Any one with sainsmart experience ?

[africanwizz]

This past week i decided to put my free time to good use and start working on a project. That required me to get hold of a arduino mega 2560 controller. I went on ebay (bad idea) and found a seller advertising the arduino and in the heat of the moment i made the purchase. i thought about it after and anyone selling an arduino for that price(20 dollars) must be nuts . I went back to the page and took a closer look at the picture's and found the board to be a sainsmart mega 2560.

so i want to know if anyone has any experience using this brand . i know its a knock off of the arduino but i'm hoping it isn't too bad a product.

i did end up buying a genuine one from an authorized seller but still want to know what experience's any one has had with the sainsmart.

[Salem]

> i know its a knock off of the arduino but i'm hoping it isn't too bad a product.
Arduino is open source (yes, even the hardware specs), so from a technical point of view, the devices should be the same.

So just go ahead and read the Arduino site and program it as if you had a real board.

[cyberfish]

There are many Arduino clones (since it's open source), and most do work, some have extra features, some have features taken out to be cheaper, etc.

It's hard to say.

[africanwizz]

read through a few pages and it looks like the biggest problem is the IDE support as well as reduced lifespan. I decided to send the item back for a refund.
Thanks