I might be starting to do Arduino development and I would like some advice

Question

So, today I looked at Arduino; seems very interesting. I still don't want to shell out the money just yet, as I have some questions, namely:

1. Should I learn something about electronics? What and with what resources?
2. What stuff should I buy? I have a limited, but not that small budget (probably up to 200€, but preferably less). I'm interested in getting a screen (mustn't be complex, but I would prefer one like that), some speaker, some way for it to move and a way to remotely control it. I would also want a battery. I also wan't to be able to use my board for many things in the future, so it shouldn't be too basic, I guess. I think I will go with the MEGA, is that smart?
3. What resources do you recommend? Any books? Good tutorials besides what you find on their site?
4. What are really cool extensions (e.g. screens) which I would be adviced to get/try?

Help greatly appreciated. Also, I have never developed for any embedded device, but I know C and computer architecture to some degree; I'm somewhat familiar with low level stuff.

Answer 1

A good starter kit for the Arduino is available from SparkFun although it is out of stock at the moment. For a screen there is a nice LCD add-on kit available.

As far as knowledge goes, having a base understanding of electronics and programming (I mean low-level, not Visual Basic) should be sufficient to start with an Arduino.

As far as resources, if you are good at finding things online and working with it then you should find a lot of things online to help you with projects & working with the Arduino. If not, you should try getting some Arduino Beginner books from your typical book site (B&N, Amazon, or even SparkFun has some)

Answer 2

If cost is an issue, you might want to consider the STM8S-Discovery kit from ST Microelectronics, which sells for around $10 (ten) dollars US.

It is fairly new and does not yet have the same following as the Arduino kits, but there's a rapidly growing development community for the STM8. If you google 'STM8S-Discovery' you'll find hundreds of pages with additional advice, sample projects, etc.

Here's a link to a retailer selling for £6.49.
Here's a fan site on an Italian server.

If that doesn't suit you, ST also sells a STM32 discovery kit (value line) for about the same price. The STM32 has larger chips in the family so you can expand to much larger programs if needed.

Answer 3

1. Any beginners electronic book should be read. A guy named Smiley wrote "C programming for Microcontrollers" you can find him on http://www.avrfreaks.net/ which is a great resource as they have tutorials on there also. I personally haven't read his book, but a number of beginners I have talked to say good things about it.

2. One tool I recommend buying if your going to be doing more than a couple projects is an oscilloscope or logic analyzer. These tools are essential when troubleshooting your projects. Other tools I recommend are wire, wire strippers, wire cutters and a multimeter.