Do you really mean to say?

"This looks shopped. I can tell from some of the pixels and from seeing quite a few shops in my time"

Likely he is just stuck on the fact that advertisers traditionally pay the biggest bucks for channels 2 through 13 ..

Thats physics made FUN !!!!

How could you not make the connection ?? Throwing a pumkin is 100% Newtonian .. Well within the name of the channel !

did you actually watch the show ?? It was one of the few that really tried to follow actually true physics. There will be no wormholes !!!

Remember it was all one solar systems .. They did REAL entries into the atmospheres. They did not just add in a "Faster Then Light" drive to get around , travel took time!.

It really must suck to be you ..

Why do you have to be such an ass ?? Really ...

In regards to the quad copter. The pics of my unit are in the pics section of that aero quad site.Go find them .. ( Thats about what you said in regards to the online shopping for the STM ). Yes I learned a lot about control theory ( PID and such ) and about prop efficiency and torsional rigidity of different materials. Did I learn anything about "micro controllers" .. I learned enough to USE one to perform a function I needed done. I was not looking to build a production item for sale , I needed to do some math to control a motor based on an input from a gyro. This is where the niche that arduino fills. And it fills it well.

In regards to your "built a kit" comment .. I took what others have done before me , and I expanded on it. If you cant understand this simple concept , then you really are an idiot. Please do the world a favor , and never reproduce.

If you want to have a real discussion , feel free to respond. If you want to be an ass .. Go troll someplace else please.

That is exactly the point

One MINOR point .. Not trying to argue , I agree with your point in general. However that mcu + acc + sd card .. *"CAN"* be done with one. :-D The mega has pins / memory / serial ports to communicate and process all of that without any thought. In fact , I bet it could be done with a tiny pro with just a little bit of thought. Not to say that it will be the best one out there. But to put it in a box with a lipo battery and magnetic mount , you could log what your kid does with your car when you hand over the keys .. In fact , you could even drop a cellular breakout board into the mix and have it send real time ( I have done this :-D ) But if you "do it right" and design a board just for that product . It would be much MUCH cheaper.

One other key point. The arduino isnt a "development" board. it is the final product for most people that use them. They are not designing something for mass production. They are making something shiny that they will use themselves. As an example , last year for Halloween , I took an uno and a tri color led and made a simulated "candle" for my pumpkin. When I was done with it , I took it apart and used it for something else.

The cost issue .. No one in there right mind would use aurduino in a production product. At least not for anything more then niche markets of very low volume. I dont think that anyone has ever claimed this. This is an argument that the "real" devs are making assumptions about. With the above example , my better half loved the fake candle I made and suggested that we sell them. She does crafts and sells them on esty. I had to explain to her that it cost ME 20 bucks for the parts for that candle. So the retail price would have to be $50 or 60 to make any sort of profit. If I was to try and build something to sell , I wold have gone with a completely different chip. And have build a circuit around it for that one function and sent the design off to a fab .. and all of that stuff. Likely it would have ended up being under $1 per unit ( at volume ) .. This isnt what its designed for. Not even for prototyping a unit like that. Arduino it is the final product.

Not sure what you mean by that.

If by that you mean "It just works" .. Then I can agree. and that's not a bag thing :-D Because thats what its designed to do. Allow you to USE a microcontroller , without having to learn a microcontroller. As an example. A recent project of mine. I opened the package with the arduino ( Another similarity with apple , they include cute stickers :-D ) Ripped apart a Wii Motion plus controler. Strapped the innards of the WPM and the arduino to a pair of aluminum towel bars. Added 4 brushless motors and propellers. And had myself a working qudro copter ( if you dont know what it is , think helicopter with 4 blades and no moving parts besides the props ). See http://aeroquad.com/ .. http://www.multiwii.com/ as another similar project. These are the kinds of things that the "it just works" portion is allowing.

If you are trying to continue the fallacy and say that they are "expensive" , then you are highly mistaken. There is NOTHING stopping you from downloding the source files for the board , and making your own. Not a thing at all. The only thing that you cant do , is call them "arduino" .. you can advertise them as "arduino compatible" .. and thy even encourage this. The entire project is open source. Perhaps you were not paying attention .. THE ENTIRE PROJECT IS OPEN SOURCE ! .. Including all hardware.

