Need advice on advancing from Arduino boards

Thread Starter

markcrabs

Joined Mar 3, 2020
1
Hello Everyone,

After several projects with my arduino uno and mega, I think I am ready to move on to more advanced embedded systems programming with C/C++, such as with Arm cortex based microcontrollers. With the rising popularity of iot applications, I would also like to dip my toes into WiFi and seeing what can be done with it.
I would just like to check in with someone experienced in this area to make sure I am going about this the right way.
Going through this wikipedia list, I found out about the RTL8195 dev board from realtek's amebaiot lineup. The boards support wifi and nfc, and are also arduino compatible, which is as plus as i can reuse some of my old expansion boards. Programming can be done in both the arduino IDE or regular C/C++, which should help me get started from a familiar environment. There are also several code examples provided on the official website and video guides posted on youtube channel.
To me, this seems to be a capable platform to start off on. Does anyone have experience with this board? What other aspects should I consider?
Thanks for reading, and I appreciate all suggestions and recommendations.

-Mark
 

KeithWalker

Joined Jul 10, 2017
3,063
I guess it all depends on what you want to do. If you want to experiment with different processor systems, then pick the one which will give you features that you find most challenging.
If you want to develop your own projects, I would recommend a different approach, What is the point of spending time learning another processor that you may never use in a real project. I would only decide what microprocessor board to use after I had decided on my next project so that I would know what the requirements are.
By the way, you can experiment with Wi-Fi using any Arduino board, even an AT Tiny.
Regards,
Keith
 

dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,845
Welcome to AAC!

If you're not doing applications that require real time performance, I'd consider Raspberry Pi. In particular Pi Zero W. For $10 you get a 1GHz single core, 512MB RAM, WiFi, Bluetooth, and composite or HDMI video.

Since it's a Linux computer, you can program in many languages.
 

djsfantasi

Joined Apr 11, 2010
9,156
Also, did you realize that the Arduino is programmed with C/C++?

And you can use the Arduino with advanced features such as WiFi with an appropriate shield!

That way, your working with a familiar platform to start and can then migrate to another platform later.

Your choice.
 

AlbertHall

Joined Jun 4, 2014
12,345
I have been trying to do a project with a Nano but it is so hard to debug I am switching to a PIC where the debugging is so much better and the core code is easily transferable. It is just handling the peripherals which needsd attention.
 

danadak

Joined Mar 10, 2018
4,057
Another possibility is PSOC. Families consist of arm cores M0, M0+, M3, and M4 (dual core with M0+ as well).

What distinguishes these are routability and a lot of analog all onchip.

IDE (PSOC Creator) and compiler free. https://www.cypress.com/products/psoc-creator-integrated-design-environment-ide

Boards for dev work $ 10 - https://www.cypress.com/documentati...oc-5lp-prototyping-kit-onboard-programmer-and

Attached a catalog of onchip resources. You drag and drop in gui design environment, set properties, and then
wire up to other onchip or pins. All components (onchip resources) have API libraries you use to manipulate component
at runtime. You can do codeless designs as well, just using basic logic and LUT and counters and......available onchip.......

Here is one simple example using onchip DSP, A/D, OpAmp.....You can see in right hand window resources used/remaining. This design did not use
much of the available resources. Again this is a one chip design.

Lots of videos for training, very strong forum at Cypress website for help.

1583583309421.png


Regards, Dana.
 

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