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Unpopular Opinion: Don’t Use a Raspberry Pi for That

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Re: Unpopular Opinion: Don’t Use a Raspberry Pi for That

#91

Post by ta988 »

steve_adams_86 wrote: post #59
gaudat wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shhhh stop spilling our secret to the software people... The semiconductor shortage is bad enough already... That said though, programming embedded devices like Arduino and ESP32 needs a completely different style of thinking than with high level languages or web stuff. Things like MicroPython reduces the friction just a bit to make it easy enough to get on board.

The thing that tripped me up the most was concurrent tasks. In languages like Go or JavaScript it’s pretty easy to figure out how to decrement a timer or wait until x time to perform a task without having the waiting period be blocking. On an arduino, you have a few options but none of them are likely to be familiar to high level software devs. It isn’t rocket science, but there are loads of little details like that…

Many microcontrolers have timers and counters or even state machines (PIOs on RP2040 is a nice example of that) for this reason. They allow you to handle those cases out of the main computing unit. The MSP430s are also full of these magic things. They are harder to get introduced to than just writing Python. But you don't realize how powerful those things are until you step out of how you were handling things on a multi-GHz computer with ton of RAM.

Re: Unpopular Opinion: Don’t Use a Raspberry Pi for That

#92

Post by sheepdog »

geocrasher wrote: post #11

If you don't need GPIO, then you don't need a RPi. They are useful, but an old laptop can do most things a Pi can do, and putting them to use keeps them out of the landfill longer.

Agreed. A laptop also comes with battery backup, screen, and input devices out of the gate. Granted, it consumes more power than RPi. But a laptop is definitely a solid choice, based on my experience with RPi resets and corrupted SD cards, etc.

Re: Unpopular Opinion: Don’t Use a Raspberry Pi for That

#95

Post by t344344 »

some_random wrote: post #27

I typically see two kinds of raspi hate, and only one of them is reasonable imo. The first is stuff like this article, where you can probably get something better than a raspi these days for about the same price (especially when you consider scalper pricing) or just run a docker image in a server you can make with an old computer. This is very good advice, especially now that getting a raspi at MSRP is borderline imp…

I hate PI because its hardware is just junk. Cheap low end stuff designed for consumer electronics like TVs!

Devops like to use Intel NIC, ECC memory only. But somehow Pi junk gets pass because it is "open-source" or what.

Great, we will run this mission critical deployment from cheap SD CARD!!!!!

Re: Unpopular Opinion: Don’t Use a Raspberry Pi for That

#96

Post by Delphiza »

tambourine_man wrote: post #58

If your alternative to RPis are used NUCs or laptops, than you lost me. I want reliable and quiet. I have RPis running for more than a decade everyday with not a single crash. In what conditions are those used PSU? Who knows. I'm also not a fan of bringing other people's dust and keyboard grease along.

"NUC"s can be fanless PCs. The fanless part makes them quiet. There are no moving parts to make a noise.

Re: Unpopular Opinion: Don’t Use a Raspberry Pi for That

#97

Post by justeleblanc »

geocrasher wrote: post #61
comprev wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A laptop would consume significantly more power than an RPi.

I hear this argument all the time. But unless you're doing something that's solar, battery, RTG or otherwise non-grid powered, then what does it really matter? At what scale is a person running so many old laptops that they need to switch to RPi's to save power? And if that person can afford the Pi's, they can afford the power, so there's no point quoting power costs.

I can also afford to let my faucet run 24/7. Should I do it to avoid needing to turn the knob when I need to wash my hands?

Re: Unpopular Opinion: Don’t Use a Raspberry Pi for That

#98

Post by gaudat »

ta988 wrote: post #91
steve_adams_86 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing that tripped me up the most was concurrent tasks. In languages like Go or JavaScript it’s pretty easy to figure out how to decrement a timer or wait until x time to perform a task without having the waiting period be blocking. On an arduino, you have a few options but none of them are likely to be familiar to high level software devs. It isn’t rocket science, but there are loads of little details like that…

Many microcontrolers have timers and counters or even state machines (PIOs on RP2040 is a nice example of that) for this reason. They allow you to handle those cases out of the main computing unit. The MSP430s are also full of these magic things. They are harder to get introduced to than just writing Python. But you don't realize how powerful those things are until you step out of how you were handling things on a mu…

And these peripherals can run at hundreds of MHz doing real work in every cycle. I can probably do very low latency audio processing with an interrupt firing at the sample rate. Delay is a few samples instead of at least couple of ms like on a PC with an audio interface.

Re: Unpopular Opinion: Don’t Use a Raspberry Pi for That

#99

Post by sircastor »

t344344 wrote: post #95
some_random wrote: post #27

I typically see two kinds of raspi hate, and only one of them is reasonable imo. The first is stuff like this article, where you can probably get something better than a raspi these days for about the same price (especially when you consider scalper pricing) or just run a docker image in a server you can make with an old computer. This is very good advice, especially now that getting a raspi at MSRP is borderline imp…

I hate PI because its hardware is just junk. Cheap low end stuff designed for consumer electronics like TVs! Devops like to use Intel NIC, ECC memory only. But somehow Pi junk gets pass because it is "open-source" or what. Great, we will run this mission critical deployment from cheap SD CARD!!!!!

The funny thing about hardware and non-nerds/non-EEs/etc. is that most people don't care if the components are "junk". They care if they can make their project work on it. They care how much time it takes from beginning to end. They care how easy it is to get help when something doesn't make sense.

It's small, it's inexpensive, it gets the job done.

Re: Unpopular Opinion: Don’t Use a Raspberry Pi for That

#100

Post by sircastor »

afavour wrote: post #70
shrimp_emoji wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Eh, “web dev” hate is overplayed. Most devs are “higher level” devs, be that web, Java, .NET, whatever. The professional incentive isn’t there to become a lower level programmer for many. Doesn’t mean they’re dumb, they’re just heading where the work is.

> Doesn’t mean they’re dumb, they’re just heading where the work is.

And the money is much more lucrative in Web Dev than it is in embedded right now.

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