In October 2014, I came across the Teensy. (That's one in the image above.) It is derived from the Arduino's success. It is brilliant!

(If you are not familiar with Arduinos, you might want to read my introduction to Arduinos, before delving into this specific Arduino variant.)

The holes are 0.1" apart. You can do lots and lots with just the pins in the two rows along the long edges. (Sits nicely on a breadboard.) The whole thing could be hidden under any "pretty" US or UK postage stamp.

Uses the same software as the Arduino, with just a little free add-on. $22.80 and reasonable p&p (Nov. '14) for an assembled, TINY, very "powerful" computer. Fabulous. (Oops: A little older and wiser, I have to admit that I think the "little add-on" does things to various basic libraries. This may be more than you are willing to risk. Me? I think it is worth the risk.) Doesn't require a special cable to program it, just a "normal" USB cable. A mere physical connection.

(The fact that the Teensy has onboard USB connection circuitry is one of those "pros and cons" things that make design so interesting. The considerations are covered elsewhere, as the issue arises with many variants of the Arduino, it is, indeed, one of the great properties which help sort them into different classes. Is having the circuitry "a good thing"? It depends on what you want the Arduino/ Teensy for!)

The Teensy is easy to work with. I promise! Hard to distinguish from using a mainstream Arduino... apart from its extra power! And the specs? Fantastic. 256K Flash Memory, 64K RAM, 2K EEPROM! Etc, etc.

The Teensy comes from https://www.pjrc.com. In the UK, HobbyTronics.co.uk stock it. Add a simple shield ($6) and a WIZ820io module ($28), and you can set up a web server, like my Arduserver. (Digital input and output, analog sensors, at the Teensy... accessible from anywhere out there in internet land.)

Ad from page's editor: Yes.. I do enjoy compiling these things for you... hope they are helpful. However.. this doesn't pay my bills!!! If you find this stuff useful, (and you run an MS-DOS or Windows PC) please visit my freeware and shareware page, Sheepdog Software (tm), download something, and circulate it for me? At least (please) send an 'I liked the parallel port use page, and I'm from (country/ state)' email? (No... I don't do spam) Links on your page to this page would also be appreciated!

Don't forget to check out the programs for controlling the state of the parallel port at my shareware site. There are two free programs there... one for toggling bits, the other for using the computer as a timer via the parallel port.

Page tested for compliance with INDUSTRY (not MS-only) standards, using the free, publicly accessible validator at validator.w3.org. Mostly passes, only problem some stuff in GooglePlus code.

....... P a g e . . . E n d s .....