Way to expensive in my opinion. Just discovered the Totem Minilab. Wish I would have found it a few years ago. Now these setups are not very beneficial for my prototyping needs.Prototyping usually involves 8 to 16 pots. Along with many types of switches. A dozen output jacks for triggers etc. A dozen capacitors and resistors etc..But for beginners these all in one will save a lot of time. Great for learning concepts and simple coding. A big downfall is you do not have the project when you move on to another project. With breadboards you have the built project to use,reference, update,or add to an existing project.
I bought one after reading the QST article....I found one mistake on my board and emailed the company which they acknowledged. ..... Nice review, however, I haven't done anything useful with mine and I need to start using it. The kit is a bit pricey and Duino company tries to lock you into buying their stuff vs anything in the Arduino world.
Nice review Dan! I wonder if they could have an alternate instruction set where the user would solder indestructible parts such as headers and switches first, run a sketch to check their work, with the Nano and serial monitor and progressively solder more and more parts for each experiment. On one hand, users would get pay off sooner. On the other hand, maybe alternating solder and code would be too jarring.
Thank you. I'm sure they could... It definitely does feel a little bit disconcerting to solder for a few hours and have no idea if it's actually going to work. On the other hand, they did a good job of stepping through the diagnostics to the point where I think I could have fixed it if it didn't work. That's definitely an interesting concept.
i bought one and did not recieve build instructions but built any way and needed the very important email wich i never got, there customer support said my email didnt work to send test file and i had to create a new email address? ive never had this issue before ever but it funny that my email worked good enough to take my money?
Sorry to hear that. I definitely didn't have that issue with them, but I can imagine it happening. It's a small company and I could see things falling through the cracks. I hope you got it all working.
Way to expensive in my opinion. Just discovered the Totem Minilab. Wish I would have found it a few years ago. Now these setups are not very beneficial for my prototyping needs.Prototyping usually involves 8 to 16 pots. Along with many types of switches. A dozen output jacks for triggers etc. A dozen capacitors and resistors etc..But for beginners these all in one will save a lot of time. Great for learning concepts and simple coding. A big downfall is you do not have the project when you move on to another project. With breadboards you have the built project to use,reference, update,or add to an existing project.
I will definitely check out the Totem. I thought I had seen them all, but I missed that one.
I bought one after reading the QST article....I found one mistake on my board and emailed the company which they acknowledged. ..... Nice review, however, I haven't done anything useful with mine and I need to start using it. The kit is a bit pricey and Duino company tries to lock you into buying their stuff vs anything in the Arduino world.
Nice review Dan!
I wonder if they could have an alternate instruction set where the user would solder indestructible parts such as headers and switches first, run a sketch to check their work, with the Nano and serial monitor and progressively solder more and more parts for each experiment. On one hand, users would get pay off sooner. On the other hand, maybe alternating solder and code would be too jarring.
Thank you. I'm sure they could... It definitely does feel a little bit disconcerting to solder for a few hours and have no idea if it's actually going to work. On the other hand, they did a good job of stepping through the diagnostics to the point where I think I could have fixed it if it didn't work. That's definitely an interesting concept.
i bought one and did not recieve build instructions but built any way and needed the very important email wich i never got, there customer support said my email didnt work to send test file and i had to create a new email address? ive never had this issue before ever but it funny that my email worked good enough to take my money?
Sorry to hear that. I definitely didn't have that issue with them, but I can imagine it happening. It's a small company and I could see things falling through the cracks. I hope you got it all working.
This board is for software development or hardware projects also?
Probably more learning and development.
Nice review Dan. What is the brand of the PCB vise or is it 3D printed?
Thanks! They come in a bunch of brands and reviews are mixed, but I love mine. amzn.to/32AltcZ