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Agree. I bought a better than Arduino clone for $5. The Chinese even sell cheaper ones but you must have some luck with the soldering.

I also remember needing a non-standard USB driver, for a CH340 -- a bit scary to install: http://0xcf.com/2015/03/13/chinese-arduinos-with-ch340-ch341...

On Windows that is. On Linux they work out of the box.

I would do that but I'm afraid of the ftdi clones that can get bricked