The Lilypad Arduino

Some initial parts arrived!

 The first Arduino board that I'm learning on is the Lilypad Protosnap Development Board. It conveniently comes with a variety of components and sensors all pre-connected on a single board to aid in development and learning. Later on, each component can be cut out of the circuit board and used separately in projects. Components on the Protosnap include temperature and light sensors, a buzzer, a small vibrating motor (think old school pager), a RGB and 5 white LEDs, and both a push-button (or momentary) and slider switches.

The Lilypad series is intended more for textile projects, using conductive thread instead of normal wiring to connect components. Each component has large holes to make it easier to sew into a project. These make for excellent wearable electronic projects.

The Interactive Town Play Mat project I have in mind does not require wearable electronics, plus I just don't have the patience for sewing, so I'm planning on getting some other Arduino boards to play with, such as the widely used Arduino Uno. The great thing is that the Lilypad Arduino uses the same microcontroller (the ATmega328V as the most popular Arduino board (the Uno) so much of the things that I learn on the Lilypad will directly translate to the Uno.