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What is your take on Qualcomm Arduino becoming Persona Non Grata

colporteur

I'm a big Arduino fan. I recall the purchase announcement.

I chimed in at the time but I've been sidelined for the last year on microcontroller project so I have to experience to speak of.

https://toolguyd.com/qualcomm-arduino-has-become-persona-non-grata/

I read this article and thought E14 peoples could share their insight.

  • Must be one of the biggest myths out there that Arduino is just for hobbyists. Arduino are simply doing what any good sound commercial business would do. Nothing wrong with that at all. They continue to innovate and, in my opinion, the Arduino Uno Q is very innovative.

    Qualcomm are also being very proactive too with the launch of some new dev boards themselves. E.g. This series looks very impressive.

    https://www.qualcomm.com/developer/hardware/qcc74xm-evk


    https://docs.qualcomm.com/doc/87-84454-1/87-84454-1_REV_C_Qualcomm_QCC74xM_programmable_1x1_Wi-Fi_6__Bluetooth__and_IEEE_802_15_4_module_Product_Brief.pdf

    So no, certainly not Persona Non Grata in my book. 

  • More then 200 people is interested in getting Ventuno and revieweing it here on Element14, so I would say it is quite popular: Ventuno Q RoadTest. In fact it is the most popular device we have seen there in at least last 5 years.

    At the same time stocks at distributors are mostly full and it is questionable if Uno Q sells well? To me it seems that many hobbyyists are interested in free Uno Q (like Hackster gave 300 units as part of some competition, E14/Farnell also gave them away in high quanties in various competitions compared to other HW). But I am not sure how many free Uno Q recipients made something production grade with it and bought actual units afterwards. (My personal score: 3 free units, 0 bought Smiley)

  • Arduino started off as a platform to make it easy for people to get started with electronics and they did an amazing job at promoting the ecosystem. There was a board for every level of expertise, all levels of pricing from cheap to expensive. What Qualcomm tried to do apart from the legal chaos in their Terms of Use/Service is try to push a product that not everyone wanted. Arduino Q and Ventuno is something of value to people who needs a combination of Linux and Real-time controller, and to get on the AI bandwagon. Till now People used a Normal SBC (RPi/Jetson etc) along with a microcontroller to get the things done, so on the specs side, it was tempting to have a board with both the MPU and MCU with good hardware integration. But The problem became actual usage. For simple / fusion AI based on sensor reading We do not need SBC. It is usable when we need Lidar/Camera. But Arduino Q does not have physical ports to connect them. Which means I need the expansion board or an USB-C Hub. So instead of a SBC and MCU Board wired together, I am seeing Q, USB Hub wired together. I am losing the freedom of choosing the combination of SBC and MCU in exchange for a good looking board. Usability wise, I give it a thumbs down. 

     mentioned people are interested in Ventuno for reviewing. 300 Units of Q had been given away, 2~3 Design challenges in our community itself had  Arduino Q in their Kits, so on the surface it looks like there are interest, but the question is are people putting their own money to buy the same board? Of course there can be really good use-cases for the Q and Ventuno. I am looking at making one as Home assistant and another to run Klipper, they are all experiments.

    I would not say the boards are persona non-Grata but Qualcomm current strategy/philosophy definitely is.

  • Here's a real experts opinion on the Arduino Uno Q.

    As the author notes: "Why build a board this way? Because the two halves are bad at each other's jobs, and every serious embedded Linux project eventually rediscovers this. Linux gives you Python, OpenCV, TensorFlow-class models, filesystems, and Wi-Fi, but it cannot promise that your code runs in a deterministic manner: a garbage collection pause or a busy scheduler between you and a stepper motor is how projects fail. A microcontroller keeps promises measured in microseconds but would spend all its RAM opening one HTTPS connection. The classic RPi answer is two boards and a USB or uart cable; the UNO Q's answer is one board where the pairing is designed, powered, and (the actually novel part) programmed as a single unit."

    https://derekmolloy.ie/getting-to-know-the-arduino-uno-q-two-brains-one-board-and-zephyr-underneath/

  • in reply to misaz

    A sample size of 200 seems pretty insignificant to me to measure popularity. 

    I hadnt been able to score a free one so my on hand inventory remains 0. 

    I have several RPis already and the Arduino Q is like a RPi with a built in Arduino with no easy way for them to share a register table. 

  • in reply to robogary

    I think it will become popular once a lot of application is build around that platform and there is a high demand for those application.