Arduino genuine vs clone?

Hey,
I'm jus' wondering whether it would actually be worth me forking out for the genuine arduino or a clone, as I'm probably gunna fry it under 30 minutes of it being unbowed >:@. Is there any real difference between clones and the real deal spec wise? And what bout firmware? I'm only guessing here, tbh.

I'm at a loss really...

As far as I know, the clones work just as well?

I bought a freeduino myself, which cost about the same as a clone.

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-Nudel
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I'll go for a clone then, hopefully it wont start smoking

I've bought and sold about 15 sets of RAMPS with clones, and they all worked fine.

Neither? See Sanguinololu, Gen7 electronics. And the well proven Gen3, of course.

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

I bought some clones to check out the quality and I was pretty surprised the clones are much better. Once I'm done my stock of the originals 2560's I'm switching to clones.

The clones use the FTDI232 chip and not the atmel 8u for the USB so you avoid some communication problems with a clone.

Also a problem I discovered was they are hard to properly import because they show the FCC logo on the package and they do not have FCC or any ICES approvals. With the money I save buying clones I can do the FCC testing myself.

CdnReprap Wrote:
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> The clones use the FTDI232 chip and not the atmel
> 8u for the USB so you avoid some communication
> problems with a clone.
>

The MEGA 1280 and clones use the FTDI chip. The MEGA 2560 clones do not (as far as I know), but you are correct that the 1280 is more reliable. Linux in particular has issues with the 2560 MEGAS.