I was asked this question the other day. What Are Your Most Popular Dev Kits or Reference Design Kits? On impulse, I would venture to say the Raspberry Pi, Beaglebone. I'm sure there are others. Sensor kits, FPGA kits, Motor Contr0ol kits, Power kits, come to mind, but I'm not sure which ones element14 would consider "popular."
So, I figured I would ask you. What are your most popular kits? If you have the time, please leave a comment below.
Thanks
Randall Scasny
-element14 Community
I'm doing this as a hobby, so my dev boards need to be easy so it doesn't feel like work!
Summary:
Currently:
* Wemos (Lolin) D1 Mini (ESP8266) on Arduino IDE
* Raspberry Pi - as a server
* Arduino Uno
Next:
* Raspberry Pi Pico and Pico-W (with Thonny and Python)
* Arduino Uno R4
The presence of plenty of libraries, tutorials and examples is important, as it makes it much easier and quicker for me to build something in the limited time I have for projects.
Most of my projects have been Wemos (Lolin) D1 Mini (ESP8266) based, because they are small and support WiFi, and are very affordable, and can easily be powered with a basic USB phone charger. Many of my recent projects have been smart home sensor type projects, so this fits well. I use the Arduino IDE to program them.
On the receiving end of the WiFi sensors is a Raspberry Pi server. This doesn't technically require a Pi, but the size and low power consumption make it nice for this purpose. I did have a Raspberry Pi as a sprinkler controller for about 7 years, and it was solid and reliable for that, but most of my projects that require wires and external components are better suited to smaller boards.
For proof of concept type builds I still prefer the Arduino Uno - good, solid, reliable, and easy to use.
And I like the Pi Pico a lot - Thonny and Python are easy and fun to use, and those boards have more than enough power, memory, and pins to handle most of my projects. And they can also be easily powered with a little USB charger.
There's a good chance my future projects will be built on Pi Pico and Pi Pico W.
That said, with AI, ML, and machine vision... I might need to pivot to whatever is required to have the most fun 
I'm doing this as a hobby, so my dev boards need to be easy so it doesn't feel like work!
Summary:
Currently:
* Wemos (Lolin) D1 Mini (ESP8266) on Arduino IDE
* Raspberry Pi - as a server
* Arduino Uno
Next:
* Raspberry Pi Pico and Pico-W (with Thonny and Python)
* Arduino Uno R4
The presence of plenty of libraries, tutorials and examples is important, as it makes it much easier and quicker for me to build something in the limited time I have for projects.
Most of my projects have been Wemos (Lolin) D1 Mini (ESP8266) based, because they are small and support WiFi, and are very affordable, and can easily be powered with a basic USB phone charger. Many of my recent projects have been smart home sensor type projects, so this fits well. I use the Arduino IDE to program them.
On the receiving end of the WiFi sensors is a Raspberry Pi server. This doesn't technically require a Pi, but the size and low power consumption make it nice for this purpose. I did have a Raspberry Pi as a sprinkler controller for about 7 years, and it was solid and reliable for that, but most of my projects that require wires and external components are better suited to smaller boards.
For proof of concept type builds I still prefer the Arduino Uno - good, solid, reliable, and easy to use.
And I like the Pi Pico a lot - Thonny and Python are easy and fun to use, and those boards have more than enough power, memory, and pins to handle most of my projects. And they can also be easily powered with a little USB charger.
There's a good chance my future projects will be built on Pi Pico and Pi Pico W.
That said, with AI, ML, and machine vision... I might need to pivot to whatever is required to have the most fun
