Why Arduino is a hit with hardware hackers • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Arduino is a hit with hardware hackers

#21

Post by openfly » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 1:52 PM UTC

nitrogen wrote: post #15

fhars wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At $149, it is more expensive than many Mini-ITX boards with a 1.66MHz dual core Atom, which come with quite a bit more on board peripherals (SATA, 7.1 audio and the like). Once you add RAM the price difference narrows (or even reverses if you put more than 1GB, which you couldn't do withe the BeagleBoard), but you get quite a bit more power and flexibility at a comparable price.

The main advantage of a BeagleBoard over a Mini-ITX system is significantly lower power consumption. The entire BB can run on a single USB port (5V 500ma). Otherwise, cell phones would be running Intel and AMD processors.

The only thing I dislike about the beagle board is that the generation 1 had a faulty USB interface. Also the Serial Connection is a 9 pin. I'd rather they just let me use a standard ft cable.

=/ Arm units are definitely cool. Look at the maple leaf, and other Arm 3 based units. Very very cheap stuff. Very very powerful.

Arm is definitely seizing control of the embedded device market, and linux with it.

Re: Why Arduino is a hit with hardware hackers

#22

Post by ladyada » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 3:08 PM UTC

joezydeco wrote: post #20

ladyada wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is also a total PITA to get 'booted' since it comes blank you need to mkfs a sd card. if you have linux on a computer already, this is pretty easy. but what if you dont have a linux machine ready to go? if you're me you spend 2 days trying to maneuver something, giving up and borrowing a laptop. I've had an easier time getting freebsd onto a Mac SE/30! In the end what i really wanted to do is use the S-Video port…

Do you think the lack of drivers and external support for things like the SVideo is a TI deficiency, or a linux community problem in general? I'm trying to decide between i.MX51 and OMAP3/AM37 for an upcoming project and it seems like the level of support from TI or Freescale is going to be the only thing making a difference in the decision...the chips are just too similar in functionality.

im like the last person you should ask about embedded linux. ive done a smattering of projects but nothing detailed enough to advise :)

that said, i think the svideo thing is a 50/50 linuxwiki/TI problem. on one hand, the linux community loves to say "oh you know, just recompile the kernel" and on the other hand, TI should have made a completely ready-to-go bootimage one could download that demos -everything- on the board.

Re: Why Arduino is a hit with hardware hackers

#23

Post by MHordecki » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 3:27 PM UTC

jgrahamc wrote: post #18

borisk wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. How are you planning to recover the balloon?

So, balloon will be attached to the payload box via rope which has two things attached to it: a parachute and a radar reflector. Reflector is there so aircraft can see the contraption, the parachute will be open all the time, but doing nothing as the balloon ascends. Once the balloon bursts (somewhere over 30km) the parachute will slow the fall. Throughout the payload will broadcast its location derived from GPS over…

This sounds really ambituous. I seriously hope your plan will succeed! Just be sure to document the whole adventure in a.series of blogposts. Project like that is bound to top HN's front age in an instant.

Re: Why Arduino is a hit with hardware hackers

#24

Post by jgrahamc » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 3:36 PM UTC

MHordecki wrote: post #23

jgrahamc wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, balloon will be attached to the payload box via rope which has two things attached to it: a parachute and a radar reflector. Reflector is there so aircraft can see the contraption, the parachute will be open all the time, but doing nothing as the balloon ascends. Once the balloon bursts (somewhere over 30km) the parachute will slow the fall. Throughout the payload will broadcast its location derived from GPS over…

This sounds really ambituous. I seriously hope your plan will succeed! Just be sure to document the whole adventure in a.series of blogposts. Project like that is bound to top HN's front age in an instant.

Others have gone before me, so there's lots of assistance out there. But it should be fun documenting it. Look for my first blog post soon.

Re: Why Arduino is a hit with hardware hackers

#25

Post by th0ma5 » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 3:57 PM UTC

jgrahamc wrote: post #18

borisk wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. How are you planning to recover the balloon?

So, balloon will be attached to the payload box via rope which has two things attached to it: a parachute and a radar reflector. Reflector is there so aircraft can see the contraption, the parachute will be open all the time, but doing nothing as the balloon ascends. Once the balloon bursts (somewhere over 30km) the parachute will slow the fall. Throughout the payload will broadcast its location derived from GPS over…

Can you do APRS? AX.25? Or let me know how you can use the old RTTY for it, very curious!

