High guys.
I’m over in Malta until early May (a little island in the Med) and cannot easily get the version of Arduino Board as used in the Maslow project. Would a compatible unit be OK? I can get the Haitronic version here OK.
I would like to play on the electronics side a bit whilst awaiting the OK from ‘Er Indoors’ to order the kit… 
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Yes! Any Mega 2560 should work!
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what is the difference between this board that sells for about $7 vs the one maslow uses which is about $12?
CHEAP BOARD SPECS FOLLOWED BY MORE EXPENSIVE ONE.
Mega 2560 R3 Mega2560 R3 MEGA2560 REV3 ATmega2560-16AU Board For Arduino
Description:
Manufactured By Good supplier
Microcontroller: ATmega2560.Operating Voltage 5V.Input Voltage (recommended) 7-12V.
Input Voltage (limits) 6-20V.Digital I/O Pins 54 (of which 14 provide PWM output).
Analog Input Pins 16.DC Current per I/O Pin 40 mA.
DC Current for 3.3V Pin 50 mA.Flash Memory 256 KB of which 8 KB used by bootloader.SRAM 8 KB.
EEPROM 4 KB.Clock Speed 16 MHz.
1xWireless R3 Mega2560 R3 MEGA2560 REV3 ATmega2560-16AU Board For Arduino
SPECS OF MORE EXPENSIVE BOARD
Introduction
Keyestudio Mega 2560 R3 is a microcontroller board based on the ATMEGA2560-16AU , fully compatibel with ARDUINO MEGA 2560 REV3.
It has 54 digital input/output pins (of which 15 can be used as PWM outputs), 16 analog inputs, 4 UARTs (hardware serial ports), a 16 MHz crystal oscillator, a USB connection, a power jack, 2 ICSP headers, and a reset button.
It contains everything needed to support the microcontroller. With its bootloader, program can be downloaded directly with USB and you don’t need to use other external programmer.
Just simply connect it to a computer with a USB cable or power it with a AC-to-DC adapter or battery to get started.
The Mega 2560 board is compatible with most shields designed for the Uno.
The 2560 R3 differs from all preceding boards in that it does not use the FTDI USB-to-serial driver chip. Instead, it features the Atmega16U2 programmed as a USB-to-serial converter.
The MEGA 2560 is designed for more complex projects. With 54 digital I/O pins, 16 analog inputs and a larger space for your sketch, it is the recommended board for 3D printers and robotics projects. This gives your projects plenty of room and opportunities.
Specification
Microcontroller: ATMEGA2560-16AU
Operating Voltage: 5V
Input Voltage (recommended): 7-12V
Digital I/O Pins: 54 (of which 15 provide PWM output)
Analog Input Pins:16
DC Current per I/O Pin: 20 mA
DC Current for 3.3V Pin: 50 mA
Flash Memory: 256 KB of which 8 KB used by bootloader
SRAM: 8 KB
EEPROM: 4 KB
Clock Speed: 16 MHz
who you buy it from and the taxes that are paid on it 
in practice, probably zero difference.
David Lang
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This is the big difference between the lower cost boards and the more expensive ones. I’ve heard that the software FTDI USB-to-serial boards can be a little less stable and so we went with the more expensive ones, but that isn’t based on hands on comparisons