Buying an arduino

[rocketbagel]

This is listed as arduino compatible, what does arduino compatible mean? Is it off brand?

[Electronics Wizardy]

Its not a arduino, but the same code and accessories work. Basically off brand.

[Enderman]

It literally says in huge text "clone of Arduino UNO R3 board" if you scroll down...

[SansVarnic]

-= Moved to Hobby Electronics =-

[captain_aggravated]

Here's how Arduino works:  They released the schematics for their boards as open source hardware, inviting just anyone to make identical products.  They do maintain and (try to) enforce the trademark on the words "Arduino" and "Genuino" along with the "Infinity, more or less" logo and probably their distinctive shade of teal.  Paraphrasing their words:  If you can make our hardware cheaper and thus available to more people, great!  But, buying a brand name board from us does benefit the people who designed the boards and wrote the software, so we do want it to be easy to tell which boards actually come from us. 

 

It seems that the concept of open source hardware was lost on the Chinese, who proceeded to flood the market with lower quality knockoff boards complete with trademark infringing markings out of sheer force of habit, often at very low prices.  A genuine Uno might cost upwards of $25, while a knockoff board might run you $3.

 

The ones marked "Arduino compatible" with blue--not teal--boards that don't say "Arduino" anywhere physically on them are from the guys who are trying to play by the rules, as are the ones that are any color under the sun (Sparkfun, for example, makes bright red Arduino compatibles.  Adafruit is a special case, they manufacture genuine Arduino products under license).  Try to avoid the ones that illegally bear the Arduino trademark.  You can tell them apart from the genuine boards pretty easily by price.

[rocketbagel]

13 hours ago, captain_aggravated said:

Here's how Arduino works:  They released the schematics for their boards as open source hardware, inviting just anyone to make identical products.  They do maintain and (try to) enforce the trademark on the words "Arduino" and "Genuino" along with the "Infinity, more or less" logo and probably their distinctive shade of teal.  Paraphrasing their words:  If you can make our hardware cheaper and thus available to more people, great!  But, buying a brand name board from us does benefit the people who designed the boards and wrote the software, so we do want it to be easy to tell which boards actually come from us. 

 

It seems that the concept of open source hardware was lost on the Chinese, who proceeded to flood the market with lower quality knockoff boards complete with trademark infringing markings out of sheer force of habit, often at very low prices.  A genuine Uno might cost upwards of $25, while a knockoff board might run you $3.

 

The ones marked "Arduino compatible" with blue--not teal--boards that don't say "Arduino" anywhere physically on them are from the guys who are trying to play by the rules, as are the ones that are any color under the sun (Sparkfun, for example, makes bright red Arduino compatibles.  Adafruit is a special case, they manufacture genuine Arduino products under license).  Try to avoid the ones that illegally bear the Arduino trademark.  You can tell them apart from the genuine boards pretty easily by price.

Thank you for clarifying

[rocketbagel]

That was fast