2.a. What You Will Need

The following materials are necessary for getting started with your Wixel shield for Arduino:

• An Arduino or compatible control board. Using this product as an Arduino shield (rather than a general-purpose Wixel prototyping board) requires an Arduino. Wixel shield should work with all Arduino and Arduino clones that have the standard Arduino pinout and use a serial bootloader. We have specifically tested it with:
  • Arduino Uno (both original and R3)
  • Arduino Duemilanove (with ATmega168)
  • Arduino Mega 2560
  • Arduino Leonardo — wireless communication is possible, but the Leonardo is not compatible with wireless programming because it uses a USB bootloader.
  • A-Star 32U4 Prime — just as with the Leonardo, wireless communication is possible, but the A-Star 32U4 Prime is not compatible with wireless programming because it uses a USB bootloader.
  • chipKIT Max32 Arduino-Compatible Prototyping Platform (PIC32-based Arduino clone)
• Two Wixels. A pair of Wixels make the wireless link that the shield relies on.
• A USB A to mini-B cable. You will need a USB A to mini-B cable to connect your Wixels to your computer.
• A soldering iron and solder. The through-hole parts included with the Wixel shield must be soldered in before you can plug the shield into an Arduino or plug a Wixel into the shield. An inexpensive soldering iron will work, but you might consider investing in a higher-performance soldering iron if you will be doing a lot of work with electronics. See Section 2.b for more information on assembling the Wixel shield.
• A desktop or laptop computer. You will need a personal computer for configuring the Wixels and using the Arduino Software. Currently, the Wixel Configuration Utility, the software used to configure the Wixels, only works under Windows, but once configured, the Wixels should work with Windows, Linux, or Mac. See Section 2.c for more information on configuring the Wixels for use with the Wixel shield.

We offer a combination deal that consists of a Wixel shield, two Wixels, and a USB A to mini-B cable.