maybe the OEM manufacturers for littlebits as well) , although their product range for input , connection and output bricks are limited , but enough for a beginner to start.
Their kits are available at http://pypdzjm.taobao.com/ which seem comparable in price with littlebits kits, some of em also have toy car lego blocks to be assembled together with littlebits module to make a working toy.
I might try mixing and matching some original littlebits modules with these clone kits , apparently they seem compatible, to gain added functionality, dont know though as of yet whether will it work or not.
The interesting thing for me is their own version of arduino board which can be seem here (purchased separately from the kits)
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Small version http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a23 … =20#detail
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Big version http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a23 … =20#detail
They are apparently based on the following architecture (as translated via google)
Board (Board) → arduino Nano
Processor (processor) → ATmega328
The difference in these clone littlebits arduino boards and original littlebits arduino board is clearly (as seen in the picture) is the availability of pin headers, which means they can be expanded and made more fun by adding shields. They seem to have analog and digital inputs as well.
So after looking at them and before buying the kits and the any of the above arduino board, my question are follows :
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I am not sure about any standard pin configuration (shape, vertical/horizontal arrangement) on a variety of shields available. So after looking at the above clone bricks, do you think they would be able to plug in a variety of standard arduino sheilds and those could be accessed using the IDE environment. I believe shields can be piggy backed, so it means it should work with more than one.
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Any list or guidance about only the compatible shields on sparkfun with this kind of pin header arrangement would be great, so I can foresee as to what would be the types and maximum expansion which can be done to this arduino brick.
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Is the above mentioned “arduino nano” with “ATmega328” , a sufficiently able beginners platform , or is it limited by ability or NAND, Flash or Memory in any way for not being able to be programmed for advanced arduino projects. Although this might be a long shot which would come later in the journey.
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I think the ArduBlock graphical programming is the most easiest way for any non-programmer ordinary joe to start tinkering with arduinos. So although not mentioned anywhere I believe the ardublock would work with this brick based arduino module.
Thanks for reading the long post and understanding the purpose behind.
Would really appreciate all the guidance and replies.
