Imagine what kind of leaps and bounds "hobby" electronics would take if it dropped compatibility for the damn Arduino? Come to the modern age and stop thinking in terms of an 8-bit DIP package dozen MHz microcontroller...
Let's see....
Some Examples...
Freescale Freedom Platform
NCP LPC Xpresso
TI Stellaris Launch Pad.
Each have ARM Cortex M0/M3/M4 variants. All those options are less than an Arduino. They each have accessible IO, lots of tool chain options and aren't crippled by the Arduino front end. (i.e. real debuggers)
NXP even has M0 parts in an 8-pin dip.
Arduino is like the guitar hero version of a microcontroller. Sure, you may look cool and sound OK tethered to a game machine but in the end you are sl
by Anonymous Coward writes:
on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @10:10PM (#48032411)
Sure, you may look cool and sound OK tethered to a game machine but in the end you are slapping 4 plastic buttons.
With Guitar Hero, you are stuck just imitating someone else, while at the end of the day the Arduino still contains a programmable microcontroller that can solve new, original problems. I had not used one until about 6 months ago, when a friend was trying to start up a project that would eventually be maintained and expanded by students. He came to me to get a skeleton hardware setup going for demo purposes, as I had plenty of other mcu experience. I had a basic program up and running in less than a minute, and had the whole thing done in a couple hours including documentation. i've spent more time dealing with customer support, including with one of the products you named, just to get a basic program compiled and programmed into the device due to bugs in their software.
Would I use one in a production environment? No, there are a lot cheaper and more powerful chips that a professional engineer can incorporate into a compact design. But when it comes to suggesting a project for someone learning, or building something that others will pick up and modify to learn, there are a wide variety of situations it will work just fine. I gave one to a friend's son for his birthday, and he had fun getting things going even with minimal programming experience. Now he is learning how to read datasheets for information as his projects get more and more detailed... something that other setups would require be done in reverse order: learn to read datasheets before getting something working, not a path that is easy with kids (or a lot of adults too).
i've spent more time dealing with customer support, including with one of the products you named, just to get a basic program compiled and programmed into the device due to bugs in their software.
Just to clarify what the other poster probably intended: one can spend a long time debugging other mcu systems, especially newer ones that have not been out for long. I've had a few come in that took quite a bit of work to prove what exactly went wrong and that it was a compiler or debugging software error. That takes a lot of back and forth with customer support, and a pretty good understanding of what the device should be doing to track down why it isn't working. Simpler systems that just work are good
Introducing, the 1010, a one-bit processor.
0 NOP No Operation
1 JMP Jump (address specified by next 2 bits)
Arduyawn (Score:-1)
Imagine what kind of leaps and bounds "hobby" electronics would take if it dropped compatibility for the damn Arduino? Come to the modern age and stop thinking in terms of an 8-bit DIP package dozen MHz microcontroller...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:0)
Re:Arduyawn (Score:1)
Sure, you may look cool and sound OK tethered to a game machine but in the end you are slapping 4 plastic buttons.
With Guitar Hero, you are stuck just imitating someone else, while at the end of the day the Arduino still contains a programmable microcontroller that can solve new, original problems. I had not used one until about 6 months ago, when a friend was trying to start up a project that would eventually be maintained and expanded by students. He came to me to get a skeleton hardware setup going for demo purposes, as I had plenty of other mcu experience. I had a basic program up and running in less than a minute, and had the whole thing done in a couple hours including documentation. i've spent more time dealing with customer support, including with one of the products you named, just to get a basic program compiled and programmed into the device due to bugs in their software.
Would I use one in a production environment? No, there are a lot cheaper and more powerful chips that a professional engineer can incorporate into a compact design. But when it comes to suggesting a project for someone learning, or building something that others will pick up and modify to learn, there are a wide variety of situations it will work just fine. I gave one to a friend's son for his birthday, and he had fun getting things going even with minimal programming experience. Now he is learning how to read datasheets for information as his projects get more and more detailed... something that other setups would require be done in reverse order: learn to read datasheets before getting something working, not a path that is easy with kids (or a lot of adults too).
Re: (Score:0)
i've spent more time dealing with customer support, including with one of the products you named, just to get a basic program compiled and programmed into the device due to bugs in their software.
Just to clarify what the other poster probably intended: one can spend a long time debugging other mcu systems, especially newer ones that have not been out for long. I've had a few come in that took quite a bit of work to prove what exactly went wrong and that it was a compiler or debugging software error. That takes a lot of back and forth with customer support, and a pretty good understanding of what the device should be doing to track down why it isn't working. Simpler systems that just work are good