I am looking to purchase a dev board, but am overwhelmed by the different microcontrollers, features, etc and what makes them better or worse than another. So I'll put the question to the more experienced people out there.
Basically I want the inital purchase to buy the most expensive, basic components like motor/servo controller, wireless, sd, LCD, gps, etc so that the remaining items I might need for various projects are hopefully inexpensive (i.e. less than $40-50). I am a beginner with circuitry, but I don't want a beginner board. I want a board that is very powerful and customizable, but is able to be easily upgraded (like arduino does with stackable shields). I want any addons to fit nicely together (again like arduino) without having to build breakout boards to wire between each one.
However, I'm completely open to other ideas of what I should get or information on what makes the different types of boards (chips) different & better or worse. I just want to make sure I can do the most amount of custom projects possible with just my initial purchase and then things that aren't quite possible with that, I can purchase shields later on.
Thanks!
- Budget is around $180 total.
- Have already narrowed down to probably either Arduino or PICAxe, but I'm open to other ideas.
- Board needs to be as feature rich as possible (e.g. network, wireless, usb, motor/servo controllers, sensors, etc.).
- It needs to have a very powerful programming environment (even if it's a little difficult to learn initially).
- Want to be able to use it for custom projects (like on hackaday.com), robotics, etc. without having to purchase expensive addons (< $50 for addons) so hopefully the initial purchase covers the most expensive items.
Basically I want the inital purchase to buy the most expensive, basic components like motor/servo controller, wireless, sd, LCD, gps, etc so that the remaining items I might need for various projects are hopefully inexpensive (i.e. less than $40-50). I am a beginner with circuitry, but I don't want a beginner board. I want a board that is very powerful and customizable, but is able to be easily upgraded (like arduino does with stackable shields). I want any addons to fit nicely together (again like arduino) without having to build breakout boards to wire between each one.
However, I'm completely open to other ideas of what I should get or information on what makes the different types of boards (chips) different & better or worse. I just want to make sure I can do the most amount of custom projects possible with just my initial purchase and then things that aren't quite possible with that, I can purchase shields later on.
Thanks!