First Look at the Arduino Duemilanove

Received my Arduino Duemilanove from Toysdownunder today. It was ordered yesterday morning and shipped late yesterday afternoon. I got it just after lunch today.I am very impressed by Toysdownunder and their fast turnaround time.

I purchased the Arduino Inventors Kit due to the larger number of sensors and other pieces like servos and motors that are included. The other notable inclusion is a booklet of simple projects showing how to use the various sensors included in the kit.

After I got  home tonight I installed the Arduino IDE and connected the Arduino to the USB port. After installing the USB Serial Port drivers the Arduino was immediately recognised by the PC.

Once the Arduino was connected to the PC I started the IDE and loaded the 'Blink' sketch. After compiling and loading it to the Arduino using the IDE. Almost immediately the small yellow led on the board starts flashing.

Over the next couple of days I will run through the various circuits in the booklet. As I have not had any experience with electronics previously it should be an interesting couple of weeks.