I've found Sparkfun to be a reliable source of all of the Arduino line. They also stock connectors, headers, voltage regulators, and all manner of sensors. They can provide Xbee transceivers, RF transmitter/receiver pairs, servos, steppers, driver boards, and a huge variety of specialty components. It's always hard for me to wait for the parts to arrive, so their prompt and professional operation helps minimize the anticipation.

You should also buddy up to the Arduino Web site. It has a comprehensive set of tutorials and reference documents that cover anything you'd ever want to know about the Arduino platform. Everything on the site is well written and easy to understand. Obviously, there is a large and growing community being built around the Arduino.

I hope you've enjoyed this brief introduction to the Arduino microcontroller platform and how you use it with Linux. Many will recognize the potential to easily automate mundane everyday jobs. More advanced users might envision interfacing the Arduino to a PHP/Apache/Linux box for bi-directional Internet based applications. Or, you might just want to build a cheapo data collection device for some of your mad scientist experiments.

Speaking of that...I better get busy with my Arduino based Halloween display, so I can entertain all the little trick-or-treaters.

Rob Reilly is a consultant and freelance technology writer. His interests include Linux, anything high-tech, speaking, and working with conferences. You can visit his web page at http://home.earthlink.net/~robreilly.

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