[moron4hire]

I think there is a lot of value to blowing up your Arduino for reals. When you blow up a couple of Arduinos, you'll tend to force yourself to learn very quickly why it is happening and how to avoid it.

What is so bad about "blowing up a capacitor" or "burning yourself with a soldering iron"? Capacitors are a few cents, each. Buy them in bulk and never worry about needing one again. Soldering iron burns are easy to avoid if you have spent any time in a kitchen.

I feel like this is missing a big point. Arduino is the safe, easy entry point to learn electronics. The danger is miniscule, and whatever danger that is there, is part of the learning process. You need this as much as you need a rice-cooker simulator.

[pserwylo]

As somebody who is learning electronics using Arduino right now, I almost agree with you.

WARNING: The first time I accidentally forgot to put a resistor in front of an LED and sent 50mA to one which was rated at 20mA, I expected it to fizzle and cut out like a regular incandescent light bulb does in my house.

When it literally exploded and the plastic covering went flying through the room, I was very very glad it didn't hit me in the eye, or I'd probably have done some fairly serious damage.

[harrytuttle]

Yes this is always 'interesting'. I'd personally suggest that everyone at least stuffs the following components over a 30v DC 5 amp supply (in a fume cupboard with goggles on) at least once just so you know when to wince: electrolytic capacitor reverse polarised, 1 ohm resistor, generic npn transistor (base-emitter forward biased), various LEDs, signal diodes.

you learn to double check your circuits first then :)

[photojosh]

What about getting your H-bridges the wrong way around and the smoke hitting the ceiling... the night before your final project is due?

[matthudson]

> "I feel like this is missing a big point. Arduino is the safe, easy entry point to learn electronics."

An Arduino Uno costs about 25USD. Blowing up a few of those, or other components gets pricy. This service lowers the price of entry to almost zero, which is a pretty big deal for people with low disposable income or limited access to the hardware.

[fnordfnordfnord]

There are so many people that underestimated the potential success for Arduino, and the rPi. Also, experienced hardware folks tend to forget how unforgiving hardware can be to non-hardware folks, and beginners; a good example of which was posted here the other day. http://www.jwz.org/curtain/

[computator]

> so many people that underestimated the potential success for Arduino, and the rPi

I like the Arduino and Raspberry Pi very much, but they are not the pioneers of this idea.

There have been a whole bunch of electronic prototyping systems aimed at hobbyists in the decade before Arduino and Raspberry Pi hit it big.

Just to name a few: Parallax Basic Stamp, the Micromint PicStic and Domino, X-10, MIT Media Lab's Programmable Bricks, Gumstix, Phidgets, Teensy USB Development Board, littleBits, LEGO Mindstorms, Bug Labs.

I was cheering for several of the above, and they met with various degrees of success. It seemed obvious to me that they should become enormously popular, as big as the Arduino and the Raspberry Pi, but they didn't. There were probably dozens more that folded up and disappeared.

What I'm trying to say is that it took a lot of iterations of design, business model, functionality, and being at the right time before a couple companies found just the right formula to make it really big.

[tlrobinson]

Nice, I've been wanting to motorize my curtains for awhile. Glad jwz did the hard work for me.

[gammarator]

Agreed, although the integration with a schematics editor and PCB board design tools seems nice.