Perhaps you tried to use the word gaming as humor. Apple is not known for gaming. I know I only use them to play starcraft , perhaps some wow. OH and steam has a bunch of stuff that will run on mac.Oh dont let me forget my "onlive" account also.. To play call of duty , or something like that. I sit on my couch.

( Oh .. and I was unable to locate this mystery board for $50 anyplace besides ebay .. And even there I had no idea what I was looking at. There were Items with penny starting bids .. and items with $270 buy it now prices ..Also .. Not sure about you , but I tend to buy things from people I can trust. Not having to take a risk on some ebay shop.. Google shopping search for "STM32 development board " returns items in the low 3 digit price ranges .. 250ish .. )

Anyway .. I need coffee now .. Have a nice day.

Perhaps he is trying to simulate the flashing cursor during the load.

If we really wanted to nit pick on him .. You could ask why the ,1 .. unless his sig is "machine language" there would be no reason to load it directly into memory.

Basic stamp from radio shack .. 100 bucks .. Needs a rs232 port for programming .. Who has a system with them anymore ?? Do you ?? I Dont .. I have to use a usb / 9 pin connector if I want old school serial. Include some stuff like a servo and some leds and resistors.

uno invetors kit from sparkfun .. 60 bucks .. any old usb cable Also includes "stuff"

That retarded pin spacing is a feature. Prevents you from plugging in a "shield" wrong ..

Also , and this is most likely the big reason they are doing so much better then the rest.

They are 100% .. completely open source. If you want a different pin spacing .. You can go and download the egale files ( or gerbers if thats your fancy ) and fab a board with your own pin spacing if you want .. Hell , you can even SELL that modified board if you want. If you really think its retarded , you can do make your own.

a tenth of the price ??

A pro mini ( assembled and tested ) is 18 bucks RETAIL ..

Please show me the link where I can buy this contiki for $3 ( assembled and tested )

Now please show me where I can get this 32 bit arm board with MB of flash and ram for 40 bucks ( assembled / tested ) and with software to program it. Heck lets go for your 3X price tag so 60 bucks ..

Arduino isnt meant to be used in a production item. for a production item , you design the circuit and use just the processor / controller . Not the same world.

For the amount of money they cost ??
65 bucks for a completed 2560 with usb interface .. Completely assembled and tested .. You think thats alot ?? INCLUDING SOFTWARE TO PROGRAM IT !!!
20 for a tiny pro with a 328.
Its a 4 layer board assembled in Italy buy people that make a wage that they can feed there family with.
Not a dual layer board put together by slaves in china.

The adruino guys make almost nothing board.

AND ITS ALL OPEN SOURCE .. if you think you can do better , you are welcome to go download the exact eagle files that they use to fabricate the board. And sell them yourself.

Have you even looked at what some other avr boards cost ??

Also , they are reflow soldered. There is no "solder work" to speak of.

I have YET to come across these "quality control" problems you speak of. I have on my bench right now a mega 2560 delivered within the last 2 weeks running a led matrix of 256 leds , and its been running now for at least 18 hours with no problems.

From my first duleminove through the half dozen tiny pros ive used .. to a mega 1280 last year .. to the uno I got before Christmas , and this latest 2560 .. They have all been 100%

You know not what you speak of.

you are using the incorrect word there.

Perhaps you should rephrase it as "less then 100% accurate"

And even then , its only less then 100% at high relativistic speeds and at extremely small distances ( quantum ). Plenty good enough to figure out how much damage that car will do when it hits the wall.

Newton was good enough to get us to the moon. Einstein was needed to make the gps network actually function.

Too bad they never developed a mortal kombat style game.

I likely would have bought %subj% just to watch snookies spine get ripped out.

Ok .. makes sense about the lack of respect for a Saturn .. My point of reference being a crown vic , which folks got out of the way for. Likely thinking I was a cop or something.

Also .. not really trying to argue .. but driving hard enough to make someone loose there lunch would likely violate most states catch all "reckless driving" laws.