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Why we won't be selling Genuino or Arduino any more

blog.pimoroni.com

161–170 of 247 posts

Re: Why we won't be selling Genuino or Arduino any more

#161
post #116

The whole thing is a sham really when you consider the heritage from the Wiring/Processing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiring_(development_platform) Arduino is a commercial version of somebody else's academic work.

>Arduino is a commercial version of somebody else's academic work. How is this a sham? The wikipedia page you link even says Wiring is LGPL (and thus allows commercial/proprietary use).

Well, I guess the point would be that the whole Arduino/Genuino vs. Arduino spat is about who "owns" Arduino. Which is kinda ironic given it's an open source product built from someone else's original work.

Re: Why we won't be selling Genuino or Arduino any more

#162
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought like 2 of them so far and they both were exactly as expected. The only thing to note is that you should try to find those with CPUs (are those CPUs?) similar to the ones from the original designs. Some (the super cheap ones, < $1) often are identical by design but come with some crappy CPU

Almost all the ones I've seen have used the atmega328P. You might see some slightly different models with different amounts of ROM and RAM, but most people would probably never notice the difference. If you need more than a few KB of RAM/ROM, you should probably be getting something STM32 based instead. What does change is the Serial > USB converters that they use. The more expensive ones (>£3) tend to use FTDI chips…

> If you need more than a few KB of RAM/ROM, you should probably be getting something STM32 based instead.

Which might not be a bad idea anyways. The Arduino framework's been ported to STM32 (stm32duino.com), and you can get a board and programmer for under $10.

Re: Why we won't be selling Genuino or Arduino any more

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they're much friendlier to get started for the novice, most of the widespread examples seem extremely trivial to someone with experience. Now- I'm DEFINITELY not an expert, probably barely mediocre with the EE fundamentals, but I did take a lot of EE and some robotics at Uni to get my degree in Computer Engineering. I am nothing more than a hobbyist but some of my cooler projects have been: - Autonomous 4WD r…

Similar to the nerd question - could you describe your approach to the freezer monitor? I have a cabin I don't live nearby to, and I basically can't keep anything in the freezer. It seems to go out often enough to unfreeze then refreeze the ice cube water. I was thinking a flat thermistor. Then I started thinking - what if it's not the power, but the freezer itself? Now I'm getting into a battery to log when power is…

I keep approximately 5 minutes of temp readings (used a TMP36 sensor) at 1 minute intervals using an RTC (Real Time Clock) to more accurately time it. I made a small 'power tester' circuit that basically acts like a normally open button and closes when there's no power coming into the freezer. I may or may not have spliced into the wiring of the freezer for this and lied to my wife about it when she asked if I was going to burn the house down.

Side note: Is it just me or does it seem like you get asked this question frequently?

I have the 'button' circuit wired into an Arduino I/O pin just like you would an old normally open button. When the 'button' circuit closes the Arduino triggers a VERY audible siren I cut out of an old water leak detector. If I have 5 minutes above my temp threshold the siren goes off. I upgraded it over time to use a small LiOn battery and got a circuit to switch to it when incoming power is cut for whatever reason, and basically when in battery mode it's also siren time. I got through 10 minutes of siren battery testing before deciding it was good enough and I was tired of hearing it.

We've talked about doing something similar for the propane fridge and an activity sensor in my friend's cabin in remote central Oregon using a 3G breakout for communications but we've run into the issue that the 3G there is really spotty and we just couldn't reliably get a data connection out there. Also debugging electronics with no internet, running off generator and batteries, and in the dark because we were fishing all day doesn't lend itself to really getting the job done.

Since you have WiFi you may have what you need to do it more simply, although the 3G might be a safety net for the safety net once you get your solution done. My biggest problem at the cabin, besides the lack of cell coverage, is the lack of constant power. There's barely any solar power, and it's used to keep the batteries conditioned, and it's often weeks or months between people getting out there. I would think at your place you could pretty much just use my approach and add WiFi, or just use an ESP8266 instead of an Arduino and do everything else the same. The battery switchover stuff was the biggest pain in my butt, mostly just because I've not got a ton of LiOn experience.

EDIT: On the RTC and temp logging, it's really not necessary. I just did it to do it. You can use the oscillation ticks and a counter to get close enough. Hell, you can just bump the threshold up a little and raise the alarm as soon as you see it without logging anything and get a drastically simpler circuit.

