What do you folks think of Arduino?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers around the use of Arduino for building autonomous robots, exploring its capabilities, limitations, and potential alternatives or upgrades. Participants share their experiences and suggest various approaches to enhance robotic control applications.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant notes that while Arduino works well for building autonomous robots, it has storage and voltage limitations, prompting a question about potential upgrades.
  • Another participant suggests that Arduino is effective as a robotic controller due to its numerous I/O ports, but mentions challenges with code development and proposes using Raspberry Pi in conjunction with Arduino for enhanced functionality.
  • A different viewpoint highlights the versatility of Arduino and Raspberry Pi, mentioning their use in various applications, including hacking, and suggests using separate controllers for higher voltage servos and motors.
  • One participant critiques Arduino's user-friendliness for controlling multiple servos or reading sensors, recommending the Pololu Maestro Controller as a more suitable alternative for such tasks.
  • Another participant acknowledges that while the Pololu may address power issues, it does not resolve memory limitations associated with Arduino.
  • A later reply proposes using a mini desktop as a potential solution for memory problems, claiming it to be superior to other options available.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a range of opinions regarding the effectiveness of Arduino, with some advocating for its use while others suggest alternatives like Raspberry Pi or the Pololu Maestro Controller. The discussion remains unresolved regarding the best approach to address the limitations mentioned.

Contextual Notes

Participants discuss various technical aspects, including power management, memory limitations, and programming environments, without reaching a consensus on the optimal solution for robotic control.

KaleLetendre
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What do you guys think of Arduino? I have been using to build little autonomous robots and it seems to work pretty well other than storage and voltage limitations. Is there anything better i could upgrade to or should i just stick with it?
 
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Arduino is good as a robotic controller. It has a lot of I/O ports for that kind of work. The difficulty is the development and downloading of code. In order to fix that, some folks have done projects using a combination of arduino and raspberry-pi. The Pi can be programmed directly and then be connected to the arduino to send it commands.

In a sense, you'd use the arduino for low-level robotics and the Pi for higher level robotics. The two together provide a very powerful platform for robotic control applications.

http://readwrite.com/2014/04/16/arduino-raspberry-pi-connected-home-tutorials-projects/
 
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Arduino and Raspberry Pi are versatile little critters, useful for much more. Even hackers use them, but I won't discuss that. WiFi connectivity brings options for storage. For powering higher voltage servos and motors you'd just use controllers that can connect to them but handle more power with power transistors or SCRs, with a separate power source for that load.
 
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Arduino is not very user friendly when it comes to controlling multiple servos or reading sensors. The Pololu Maestro Controller can control up to 24 servos and be programmed in C# in Visual Studio through the USB port. Each servo/sensor has three pins on the board : positive,negative, and signal. The Arduino has it's pins all over the place. If a controller requires a unique company created IDE don't waste your time. The Maestro Controller is made for common programming languages.

This board in the link has 6 ports for servos,inputs, and outputs.

https://www.pololu.com/product/1350
 
Looks like the Polulu might solve the power problem but not the memory issue; the link has follow ons to GitHub to info on using Arduinos to control Polulus.
 
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