Featured Articles
Announcing Pi
Technical Specifications
Raspberry Pi FAQs
Win a Pi
Raspberry Pi Wishlist
Actions
Forum Thread Details
  • Replies 3 replies
  • Subscribers 706 subscribers
  • Views 784 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Related

ARM (Rpi etc) versus 8-bit (Arduino etc)

morgaine

I wrote a balanced review of the pros and cons of ARM versus 8-bit micros in an open-source hardware thread at

 

   http://www.raspberrymod.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=18#p809

 

which might be of interest to other current users of Arduino etc.

 

If anyone has additional pros or cons to add the the list, I would be very interested to hear them.

 

Morgaine.

  • Good points, thanks for the breakdown.  I've only done 8-bit PICs and AVRs, so I'm curious to see what ARM will be like.

  • I think there is no pro (for 8-bit) like:

    8-bit microcontrollers are often more resistant. Using higher voltage or  misconnecting some pin usually does no harm to them (e.g. avr). So 8-bits are also better for a start to better understand using i/o, learn basic concept of architecture and programming without all those fancy, high-level things that you have for example when programming java or similar language.

  • I've started using the PicAxe for really small projects.  Really cheap - £2 or less - easy to interface - 2 resistors for a serial interface - low power - 15uA when sleeping - and very easy to program.

     

    I've got a dome controller for a small astronomical observatory with a PicAxe reading an electronic compass module and sending the position wirelessly to an Arduino that reads the position, controls the dome motor, handles an IR receiver for the hand controller and communicates with a PC to synchronise the dome to the telescope.

    The PicAxe runs continuously off 2 AA batteries, spending most of it's time in a sleep state when nothing is happening.

    Nobody could describe it as powerful or fast but sometimes that's not what is needed.