Re: Why we won't be selling Genuino or Arduino any more

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar to the nerd question - could you describe your approach to the freezer monitor? I have a cabin I don't live nearby to, and I basically can't keep anything in the freezer. It seems to go out often enough to unfreeze then refreeze the ice cube water. I was thinking a flat thermistor. Then I started thinking - what if it's not the power, but the freezer itself? Now I'm getting into a battery to log when power is…

We used to put a marble and water in an empty camera film roll canister (transparant). Freeze in the freezer and flip over. If you come back and the Marble is frozen on the bottom of the canister: don't eat anything! #lowtech

I love low-tech solutions like this.

Re: Why we won't be selling Genuino or Arduino any more

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar to the nerd question - could you describe your approach to the freezer monitor? I have a cabin I don't live nearby to, and I basically can't keep anything in the freezer. It seems to go out often enough to unfreeze then refreeze the ice cube water. I was thinking a flat thermistor. Then I started thinking - what if it's not the power, but the freezer itself? Now I'm getting into a battery to log when power is…

We used to put a marble and water in an empty camera film roll canister (transparant). Freeze in the freezer and flip over. If you come back and the Marble is frozen on the bottom of the canister: don't eat anything! #lowtech

Low effort too: I just look at the ice in the bucket rose if it's frozen in a blob - or a pool of frozen water at the bottom. :)

Re: Why we won't be selling Genuino or Arduino any more

#166

Serious question: what are people building with these boards? The recurring projects I've seen are controlling lights, doors/locks and monitoring water in plants. I don't find these particularly compelling, am I missing something? How is this the next big thing?

These boards are just low cost "evaluation" bards for whatever chip is on them. If we include larger chips ( say an ARM Cortex A8 on the Beaglebone Black ) , they're great for test fixtures and prototyping systems.

Re: Why we won't be selling Genuino or Arduino any more

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar to the nerd question - could you describe your approach to the freezer monitor? I have a cabin I don't live nearby to, and I basically can't keep anything in the freezer. It seems to go out often enough to unfreeze then refreeze the ice cube water. I was thinking a flat thermistor. Then I started thinking - what if it's not the power, but the freezer itself? Now I'm getting into a battery to log when power is…

We used to put a marble and water in an empty camera film roll canister (transparant). Freeze in the freezer and flip over. If you come back and the Marble is frozen on the bottom of the canister: don't eat anything! #lowtech

This is a tip EVERYONE should know and I still do this! I use a half filled bottle of water, a small rock, and mark safe/not safe so anyone who's not me knows which way it should be.

Pretty sure it was my great-grandpa who taught me that.

Re: Why we won't be selling Genuino or Arduino any more

#168
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not true to all countries and regions. For example, in Brazil a raspberry pi 3 will cost a bit more than USD 100 which is a lot of money for many people and prevent it from being acquired by low and middle income classes which are arguably among the ones that would most benefit from access to this ecosystem. Arduino/Genuinos on the other hand are easily available on our version of eBay and can be purchased as…

Yikes! Is that because the main distributors (RS/Allied Electronics/Newark) charge more to ship it to Brazil, or do they just not ship there at all and make you purchase through more expensive re-sellers? (Or is it something else like tariffs?)

Of the main Pi distributors, only Newark had local operations, and they closed shop last year.

Now the cost is higher due to low volume imports, so you end up paying more for shipping the boards. Also, taxes are higher if an individual is importing stuff, as customs use a simplified 60% tax over the retail price vs using the specific import tax (around 45% for the Pi) over the reseller price.

Re: Why we won't be selling Genuino or Arduino any more

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar to the nerd question - could you describe your approach to the freezer monitor? I have a cabin I don't live nearby to, and I basically can't keep anything in the freezer. It seems to go out often enough to unfreeze then refreeze the ice cube water. I was thinking a flat thermistor. Then I started thinking - what if it's not the power, but the freezer itself? Now I'm getting into a battery to log when power is…

We used to put a marble and water in an empty camera film roll canister (transparant). Freeze in the freezer and flip over. If you come back and the Marble is frozen on the bottom of the canister: don't eat anything! #lowtech

I remember that my parents' old freezer had something like this built-in (using colored liquid instead of the marble, but the principle is the same). Seemed like such an easy and obvious feature.

Re: Why we won't be selling Genuino or Arduino any more

#170
This article acknowledges over and over that Arduino/Genuino is following common business practices. They are complaining that arduino has become too big, and it's not nice for them, because pomoroni is also big. Kind of ironic, really.

Yes, they want to cultivate a new brand while defending the old brand. It's awkward and I'm sure they aren't happy about it either.

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