I bought a variety of Picaxe microcontrollers because I have been using them for years, and I consider them much easier to use than Arduino. In addition, Picaxe provides excellent documentation. The prices are very affordable, and because all the necessary firmware is in one chip, after you program it, you can insert it in a breadboard with other components, just like any logic chip. I am very pleased that Robot Shop continues to carry Picaxe products.