Where do you all get the resources for the design and all the hardware needed to assemble it?
Do you purchase anything?

For PicMicro All the schematics for development boards are on the web site.
I have even made small ones from Vero board.
DigiKey for parts.
Max.

 

I'm using C.H.I.P. But, due to availability issues, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

I became aware of the C.H.I.P. Kickstarter project when I was finally ready to start doing something with a microcontroller. I had considered the others, but decided that if I needed to learn something new I might as well try something new.

After waiting more than a year, I got my first Chip and was happy with it. SBC with a 1GHz single core ARM processor, 512MB memory, 4GB FLASH, pre-installed Debian distro, WiFi, Bluetooth, and I could use C, Perl, CSH, all the stuff I had spent decades becoming proficient with. Not fast, but definitely capable enough for what I wanted. All I needed to learn about was how to use the GPIO's, which I found out were too slow and used the faster native IO's from the SOC.

Oh, and Chip only costed $9.

Fast forward a year or so and NTC (Next Thing Company) has been a disappointment. Things change between OS updates without warning, Chip V1 is no longer available, and there's no ETA (or information) on Chip V2.

Since all of my Chips are early versions, my FLASH capacity is actually 8GB with an OS image that supports MLC FLASH.

I still like the concept. I'd like it even more if I could buy more... At least I got something for my pledge. Other Kickstarter backers haven't been so lucky.

 

The one that works.

Sometimes you need something custom for task like this so you design a board after a prototype is tested.
https://github.com/nsaspook/mass_slit/blob/master/Slow_RMS_DOC.pdf

https://github.com/nsaspook/mass_slit

 

Hi,

To me the Arduino and rPi are in two different classes. There are also very different classes of Arduino.

I use the Arduino Nano and Uno once in a while. The Nano is very small so it fits into things nicely.
The Mega is a really great board for big projects. The Due is nice but 3.3v limited.
I have several Nanos but only a few of the other type.
For the rest i use the PIC chips and make my own boards either hand wired or etched.

This is my view on the question also. Less adding anything how would I measure an analog signal on the Rasberry?

Hello.
I was always interested in what is the most preferred electronics board (Arduino, RasPi...) among the people.
Let's find out!

From the choices I try to choose the best solution for what my objective is, what I want to do. Any of those mentioned may be a good choice or sometimes the best option is to roll your own and build the solution.

Ron

 

The problem with asking for just one is that, for me at least, one size does not fit all. I've made my own boards using PICs and AVRs. I also use arduinos, teensys and ESPs because the IDE is standard and the boot loader means for the most part no extra HW needed (and powers the target). There are a lot of libraries for a huge number of peripherals. Granted the library quality is all over the map but there is nothing like having a starting point to get something up and running. And within this "Arduino class" there is a very broad range of power. I can go from an 8 pin Tiny85 running at 1 Mhz to a 32 bit processor running at >100 mhz with basically a recompile. This is important to me as when I make a library, I want to be able to reuse it on different processors.

Another point on this poll is this site biases towards PICs. Ask on eevblog and you will probably get some flavor of ST. Other sites, AVR.

Also, Arduino is a wide range of products - Uno? Mega? Due? Pro? Micro? Nano?

I use a lot of Nanos because they are breadboard friendly and the uno/mega form factor is breadboard hostile. Also, I can buy a Nano from China for less than the cost of the parts to make it - even quantity 10. Especially when you fold in the cost of all the components and PCB - it's not even close.

 

This is my view on the question also. Less adding anything how would I measure an analog signal on the Rasberry?

From the choices I try to choose the best solution for what my objective is, what I want to do. Any of those mentioned may be a good choice or sometimes the best option is to roll your own and build the solution.

Ron

The pi is a full computer, you get analog voltages as follows: you launch FireFox, then enter "google.com" into the address bar, then type " what is the voltage of a car battery" and click search.

 

Hi,

To me the Arduino and rPi are in two different classes. There are also very different classes of Arduino.

I use the Arduino Nano and Uno once in a while. The Nano is very small so it fits into things nicely.
The Mega is a really great board for big projects. The Due is nice but 3.3v limited.
I have several Nanos but only a few of the other type.
For the rest i use the PIC chips and make my own boards either hand wired or etched.

Al, you should check out the Teensy 3.6 for big projects - $30, 32 bit, 1MB Flash, 256KB ram, 180 mhz, floating point, 50+ I/O pins, sd card, breadboard friendly. Arduino IDE.

 

I also design my own boards, I use mostly PICs now, used to do a lot of 8051 stuff.

 

Al, you should check out the Teensy 3.6 for big projects - $30, 32 bit, 1MB Flash, 256KB ram, 180 mhz, floating point, 50+ I/O pins, sd card, breadboard friendly. Arduino IDE.

Hi,

Looks interesting. Is that a 5v board or a 3.3v board?

 

I design my own also, and I program with this development board...https://shop.mikroe.com/easypic
It lets me program and test all at the same time. Mine is an older version, EasyPic 4..

 

As someone who's used the Arduino resources a fair bit, and has only dabbled a little in going deeper (using a register not supported by the library to change a sensor mode for example,) I'm curious what it is you dislike.

Is it the Arduino IDE, work environment, debugging tools, etc? Do you think the libraries skip too many useful features, or waste code space, RAM, or other resources? What is it that makes it crappy?

