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What's the benefit of using Android on a micocontrolller? Since these devices will likely have no UI, a significant chunk of the Android API will be irrelevant.
by winter_blue 10y ago
What's the benefit of using Android on a micocontrolller? Since these devices will likely have no UI, a significant chunk of the Android API will be irrelevant.
Is the pro that you get to use Java with a (hopefully) friendly API vs writing in C or C++ as in the old days?
- BoorishBears 10y agoWhy do you assume they'll have no UI? The displays are optional, not disallowed. For what we do at my workplace this is a godsend. We design installations for retail environments that need to have very rich interfaces. For us it's not MCU vs Android, it's embedded PC vs Android hardware. We were already doing similar things with stock Android except we had to use custom boards interfacing over USB to do anything involving sensors to stay somewhat free from specific hardware. We were running into limitations in Android that centered around the fact that it is targeting consumer devices first and foremost. Android 6 brought COSU mode, but it still showed signs of the steady march towards a more locked down Android. Besides the pro of supporting our usecase in a first class manner, having access to the Android UI framework or a web browser is big for those complex interfaces. The productivity gains vs trying to build up that stack from a bare ARM MCU are immeasurable in the literal sense (a separate company contracted to do something like that would probably have more employees than we currently have working on software) And of course, being able to hire Android devs and take advantage of the ecosystem doesn't hurt.