purchase of arduino

Hey everyone,

I am new to Arduino and I am thinking of purchasing the uno from an online store. However, I wanted to know is there any specific reason to get the uno over the mega? I know the mega has more connections and in the long run,/might be better. However, as a beginner is this advisable. visit the link and let me know that is this worth buying place according to prices or not.

I know how to program (rather than just know one language). I am a competent Linux/network engineer by day so I’m hoping this won’t be too much of a learning curve.

I wanted to get the Arduino just to play with some simple projects etc.

Quote ReplyEdit

One of the problems with Arduinos is that there are so many variants to choose from :slight_smile:

This is probably way incomplete, but the Uno advantages over a mega that come to mind are cost, size, and I read somewhere that it might have slightly better shield compatibility. The advantages of a mega over the uno are larger flash & SRAM sizes, and more pins.

You can do a lot with a basic Uno. Unless you have some specific project in mind, the Uno is a good place to start in my opinion. Even if you decide later to get another type of Arduino (like the mega) for some project, having a spare Uno around can be handy. It allows you to test out small bits before merging into a bigger project, or start something else while you are still using the other arduino in something you built. Programming-wise they are all basically the same.

As you said you just wanted to play with some simple projects. It that case, the extras in the Mega are unlikely to be needed/used.

You didn’t say what if anything you were planning on getting with the Arduino. If you are not already looking at them, check out some of the starter kits.

I think it might be best to start with an UNO as it has enough hardware to get you going and to let you learn the ins- and outs- of programming a microprocessor. Once you decide to make a more complex project you can get an appropriately sized device such as the MEGA. That is basically the same device, but with more hardware pins, serial ports, internal timers, etc. But the basics in the beginning are Serial, I2C and SPI communications and the UNO has all that.

I come from programming as well (from COBOL and Fortran to PL/1 and LISP) and had fun learning c++ based on the Arduino. While tedious, it is worthwhile reading through the datasheet - all several hundred pages!

do u have any idea where I can get Arduino pi 4 online at a reasonable price, I am a little bit confused about where to buy because I have no time to go shop and purchase this.

Arduino’s and pi 4’s are two completely different things and spark fun has both.

Looks like they carry the 2 and 4gb versions of the pi 4 but the 2gb version is sold out at the moment.

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/15446

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/15447

They also have the arduino uno and it looks like it’s in stock.

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11021

somedays back, my freind suggested me an online shop of SparkFun. I will visit both places your recommendation and my freind where price would be reasonable i will go there :sunglasses: