Let me introduce myself first, my name is Ulysses, and I’m currently studying at Mexico to become a Mechatronics engineer.
Last semester I had a blast doing a project with an Arduino. It was so user friendly in contrast with those AVR stamps and similar.
The thing is that many people, even those that build Arduino, say that their micro-controller is aimed at designers, architects, musicians and such. How do they accomplish this? Well, in my opinion, they do this by implementing their famous “shields” that basically do most of the electronics for you (there are other reasons, but I believe this is the strongest one).
Which brings me to my point; I bet there are lots of people like me, who are engineers and understand intermediate to expert electronics and are in no need of buying a shield every time they need to do an specific task. (not saying that this is bad or wrong)
Seeing that Sparkfun had the possible solution to my dilemma, the: [Arduino and Breadboard Holder. I then stumbled upon another problem; The Arduino UNO has both inputs/outputs on both left and right side of the board, and since most people that are engineers know that in order to troubleshoot something effectively, you must strive for having a nice and tidy protoboard when prototyping.
That’s a very nice and clean looking unit, and I love how the power rails are all connected. I’d be more tempted to think of it as a solution for the beginner/intermediate end of the spectrum than intermediate to expert though. Like you, I don’t need to buy shields and stuff for my Arduino because I’m developing my own stuff, not just using someone else’s design. So I use an Arduino Nano straight in my breadboard. This way you can use a much bigger board and it’s a lot easier to wire up, just like using a DIP package. I can’t recommend the Nano enough if you need to do real breadboard work.
A lot of people however, are a lot more comfortable with the big Arduino layout and shield compatibility so this seems like a good solid, one-piece unit for those who are starting to get into serious development but don’t want to get too far from the shields. I can definitely see this kind of thing fitting in a certain area of the Arduino community. The visual presentation of your setup is fantastic too. I think it looks great and I kind of want one even without needing it.
Rolf:
That’s a very nice and clean looking unit, and I love how the power rails are all connected. I’d be more tempted to think of it as a solution for the beginner/intermediate end of the spectrum than intermediate to expert though. Like you, I don’t need to buy shields and stuff for my Arduino because I’m developing my own stuff, not just using someone else’s design. So I use an Arduino Nano straight in my breadboard. This way you can use a much bigger board and it’s a lot easier to wire up, just like using a DIP package. I can’t recommend the Nano enough if you need to do real breadboard work.
A lot of people however, are a lot more comfortable with the big Arduino layout and shield compatibility so this seems like a good solid, one-piece unit for those who are starting to get into serious development but don’t want to get too far from the shields. I can definitely see this kind of thing fitting in a certain area of the Arduino community. The visual presentation of your setup is fantastic too. I think it looks great and I kind of want one even without needing it.
