New Project

Lets go with Arduino and proto board for first round

Supplies

Arduino which fits a proto board. Some are designed for this, but most not. Typically by building with the pin headers down instead of up will let you plug into a protoboard. The standared was sehees to be to fit into Shields or auxiliary boards.

RBBB - Really Bare Bones Board - Freeduino - Arduino-Compatible processor ?? about 13 bucks, rs232 need a port cable and converter maybe -- page lists a bundle at about 24 bucks which has everything? You need only one set of these even if you have several Arduinos you may want to look at [1]

• protoboard

• protoboard jumper wire ( can be salvaged from phone or similar cable )

• LED's ( just low power, any particular color )*

• LED resistors about 200 --- 400 ohms

Tools

Computer -- almost any operating system Serial port -- USB or RS232

Needle nose plyers ( harbor freight, at about 4 bucks? )

Small Diagonal Cutters or other wire cutters ( harbor freight, at about 4 bucks? )

Wire stripper ( harbor freight, at about 4 bucks? )

Solder Iron with fine tip and solder ( cheap is cheap, get a good one with plated tip and thermostatic control )

Multimeter can be pretty basic ( harbor freight, at about 4 bucks when on sale )

Software and Downloads

• Arduino Development environment -- see [2]

• Good to learn a little bit about C and/or go over the Arduino tutorials

You can try writing programs even befor you have your hardware, and why not. It may take a few hours to get the hang of it.

Connecting your Computer to the Arduino

Both your computer and the Arduino have communications ports. You connect them with a cable You need compatible ports on both ends of your of the cable. You can make them compatible with adapters.

The common communication ports:

• Serial TTL ( cheap and common on microcontrollers and low end Arduinos. Almost always needs a converter for the PC )
• Serial RS232 ( common on older pc's uses a 9 pin Din connector )
• USB ( common on newer PC's which may not have older RS232 ports )

The cheapest connection on the Arduino end is the old serial port running at TTL ( not RS232 ) levels. This usually needs a converter or two. There are cables ( where ) that go from usb to serial TTL. This takes care of the cable and converters if you computer has a usb port. If you are using a RS232 Serial port on you PC you can get a converter that goes from a standard serial cable to TTL levels.

Issues with with USB connections

The usb connections as used here usually show up on your pc as virtual comm ports. Sometimes you need to know the comm port number. If it does not ssem obvious then go to control pannel -> System -> Device Manager - Ports ( Com and Lpt ) and look for the port. It may be listed as "USB Serial Port" or similar.