Teensy 3.1

If you are just starting out this is the board for you. If you're more experienced, this is still the board for you.Pro:- It's compatible with almost everything arduino with a little fiddling from time to time (if you're not interested in fiddling then why are you getting this?). This means there are HUGE amounts of resources available to learn both the hardware and software side. You don't need a special programmer, you don't need to hold any buttons, just plug it in and push your code to it with a standard USB cable. That's it, and that's HUGE since you can work on getting that LED blinking with FAR less working on getting it connected right first. All of this is is also of course beneficial to people who know what they're doing since it translates directly into time savings.- It's super powerful for the price. An arduino is is give or take the same cost and not nearly as capable. Doesn't matter when you just want something to blink, but makes a BIG difference when you need to load up a ton of code and use all the pins. It's cheap enough to use for little projects and powerful enough to use for big ones. And of course it's VERY small, without being cramped (for it's size of course).- Add pins and it will slot into a bread board perfectly, or add headers to turn it into it's own breadboard starter. Or solder it directly to a circuit or wires to minimize size for a final project.- Comes with a nice large print card labeling all the pins on front and back. This is invaluable and SUPER easy to reference. The time savings from having it all spelled out for you (especially when you don't know what you even are looking for) is huge. It's a simple thing but it goes a long way.- Lots of fancy stuff. It has tons of IO most of which is multifunction (analog/digital, various bus's, touch sensor, etc.) There's just tons of play with when you're learning, or some stuff you might otherwise need an external controller, or lots of other parts for and it's all baked in, and again, handles just like an Arduino so finding documentation is usually just a quick google search away.- This makes it SUPER easy to emulate keyboard/mouse/joystick/serial devices (even all at once) so using it as the base for a custom controller, or button box, or any other form of computer accessory is CRAZY simple (like plug it in, ~4 lines of code and you're done simple...)Cons:- This one doesn't come with pins. If you're new to soldering look up a tutorial, it's not *that* hard to add them, but if you've got ham hands (we all do from time to time) it can be frustrating if you just want to jam it into a breadboard to simplify trying "stuff". There is a version with pins available from the manufacturer (along with lower powered versions based on the same design for less if you really want something cheap/limited... the product line has really be thought through...)- It's probably overkill for a LOT of stuff (again check with PJRC, there are cheaper models...) but when a lower powered alternative is comparable in price that's not much of a con...- Because of it's form factor it's not compatible with Arduino shields directly, and because of it's pin out it's not directly compatible with Arduino tutorials (you might need to connect up to different pins). But both of these are easily remedied with an adapter (purchased directly or hand built for pennies) and a little extra reading. I personally always change pin numbers/variables whenever I can just to prove that I actually know what they are doing and not just copy/pasting the example and claiming I understand. How big a problem this is is entirely up to you (I don't care at all, for some this might be a deal breaker since you can't just get a shield in the same order, plug them together, load some code and be done...)I was putting off learning more about electronics and micro-controllers for years, and now my biggest problem is every new thing I learn just makes it so easy I can't finalize a project idea because I keep finding easy things to grow it. I should make a controller for these lights so I can learn about transistors... ok that was easy, maybe I can make them dim able... done. This thing talks to the computer I wonder if I can learn about serial comms. Oops I went to far now I have a web interface that controls my dimmable LED lights from my smart phone... wait what about that touch sensor... and on and on. The warning that goes along with that is you will need more parts so expect to put in a lot of little orders soon.

Works great!

This is a very small device yet powerful. Good things come in small packages(Out of topic, but just to illustrate this, I dont buy the biggest banana at the supermarket of the biggest orange, etc). This is the case with Teensy 3.1 . 64K of SRAM :) to load your programs, compare to the Arduino Mega 2560 has only 8K, Nano has ONLY 2K (: , etc.To prototype with Teensy a breadboard is highly recommended, dont forget to order the pins and warm up your solder iron, plus sharp your soldering skills. Its a little pick in the Windows environment. but there is a very active forum ready to help you. No pins installed.

An incredible amount of processing power and I/O in such a tiny package. This thing opens up so many possibilities.Don't be an idiot like me, AGND is right next to VCC, they are easy to accidentally short and run your entire power supply current through the VCC and AGND traces. My teensy got a little warm but thankfully didn't burn up.

Great little micro-controller. Will work perfectly for me since it has built in USB and more interrupts than the Arduino Pro Mini 3.3v that it's replacing. I'm using this from the Arduino IDE and it is working fine. The USB upload and communication are far more reliable than what I was getting with the Pro Mini and FTDI cable. The only thing I miss from the Pro Mini is the wide voltage range for Vin for battery powered operation, so I'm adding a LiPo battery charger add-on for Teensy 3.1 from Tindie and switching to a LiPo battery to take care of that.

Wow, I don't know why I waited so long to get one. It's an awesome little gadget for the price. The only con is that the price fluctuates wildly here on Amazon. ~$20 great deal...~$25...not so much...that's a 25% increase!

Works great and the only thing I really dislike about it is how they laid out the board. Why in the world would you place the pads for a surface mount dual inline header on the bottom of the board. It's a real pain to mount. At least they had it together enough to make all the pin spacing 0.1" centers. A little too much obsession with the boards' size though it's compact. I also like the fact that you can easily remove / replace the arduino an go straight to gcc.

Absolutely love this product. This board actually made me like coding because I was able to see real world applications.