the best prototyping method for arduino i have found is just using a rubber band: band your arduino right to your breadboard – the rubber band fits nicely in that weird gap between the female header pins and wraps around the breadboard. you can position it so that it doesn’t use too much breadboard space and it is sturdy enough to use the usb and other connections w/o worry.

and if you want to use it on one of them fancy big breadboards bend up some ‘staples’ from some leftover component leads and use the mounting holes on the arduino to secure it to the breadboard.

both of these work great, are free, and you have the materials you need to do it already. no laser cutter required.

oh, and if you need component storage just jam the whole thing into a manila envelope.

The layered acrylic cases look nice, and should be durable. But I feel I’m missing a crucial step in the equation. The USBtinyISP kit costs $22. It uses bitbang USB, so compatibility isn’t guaranteed. (Presumably this is a reasonable tradeoff for an economy programmer.) His acrylic Bus Pirate case costs $12.99 for the clear version; the TinyISP enclosure will likely fall in the same ballpark. You pay shipping twice, unless he gets a distribution deal with Adafruit.

The Atmel AVRISP mkII, fully assembled, with hardware USB 2.0 support and a plastic case (natch), costs $35.36 plus shipping from Digi-Key.

Who will buy this?

Looks more maroon to me but yea!

@martini thanks for the satan remark pretty cool.

I honestly built this big version as a way for me to sit on the couch and have a “desk” to prototype on.

This was an early design and its useful. However I have learned a few things that would make it better.

The mini version is a cool way to tote around an arduino. However its far from done and I didn’t expect to see this on hackaday.

@Mrgoogfan nope its a purple one.

@pwrx yah I do get a bit crazy. Perhaps we call it branding?

Ugly as sin.

Looks like some Victorian torture device.