Arduino vs. Raspberry Pi

I am impressed and now stand corrected, I do notice these are all new code bases though and that at the time I made this comment it was a fair one

I am happy someone has taken the time and cracked open the hardware available on the PI to make the likes of this work even if at a limited scale, but over time it will get better

there seem to be a few issues left to be resolved like High CPU usage, this can not be due to the use of DMA but probably more due to the math or at least management of the colour flows

My comment regarding the timing is still true regarding Micro-controllers vs micro-processors though in that the uController will always be more accurate and predictable but for lighting, if the strand update is completely taken care of with the DMA hardware engine and only pattern calculations and updates are handles by the PI, within limits the timing variances will not be perceived by the eye, go to a bigger array and they probably will but then this is where the arduino as a stand alone controller (Or other lower level micro-controller with limited resources) will start to run out of RAM

which brings us right back in a circle, but with a slight change...

A PI or similar embedded linux or other higher level OS acting as a master controller performing the math and sequencing calculations, sending the changes to dedicated controllers that (now one can add the PI to that list) will handle the actual streaming of the pixel data. The micro-controllers have the advantage here only in cost to implement

So as I said, I stand correct and have learned a couple of nice things in the process but my basic approach to this kind of thing has not changed, A master controller, and Slaves are the way to go with the larger and more complex implementations, if your an experimenter and building less elaborate systems then you can now use what ever small system you happen to have and that is excellent for students or any hobbyist on a budget

Nice post martinclemons, This will make  a lot of people happy as we approach the XMAS period and they want to have a go at light shows for decorations etc

Thank you

Regards

Peter

Have a look at https://github.com/626Pilot/RaspberryPi-NeoPixel-WS2812

Also: have a look at https://learn.adafruit.com/neopixels-on-raspberry-pi?view=all

:-)

EDIT: I just so happened to have that GitHub Page open and was reading though the code when I got the notification that you had replied to this thread :-p Dam good timing :-p

I've got a string of these running atm. I'm using the top link for some testing. Its got a few "bugs" in it but it seems to be running just OK. Time to play.

@Peter Oakes,

Peter Oakes wrote:

 

Well that's a majority then, I initially went with Arduino  (Had not finished the morning coffee ) but then realized the exact same as your all saying. Both boards and a mi-rad of others are good for select purposes, and in fact can and do get used together. In my own example I have used a PI as a master controller (Loads of thinking power, don't care about fast or accurate timing and it has the capability for security, networking and display all in the box) but then used Arduino or TI Launch pads for the various controllers around the installation where i want low power, reliable timing (Predictable) and can be built really cheaply (Relative to using PI components for example. Boards can be designed and manufactured for just a few dollars these days)

 

but I would never use a PI to control a string of WS2812B LED's as it will never get the timing reliable or even working at all.

 

So as said, both equally good , it just depends on the usage

Oops! just what I wanted to do. But I have a few tricks up my sleeve to make this work.

Interesting,

Clem

I just made the switch from RPi to Arduino.  I started with the RPi because I was afraid of the Arduino, and wasn't sure what I would be able to do with it.  I felt that the RPi was more welcoming, and would be easier to get started with.  I built a lot of projects, but they always got torn apart when I was done.  Nothing stayed around.  Then I got a Gertboard for Christmas and started to play with the ATMega on there.  Really learned how easy it was and how it was like the RPi when doing digital in and out, only faster, and more real time.  I made the transition from python to C++ fairly easily, as I have done a little Java and a little C programming in the past.  Now I can build a project, solder it together, and insert a $4 chip that I program on my Arduino on it.  I love that things are more permanent, and that I don't have to give up my $35 RPi to make it that way.

I'm using both, literally right now.  I have my Arduino Uno hooked up to my Raspberry Pi B+ and I'm going through the Sparkfun Inventor's Kit getting started guide.  Its a great compact setup.  I can power the Pi with a cheap battery pack and vnc in with my OnePlus One android device.  I think the two products compliment each other well.

You can't fully replicate the function of an Arduino solely on a Pi, and you can't use an Arduino like a Pi.  They both ROCK!

I voted Pi but only to balance the results As others have said, it depends entirely on what you want to do with your board. Do you want a system that has a desktop, mouse and keyboard and programming languages such as python or do you want a system that has an ide on another machine that you program and send to the board? I use both and it totally depends on what you I am intending the system to do.

I know this is probably too late now but I think this is a good question that quite a few people ask themselves, hence the reply!

The non -poll still has legs at some 28K views more than sensible polls  what is this about one board vs another not least because they are not similar.... Hamsters vs Antelope .....Fight!!!! ..

Totally agree.

Tim

I agree with many of the posters on here. The poll is impossible to answer accurately. The suitability of either platform will depend on the application, I have used both in various projects.

The Raspberry Pi. Why?

With either you are going to need a breadboard and a few other bits an bobs to get started right. So let's pretend you have picked though on their own.

Well now you can use the GPIO pins (specifically the SPI pins) of the Raspberry Pi and AVRDUDE (A nice modded version is out there to take advance of the SPI pins on the Pi but you can just use the linuxgpio mode of AVRDUDE instead) to flash the Arduino bootloader onto blank ATMega microcontrollers. Heck you don't even need to put the bootloader on the micro, just write your code in the Arduino IDE and write it directly to the Micro.

Now you can also use the two together. The Pi is great a somethings (Connecting to the internet to name just one) but lacks in other areas (Such as the lack of analog pins) so now you can take your "Arduino" and get it to do all the real-time analog sensing stuff, get it to report back to the pi which can take care of the heavy lifting non time critical stuff like securely posting your data logging to the net or acting as a TLS Protected Web Server.

So as you have only given me the option for One I am going with the Pi only because you could use it to create the other.