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Comment by the-kenny | Hacker News Reader

While I like the Arduino movement very much, I don't see what's so special about this.

It's a breakout board for an ATTiny, with some vreg and an usb port on board. So what?

One obvious advantage is that it's cheap enough to use as-is. One of the things that keeps me from caring much about Arduino is that it's too expensive to use for anything but experimentation: if I'm building more than a one-off, I'll always do a custom PCB.

For reasonable volumes that's still probably the best approach, but at $8 a pop this is perfect for throwing together some quick project.

By way of analogy: to me, an Arduino is a breadboard. If I use one at all, it's to play with a first concept, and certainly not for any kind of permanent use. If that's true, then this is kind of like solderable perfboard: not optimal, but good enough for many things.

It's a relatively huge amount of power in a tiny package, ready to roll. Many digital logic tasks that used to take a number of TTL/CMOS logic chips, or other devices can now be done in one inexpensive package.

A simple example: every week it seems, on the electronics forums, someone will ask how to do a simple, or a complex timing task and they will be pointed at various logic, or 555 timer chip designs.

Using something like this not only makes those projects simple, it provides a common frame of reference. If I can say to someone "go buy a Trinket from Adafruit and load this code into it and it will work cause I already tested it on my workbench" that provides a tremendous value because both I and the person I'm talking to online are working from a common platform.

$8 for an Arduino compatible microcontroller with a battle-tested PCB, all pre-assembled is an amazing deal.

Sure, you could breadboard your own for cheaper, but you wouldn't be saving a whole lot in the scheme of things.

It's attractive because of the convenience it provides.

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