[Lab] Arduino hardware

[cmah444 at aceweb.com]

  There is a lot of good expertise here. Thanks for
that. Maybe I should be clearer
about what my goals are.

1) I'd like to build things that can be 'easily'
replicated by others.
   This means it should be easy to find schematics,
explanations, parts etc. This should
   hold true for  others- not just for me.   I would
prefer not to use hardware or 
   methods that  may become  unavailable
unexpectedly.   That was one important
   reason for looking at Arduino.

2) I do not want to waste money, but I am not
interested in spending 2 weeks building
   and testing something I could buy for 100 dollars.
This trade-off may change from time to
   time, of course and it is good to know what the
rock-bottom option is.

And I should also say.. While I do not need a primer
on electronics, I am a person of very 
ordinary skill PVOS (for the moment). It looks like
the answer to my question about sharing 
resources is -no-, since people have very different
interests.