Novel Arduino-Compatible Board Kits!
A brand-new addition to our shop is this family of Arduino-compatible boards that are self-soldered and designed for interoperability. The Motherboard is the central unit in the system, containing an ATmega328p programmed with the Arduino bootloader, as well as space for a real-time clock and battery as well as a Bluetooth serial module. The connections are all broken out to a screw-terminal header along the bottom of the board, making it easy to attach wires of almost any size or shape.
The silkscreen is a very nice touch for beginners, helping you to see exactly which pins are connected to what, and labelling all the pins on the header clearly. Power traces are bolded, making them easy to spot. Additionally, every pin on the ATmega as well as the RTC are separately broken out to 0.1″ pads on either side of the chip, making it easy to solder in headers for quick prototyping.
As part of this system, Short Circuits are also selling boards like The Digitiser, essentially a feature-packed I/O expansion board for the Motherboard. It contains shift registers to drive the 7-segment displays, a couple of buttons and a potentiometer for digital and analog inputs, 4 LEDs, and again everything is very clearly laid out and well-marked on the silkscreen.
The best part about this whole system is the documentation. Every board comes with a detailed printed manual that contains assembly instructions, code examples, and lessons on how all the different parts work. The full-colour manuals are excellently laid out, with clear diagrams and a very attractive style. If you know a beginner who wants to learn more about electronics, this series of boards is a great way to introduce them to the Arduino ecosystem!