Experts,
How can I power and communicate with the IDUINO shield stand-alone? In other words, without any additional uC for it to plug into.
Failing in that, can a Nano (cheaper, smaller) be wired to give the Yun what it needs?
Experts,
How can I power and communicate with the IDUINO shield stand-alone? In other words, without any additional uC for it to plug into.
Failing in that, can a Nano (cheaper, smaller) be wired to give the Yun what it needs?
Yes, you can. All you need do is provide it with a regulated 5V supply on the 5V pin and it should power up and boot.
There's not a lot of IO on it though, so connecting to sensors and such would be hard, which is where the Arduino comes in handy. You communicate using the UART, so any microcontroller with a UART can be connected to it.