[baronep]

I have an arduino and I think that it is awesome. I've done everything from creating a miniature robot platform, to creating an email door lock to creating a 4x4x4 led cube. You can use serial communication to communicate to your computer (or even the cRIO if you felt like it). I have communicated between a Visual Basic desktop application and the arduino. I have the 'mega' which is about $80, but the uno is less than $30 if I remember correctly. I would highly recommend.