I would like to know what µcontroller you peaple use, home made solutions, solutions with a real monitor on board...
I know the problem is treated on the site but i still prefer dynamic advice.

lets say low budget, capable of programming low power µcontroller and aesy to run under unixes (linux prolly but well what about messing a little bit with commercial unixes)

i own a very small amount of electronic hardware :
multimeter (a nice cheap one with transistor test, capacitance, K thermocouple... the model for pc assembly "debbuging")
soldering iron ( a basic 40W ewig)
one or two boxes full of undocumented simple composents (capacitors,resistors)
enough tools to unmount a full airbus (boing for american readers :-)

waht would be your advice to get a fair amount of hardware and documentation to get started.

I plan a few projects for a long time :
- adaptative long perdiod controller using laguerre adaptative model for various plant moisture and light control
- a small walking robot (8 servos)
- prolly a beacon detector for a robot positionning

I need this kit not to be the limiting factor of this project but price is an important factor

thanks