Netduino 2

When I decided to build a gadget to control my swimming pool lights, I quickly realized that it required more flexibility than I could achieve with hard-wired electronics. This led me to the world of microcontrollers, and my research included the venerable Basic Stamp, the Arduino, Netduino, and Raspberry Pi. I chose the Netduino because it offered the best combination of price, power, and programmability for my purposes. I could have used Arduino, but as an experienced .NET developer, I prefer the Visual Studio environment, especially its superior debugging tools. And since Netduino can use many of the available Arduino adapters ("shields"), I didn't have to do much custom electronics work -- just used andArduino relay board, LCD panel, and keypad.The SecretLabs hardware is excellent, and their extension of Microsoft's free Visual Studio toolset is quite impressive. As an added bonus, the source code for the Microsoft .NET Micro Framework and the SecretLabs NetDuino library is included in the download package. This makes it fairly easy to add your own drivers and other custom features. In addition, you can find several comprehensive Netduino hardware driver libraries on developer sites such as CodePlex.I strongly recommend the Netduino product line to any gadgeteer who has experience with C# and .NET.

A friend got me started on Arduinos, and they are fun ... but then I almost accidentally discovered the Netduino family. It has the Arduino form factor, and works with most Arduino shields. Best of all, you code for it in C# in the comfy Visual Studio environment (or at the command line). Just install the .NET Micro Framework (a free download), and get crackin'.The Arduino is fun, but the Netduino is clearly more fun. In fact, it's a blast and a half ... and that's what programming is supposed to be, if you're doing it right.

Ordered the Netduino 2 and got a 2 Plus! Very happy about the free upgrade. I love the fact that I can develop in C# rather than C/C++. Much more civilized language. Great alternative to an arduino.

The Netduino works wonderfully, in fact, my largest complaint is the manufacturer website. If you dig DEEP into the forums, you'll find almost everything you need. But if you're wanting to run this cross-platform, just forget it. It's a gigantic pain, and all to documentation and needed software is incredibly fragmented.

You can use visual studio for this, worked on win 8/64. Allows debugging and stepping. You will need to get some downloads from the manufacturer.

I'm liking it so far, but am finding that most of the answers to questions on using Netduino's on the Netduino forum regard the Netduino 1 and Netduino 1 Plus.

If you are planning on purchasing this product because it uses the familiar .NET programming environment, DON'T. This product was a big waste of time and I should have purchased a standard Arduino instead. The support for the product is dismal and frankly a big rip off. Although it is using open source hardware and software, if you are going to put it into a box and charge people for it, you should at the very least provide basic support such as documentation and up-to-date site content.There's no documentation or even a support URL upon opening the box. The .NET framework installed on the device was out of date and didn't work. The main site and it's product wiki were hopelessly out of date. The download section as of this writing points to version 4.2 when the latest is 4.3. It took several hours of Google searches and reading forums to find the latest release. I couldn't believe it was located many pages deep in a discussion thread on one of their user forums. For a product that claims to be open source, version 4.3's code couldn't be found anywhere either. The vast majority of open source projects have some kind of public repo available.Secret Labs couldn't be bothered to update their web content. Perhaps, they feel that since the product is open source, then it's OK to offer support voluntarily and let the community do the hard work for them. This is unacceptable for any product open or closed. As soon as you take money from a customer, it's no longer altruism, it's a business!

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