Kevin and Peter Gould from Olympia Circuits started selling their own Arduino-compatible LeOlympia development boards at the various Maker Faires. In the course of demoing and talking to people they recognized the need for something even simpler to get people into the world of programming microcontrollers. The result is the Arno Kit and Book:

The Arno Kit is our answer to the problem of getting people over the “hump” and into the world of Arduino. We created the Arno board, a “beginner-kit-on-a-board,” and wrote a book that 1) covers the basics of electronics and programming, 2) explains how the circuits on the Arno board work, and 3) provides over 40 example sketches with explanations. With the Arno, we get rid of the bins of components, the jumper wires, and the solderless breadboard. The Arno is not a “shield” to be used with another board, rather it is a complete, functional development board with the basic set circuits already built-in and programmable from the Arduino IDE.

The Arno uses the ATMega32U4 microcontroller (like the official Leonardo), and integrates all of the project-ready inputs and outputs shown below:

Find out more by visiting Olympia Circuits.