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Arduino Goes Pro at CES 2020

blog.arduino.cc

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Re: Arduino Goes Pro at CES 2020

#61
post #4

Not trying to troll - just don't know. Why would anybody use an Arduino versus a five dollar Raspberry Pi Zero?

You control every clock cycle on an embedded controller.

You are at the mercy of the OS on a Pi.

For somethings that doesn't matter at all, for others it really, really does.

Re: Arduino Goes Pro at CES 2020

#64
post #50

>The Portenta H7 is capable of running Arduino code, Python and JavaScript, making it accessible to an even broader audience of developers. "Here, now you can buy hardware that enables you to hire bootcamp-level devs to do your professional industrial work. That way you can pay non-professional wages for professional-level work!" Stop normalizing putting bloated, heavy languages on embedded platforms.

Your phrasing is snarky, but you make a reasonable point. Arduino performance is already atrocious with C and it's only going to get worse with a higher-level language.

Re: Arduino Goes Pro at CES 2020

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm doing a hardware selection and after much consideration, I'm picking a 3$ esp8266. I don't see any purpose of Arduino outside education for kids. Makers should use cheaper products/knockoffs at worse.

The ESP8266 doesn't have hardware PWM, and only a single ADC channel, both which can make it unfit for a lot of tasks. That said, it does come with a lot of SRAM and the wifi/bt connectivity is obviously great.

The only very slightly more expensive ESP32 boards have 18 ADC channels, 16 PWM channels, and 2 DAC channels.

Re: Arduino Goes Pro at CES 2020

#66
post #18
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

javascript and python support seem like huge improvements

On one hand I think it's ridiculous to mention these languages for industrial applications. But I've also just spent the past year programming an automated mobile restaurant. We use a traditional PLC for everything safety or time-sensitive, but everything else is JavaScript. We're planning to use even more JS on the next-gen system. Details are in my profile if you want to help, or if you want to convince me otherwis…

BASIC was a common industrial automation language at one time. If the platform has the resources, use them.

Re: Arduino Goes Pro at CES 2020

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would have thought that the real competition was the ESP32. It stays in the microcontroller space (no OS to manage, should stay lower power, etc.), dirt cheap, ships with wifi+bluetooth.

I'm doing a hardware selection and after much consideration, I'm picking a 3$ esp8266. I don't see any purpose of Arduino outside education for kids. Makers should use cheaper products/knockoffs at worse.

I recommend trying the ESP32 as well (more pins for ADC and a few other features).

Either way, the ESP's are an incredible value (I use both).

Re: Arduino Goes Pro at CES 2020

#68

Looks like they're finally using a top-of-the-line MCU, the STM32H7. Very nice. Unfortunately I don't see how this is a significant improvement otherwise for industrial uses, where the biggest barrier for custom components is certifications (FCC, UL, CE, ATEX, etc).

Those SMT32H7s are some beefy cores. Colocal M7 and M4. Lots of fun, compact deep learning work going on for those chips. Same with NXP's RT1000 series.

... In theory, if you could debug your code. The debugging capabilities on Arduino boards are unfortunately basically inexistent compared to traditional MCU dev boards. Hardware is great I agree though.

Re: Arduino Goes Pro at CES 2020

#69

Why wouldn't you move to the existing STM32 ecosystem instead of sticking with Arduino for pro/industrial applications?

Most of Arduino's value proposition is easy programmability by non-professionals, with a vast library of examples. Cheap and powerful STM32 boards have been around for years about as long as arduino, supported by a number of free toolchains. But the care and feeding of said toolchains and libraries requires a lot more technical knowledge than Arduino's ecosystem.

Since https://platformio.org/ that is no longer the case as well.

Re: Arduino Goes Pro at CES 2020

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those SMT32H7s are some beefy cores. Colocal M7 and M4. Lots of fun, compact deep learning work going on for those chips. Same with NXP's RT1000 series.

... In theory, if you could debug your code. The debugging capabilities on Arduino boards are unfortunately basically inexistent compared to traditional MCU dev boards. Hardware is great I agree though.

Which in my opinion makes the "goes pro" statement misleading. Without proper JTAG/SWD debugging functionalities, how do you program anything serious on Arduino?
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