[Coco] using /ddr0 as default (not boot) drive

[Joel Ewy]

On 06/24/2011 09:16 PM, Vanderberg Family wrote:
> ...
> I am not trying to sell you or anyone else on Picaxes.  For me it is a no brainer.  I have no budget so I will never be able to pay for the setup to start with arduino or propellor or PIC or whatever.  ...

  FWIW (and I'm not trying to sell anybody on anything either) you can 
get into Arduino compatible microcontrollers for very little.  My budget 
is also nil, but you can get an Ardweeny kit (you'll have to solder a 
few through-hole components, but it's a trivial build) for $10 and a USB 
adapter for $15 from Solarbotics.  Download the regular Arduino IDE for 
free for Linux, MacOS, and even MS-Windows, and you're off and running.  
The USB adapter is only necessary when you download a program.  You just 
plug it onto a header on the Ardweeny.  So you can share a programmer 
with lots of 'weenies.  For the price of one official Arduino you can 
get 2 Ardweeny controllers and a USB adapter.  Then additional 
Ardweenies are just $10 a pop, and a few minutes of assembly time.  
You'll also need a camera-type USB cable.  I pick those up at the local 
thrift store for a quarter.  The PCB is just slightly bigger than the 
'328 DIP and piggy-backs on the chip.  So the whole thing can plug into 
solderless breadboards, or a socket on your own project.  You've got to 
supply your own voltage regulator, or you can power it from the USB adapter.

Granted, they're not quite as cheap as some of those Picaxes.  But 
they're really easy to work with and there is a bucket-load of open 
source code out there for the Arduino.  My only real point here is that 
it can be very inexpensive to take advantage of the Arduino codebase.

JCE