Re: Why Arduino is a hit with hardware hackers

#26

Post by jgrahamc » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 4:05 PM UTC

th0ma5 wrote: post #25

jgrahamc wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, balloon will be attached to the payload box via rope which has two things attached to it: a parachute and a radar reflector. Reflector is there so aircraft can see the contraption, the parachute will be open all the time, but doing nothing as the balloon ascends. Once the balloon bursts (somewhere over 30km) the parachute will slow the fall. Throughout the payload will broadcast its location derived from GPS over…

Can you do APRS? AX.25? Or let me know how you can use the old RTTY for it, very curious!

I want to downlink some pretty simple information: lat, long, altitude, temperature, so I think RTTY should be good enough. There are some nice modules by Radiometrix which work on 433Mhz (unlicensed band in the UK) (e.g. http://www.radiometrix.com/content/ntx2). The CU Spaceflight folks have been using these modules at 50 baud. I think I'm going to stand on their shoulders for this part.

http://www.radiometrix.com/cu-spaceflight

Re: Why Arduino is a hit with hardware hackers

#27

Post by _cbsz » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 6:56 PM UTC

ladyada wrote: post #13

CamperBob wrote: post #11

The BeagleBoard is stuck in a no-man's-land between low-end 8-bit controllers like Arduino and the many other AVR/PIC platforms, and a full-fledged embedded PC. If I want to monkey with Linux and take advantage of a full 1 GHz ARM core, I probably want to just use a commodity PC motherboard. Chances are, it won't cost much more, and it comes with the huge advantage that I already know how to develop for it.

It is also a total PITA to get 'booted' since it comes blank you need to mkfs a sd card. if you have linux on a computer already, this is pretty easy. but what if you dont have a linux machine ready to go? if you're me you spend 2 days trying to maneuver something, giving up and borrowing a laptop. I've had an easier time getting freebsd onto a Mac SE/30! In the end what i really wanted to do is use the S-Video port…

> what if you dont have a linux machine ready to go?

Ubuntu or Knoppix LiveCDs didn't work for you?

Re: Why Arduino is a hit with hardware hackers

#28

Post by jamesbritt » Fri, Jul 09, 2010, 5:16 AM UTC

jimmyjim wrote: post #2

Cool, I'd been meaning to get an Arduino microcontroller myself. Can anyone give examples of the more interesting projects that are being done with the Arduino that you know of?

I did an Ignite talk last month about wearable computers:

http://www.vimeo.com/13163175

Re: Why Arduino is a hit with hardware hackers

#29

Post by joezydeco » Fri, Jul 09, 2010, 4:43 PM UTC

ladyada wrote: post #22

joezydeco wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think the lack of drivers and external support for things like the SVideo is a TI deficiency, or a linux community problem in general? I'm trying to decide between i.MX51 and OMAP3/AM37 for an upcoming project and it seems like the level of support from TI or Freescale is going to be the only thing making a difference in the decision...the chips are just too similar in functionality.

im like the last person you should ask about embedded linux. ive done a smattering of projects but nothing detailed enough to advise :) that said, i think the svideo thing is a 50/50 linuxwiki/TI problem. on one hand, the linux community loves to say "oh you know, just recompile the kernel" and on the other hand, TI should have made a completely ready-to-go bootimage one could download that demos -everything- on the…

True, it would be nice if the SDK was complete on first silicon. But that never seems to be the case. And if there is code to demo a feature, it's probably a hack.

Re: Why Arduino is a hit with hardware hackers

#30

Post by nitrogen » Fri, Jul 09, 2010, 10:29 PM UTC

openfly wrote: post #21

nitrogen wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main advantage of a BeagleBoard over a Mini-ITX system is significantly lower power consumption. The entire BB can run on a single USB port (5V 500ma). Otherwise, cell phones would be running Intel and AMD processors.

The only thing I dislike about the beagle board is that the generation 1 had a faulty USB interface. Also the Serial Connection is a 9 pin. I'd rather they just let me use a standard ft cable. =/ Arm units are definitely cool. Look at the maple leaf, and other Arm 3 based units. Very very cheap stuff. Very very powerful. Arm is definitely seizing control of the embedded device market, and linux with it.

The USB interface still has issues. They've supposedly fixed them in rev. C4, but I have a C3. My main concern apart from the USB stuff is being able to buy enough units in quantity, with a reasonable turnaround time, if the BB (or any other hobby board) is used in a design.