A few years back at Maker Fair in San Mateo, California I came across an Arduino Duemilanove board.
I have been playing and earning a living with micro controllers for more than two decades. So naturally I was curious to learn more about what was at the heart of the Arduino movement. What better way than just try it out.
What interested me was the ability to combine the Arduino board with shields. Therefore I also picked up a few shields, among them a LoL Shield.
Installing the Arduino IDE was easy and with all the source code available on the internet I was quickly up and running, playing around with LEDs, servos and sensors.
This ease of use was probably the main reason why Arduino quickly became popular in DYI circles.