I just purchased a Rainbowduino (with Atmega 328) after looking at the pictures on the website and looking through the 1.1 manual. On page 5 of the manual it shows a picture of the rainbowduino, RGB LED matrix, wall transformer and special connector. It implies by saying STEP 1: “Get everything Ready” and lists these items. I was not able to find anywhere in the manual that states that these items are sold separately.
After I ordered the Rainbowduino, I went through the manual more closely and saw that I needed to have a way to program the Rainbowduino so I put in another order for their UartUSB v2.2 device (as it was shown in the manual). It was a bit difficult to locate this item on the SeeeduinoStudios website too. Later after reading more about the Rainbowduino online, I see that I did not need to purchase this item as I could have programed the Rainbowduino with my Arduino Duemilanove itself and the manual doesn’t state that either - although I supose it does indirectly by stating that it can be programed by a Seeeduino (but someone new to this wouldn’t understand the differences between the Arduino Duemilanove and the Seeeduino).
Luckily a few months ago, I purchased about 12 of their Super Bright RGB LED matrix modules for another project design I was working on so I have that at least. I supose I could make a wall transformer I have work also.
What I feel needs better clarification is more detail in the user manual v1.1 to indicate what the user will need and what “actually” comes in the box. The manual states on page 5 “You just need plug everything easily out of box and it will shine!”. This statement and showing all of the items implies that I will be receiving all of these items.
Now I should order a wall transformer and adapter plug and wait even longer for my shipment from Hong Kong.
This needs to be better explained in the manual!!