Open-Source uC Circuit Boards -- Comparisons & Conversation

[ISamson]

Hello,
Having bought now my Arduino UNO I can't help but notice how many other open-source and similar boards there are (RaspberryPi, CIRCUIT Computer...). My friend has a RaspberryPi 2 and sometimes talks to me about it. I can't help but wonder what is the difference between all these such similar boards? There are many projects for all of them but which is more popular? What makes them so different?
I would like to dedicate this thread to a discussion and comparison between these boards and would enjoy to hear the opinions of some experienced Makers!
Thank you.
@Borek
@jim hardy
@cnh1995
@Borg
@scottdave
@William123
@hackhard
@Antuntun

 

[donpacino]

An arduino is a microcontroller board and a raspberry PI is a small general purpose computer.

Simply put, a raspberry pi is more complicated and has more "horsepower" whereas an Arduino is simpler with less horsepower.

raspis can run linux and actually act like a pc. an arduino is better suited for

neither is better, it just depends on your application. aruidnos are a great starting point for embedded systems, raspbery pis are really olny essential over arudinos if you need to run linux, or have VERY heave application level software. For reference the aruino uno can control a GPS guided quadcoptor, so it's not exactly a slouch.

 

[ISamson]

An arduino is a microcontroller board and a raspberry PI is a small general purpose computer.

And what is the difference between a microcontroller and a small general purpose computer?

 

[donpacino]

a computer is like your PC. It has a sound card, a video card, usb inputs and outputs, a lot of ram, ethernet connection, possibly wifi connection. It will prob have more horsepower. It has has a microprocessor that does a lot of the legwork.

A microntroller is a microprocessor that often has built small amounts of ram, interrupt ports, and I/O for controlling descretes (like a light switch). They can have other features too

 

[rbelli1]

The Linux based computers (Raspberry Pi et. al.) have multiple Gigahertz+ 64-bit CPU cores on them. The Arduino style ones often have single sub 100MHz 8-bit cores.

This does not automatically make the Raspi better than the 'duino. There are some tasks that the 8-bit CPU dedicated to a sole task will greatly exceed the performance of the pocket super computer with a general purpose OS.

Anything where you need tight timing control is best left to the smaller micros. For example think about if you were controlling the ignition on an engine with the Linux computer. Click on an icon and take a couple tenths of a second to open an application and your engine stalls or potentially damages itself.

A popular choice is to have a big lumbering Pi controlling a number of small single purpose micros. There are some variants of the Linux mini boards that include this built in.

BoB

 

[ISamson]

The Linux based computers

What do you mean by Linux based?
Does it mean that the system it runs on is Linux?
I.

 

[donpacino]

What do you mean by Linux based?
Does it mean that the system it runs on is Linux?
I.

Linux is an open source operating system, much like windows or mac os.

Anything where you need tight timing control is best left to the smaller micros. For example think about if you were controlling the ignition on an engine with the Linux computer. Click on an icon and take a couple tenths of a second to open an application and your engine stalls or potentially damages itself.

You don't need to run linux, you can get barebones programs to work (although its harder to do than with an arudino). Also there are OS's that are proper RTOS, or properly scheduled systems such that you can run systems like motors and engines.

 

[Svein]

You don't need to run linux, you can get barebones programs to work (although its harder to do than with an arudino). Also there are OS's that are proper RTOS, or properly scheduled systems such that you can run systems like motors and engines.

In addition, you can have it both ways - there exists Real-Time versions of Linux. A good place to start reading is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RTLinux.