Had the absolute pleasure of coming home to not only 2 full logic and button kits from Monome for my Christmas vacation 128 project, but also 2 Stribe 1′s to add to the festive spirit.

I’ll get some decent pictures over the next day of both and get them on flickr and here.

The stribes look great and I can’t wait to play with them and see what I can do to add them to my arsenal. I do have one “gripe” (I use air quotes since I’m reaching, they are beautifully made and look great). I wish they came with a shield, I’d have paid an extra $10 or so for an arduino shield that I could solder 2 sets of header pins into and pushed straight into an arduino and then plugged the header straight into it. That’s teh one bit of the the whole piece of hardware that doesn’t seem well thought out. You have these lovely sleek perspex enclosed things, and then you have to plug the ribbon cable into a separate arduino that is just hanging out, and then plug that into your computer. I’m toying mentally with the idea of either integrating them with the 128 faceplate, or making them hot plug with the 128 so I keep the arduino in there plugged into the usb hub I’ll have in there. That way I plug the stribe into the Monome and the Monome into the computer, Ideally I’d love for it to be integrated, but them I’m concerned that the two are joined at the hip, we’ll see, long way to go.

Monome kits I’m very excited about, looking forward to having a smaller more nimble friend for my big ole’ Arduinome. I ordered my green LED’s from Jameco, and am now in the hunt for a 128 faceplate in aluminum with no visible screw holes. If anyone has any sources let me know, if and when I find something I’ll post it here. The plan is to try and get 80% of the boring soldering done ASAP – mainly the logic boards. Then hand the partially constructed work to my wife to wrap and tease me under the tree for the next 3 weeks. Come xmas I know what I’m doing.

More info and images coming very soon.

Huge thanks to Tehn at Monome for making the kits possible and to Josh for the Stribes.