Arduino
This is amazingly functional, easy to use, open source and cheap 'High Level' microcontroller development board that can also communicate with a computer - PC, MAC and Linux. Hooray!
Its based on the ATMEL ATMEGA8 MCU [More information about the device can found here]
It looks like this >
What does it do?
Well... you can wire in lots of digital and analogue sensors and electronic devices like motors and buzzers and program how you want them to behave. You can also send sensor information back to the computer and from therer in various other software such as Flash or PD.
The manufacturers web site is > http://www.arduino.cc/
The forum is > http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl
The developers playground > http://www.arduino.cc/playground/
If you buy one, which I recommend, you will then need to down load the drivers so you can plug it into you computer via USB or Serial. they can be found on the Arduino site or short cut here.
The once its plugged into your computer you need to install and run the Arduino programming software. It is a little language editor that also compiles and transfers your code to the memory in the micrcontroller on the Arduino board.
The programming software can be found on the official site or short cut here.
If you have any problems then look around for information that looks like the symptoms of your problem. Things to remember are; make sure you have the right com port selected and in Windows make sure you comm port is configured correctly in your hardware settings panel.
Flavors of Arduino
>>Arduino NG - the one above
>>Arduino Bluetooth -same as above except Bluetooth not USB
>>Arduino Stamp - Mini Arduino version can fit into proto board or socket
http://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardMini
>>>How to make your own Arduino on a breadboard<<<
movie > http://www.sbk.flr4.org/video/breadboard.mov
photos > http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/Tutorials/ArduinoBreadboard
parts list > http://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/StandalonePartList
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