And so it begins. :D

[x88x]

So, I finally got my first programmable microcontroller. :D I've been meaning to start playing with one for a long time but never could justify the entry cost (for a newb-friendly one; yes, I know PIC's and bare ATmega's are really cheap) for just playing around until I found this one.

http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/qq3/x13931x/20100416_002.jpg

The company is PJRC, and they make two boards; the Teensy, and the Teensy++. The coolest things about these boards (for me, being new to the field) are that a) they can run both native C and Arduino code, b) they have native USB support (ie, no extra chip on the board to take up space like with the Arduinos), and last but definitely not least, c) the price. The Teensy without pins costs just $18, and the Teensy++ with pins (the one I got) only costs $27.

[Oneslowz28]

Dude awesome news!!!!! There are several of us Arduinophiles here. Welcome to the dark side. What does it have on board a 168 or 328? The Teensy fits on a breadboard nice too.

[x88x]

The Teensy has an ATMEGA32U4, and the Teensy++ has an AT90USB1286, so I'm guessing it's based on the atmega128?

Yup, with the pins, it should fit perfectly on a breadboard; that's why I paid the extra $3 for the pins on this one. ;) I can't wait to get home and start messing with it. ...though I suppose I should finish my paper first... :(

I've also got some cheap (~$4-5 each, a (http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.20023) b (http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.20087)) servos that I got off DealExtreme coming at some point..I'm hoping they'll at least be good enough to experiment with ideas on.

EDIT:
I'm also going to be converting one of my spare PSUs into a bench PSU soon...maybe that 400W I picked up on clearance at Micro Center for $5...

[Oneslowz28]

Well you will be happy to know that we will soon have a place to talk about uC and Arduinos right here on TBCS.

[SXRguyinMA]

so that will control standard r/c servos? hmm that may be exactly what I need. I need to control 2. come on CJ get that section up and running!

[crenn]

Controlling Standard R/C servos is easy!

[Oneslowz28]

I have yet to see a blinking led post x88x..... snap to it!

[x88x]

Hahaha, very well, here we go:

http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/qq3/x13931x/th_HPIM0616.jpg (http://s428.photobucket.com/albums/qq3/x13931x/?action=view&current=HPIM0616.flv)

Cookie for the first one who gets it. ;)