If I were going to work on learning new stuff to improve my coding projects, and assuming I wasn't completely shifting to a new realm (PIC, etc,) where should I spend my energy to make the most of my future Arduino-ish projects?

For me its mostly the libraries, that some are barely working and I don´t like debugging other people´s mistakes. I prefer to know what exactly the chip is doing, and to write efficient code.

 

Hi,

Looks interesting. Is that a 5v board or a 3.3v board?

3.3V. The next one down the Teensy 3.5 is 5V tolerant. I like the two lower ones Teensy LC and Teensy 3.2, not as big or fast (still screaming compared to an Uno or Nano) but they both have DACs!

Here's a comparison chart for all the teensys

 

For me its mostly the libraries, that some are barely working and I don´t like debugging other people´s mistakes. I prefer to know what exactly the chip is doing, and to write efficient code.

Seems like an odd reason to dislike the IDE. You can always toss a library and write your own - I do that all the time. But because you can see the library source code, the inner workings can be understood. So, at the very least it's a jump start on your own version. I file it under "more information is better than less". Plus there are a lot of really high quality libraries out there. The AdaFruit libraries are usually good to excellent. and anything from Paul Stoffregen (Mr Teensy) is super high quality.

 

Seems like an odd reason to dislike the IDE. You can always toss a library and write your own - I do that all the time. But because you can see the library source code, the inner workings can be understood. So, at the very least it's a jump start on your own version. I file it under "more information is better than less". Plus there are a lot of really high quality libraries out there. The AdaFruit libraries are usually good to excellent. and anything from Paul Stoffregen (Mr Teensy) is super high quality.

The arduino code is very slow - it may be 16MHz but the number of clock cycles it takes to get though code is huge.
Also, the hidden issues associated with things like changing the PWM frequency changes the delays associated with other functions that everyone used like delay(), micro() or milli()

I would rather know what is going on with the functions that I need instead of trouble shooting an unexpected result from some unrelated settin change. I was hung up on that one early in the life of Arduino and we wasted more time than starting with arduino.

I do use Arduinos occasionally and I think they are great for non-technical people but to really dial in a project, I use a PIC.

 

The arduino code is very slow - it may be 16MHz but the number of clock cycles it takes to get though code is huge.
Also, the hidden issues associated with things like changing the PWM frequency changes the delays associated with other functions that everyone used like delay(), micro() or milli()

I would rather know what is going on with the functions that I need instead of trouble shooting an unexpected result from some unrelated settin change. I was hung up on that one early in the life of Arduino and we wasted more time than starting with arduino.

I do use Arduinos occasionally and I think they are great for non-technical people but to really dial in a project, I use a PIC.

You know that you can write directly to the processor? You can just skip the arduino "abstraction". And if speed is your concern, look at the the Teensys.

 

You know that you can write directly to the processor? You can just skip the arduino "abstraction". And if speed is your concern, look at the the Teensys.

I've used the teensie, it has its own incompatibility issues. Maybe after a few updates if the IDE, they have been resolved. Like I said, there is a place for everything -I use them sometimes.

 

3.3V. The next one down the Teensy 3.5 is 5V tolerant. I like the two lower ones Teensy LC and Teensy 3.2, not as big or fast (still screaming compared to an Uno or Nano) but they both have DACs!

Here's a comparison chart for all the teensys

Hi,

Yes not bad. I might be able to get away with a 3.5 type.

 

The arduino code is very slow - it may be 16MHz but the number of clock cycles it takes to get though code is huge.
Also, the hidden issues associated with things like changing the PWM frequency changes the delays associated with other functions that everyone used like delay(), micro() or milli()

I would rather know what is going on with the functions that I need instead of trouble shooting an unexpected result from some unrelated settin change. I was hung up on that one early in the life of Arduino and we wasted more time than starting with arduino.

I do use Arduinos occasionally and I think they are great for non-technical people but to really dial in a project, I use a PIC.

Hi,

Yeah with some things you really have to know how some of the guts work.
I wrote my own high speed port routines too which are not hard to do really.
There are ways around a lot of stuff too. Some of the people that go to the Arduino site know about this stuff.
For example, using the microsecond delay function is better than using just delay()., For some of my stuff though i just clock the output and adjust as needed.

One thing i do miss though that i had in MpLab was the ability to simulate the code in simulated real fime. That means i could step through the program and record the microseconds it took to get through the loop or whatever. If it did not time right, i just added a few more instructions somewhere until it did time right, but i could always be sure of the time it took. If one branch got through faster than the other branch, i just added some nop's to the faster branch so it all comes out to the same timing no matter what branch the code took. Sounds strange but it's actually pretty easy to do.
Also, i wrote software to automatically code independent time delays for the PIC, which i cant use for Arduino.

I dont think the Arduino is totally professional, like the IDE, but then what software is these days. They all make software that sort of works and sometimes doesnt. Always updates, but NEVER a perfectly operating system.

 

You know that you can write directly to the processor? You can just skip the arduino "abstraction".

I guess you can, but then why use the arduino at all?

 

I guess you can, but then why use the arduino at all?

For lots of reasons - the bootloader and USB power means minimal fussing to set up. Easy infield updates. Lots of good libraries. Tons of sample code. Wide range of performance available. Fast prototyping. Very low cost boards available. Other than that, not much...