4 ms·

This looks great. In seems from a rough glance at the feature set that there are plenty of boards that do more for not much more money, but my guess is that thi

by SamBam 6y ago

This looks great. In seems from a rough glance at the feature set that there are plenty of boards that do more for not much more money, but my guess is that this is designed mostly for the beginner/educational set, where everything can be nicely standardized and not the Cambrian Explosion of the *duino boards. Is that about right? Speaking of education, does anyone have a favorite mechanical device (toy car, robot, etc) that is compatible with a microcontroller that can be used for teaching little kids? (Month 10 of learning-from-home dragging on here...)

Bigpet 6y ago
Seems to be clocked a lot higher than the lower cost arduino models. And has a little more memory. So it might be worse suited to battery-powered applications, unless you do some power managment. Not that I know what you would necessarily do with more of that compute.
giantg2 6y ago
"but my guess is that this is designed mostly for the beginner/educational set, where everything can be nicely standardized and not the Cambrian Explosion of the *duino boards" That was my take on it. I first saw it and thought of my adurino nanos. Then reading the specs, I wondered why not use an ESP32 with wireless etc. I think they are only $3 more. Standardization was all I was left with.
- regularfry 6y ago
  It's also a nice and relatively straightforward first step into custom silicon, which is probably going to turn out to be quite an important strategic move for them.
  - giantg2 6y ago
    I wouldn't have thought so, but I guess it could. I thought their whole point was to use existing chips that were low cost to promote education. Jumping into custom chips seems like an odd move for that, unless they want to monetize.
    - regularfry 6y ago
      They've got scale now. I think that's the difference.
detaro 6y ago
the PIO part as far as I know does not have a match in anything else in that market segment. I was sceptical too at first, but it seems like this actually does add something new to the market. More examples will be around, but e.g. the first demo going around driving two DVI screens is already pretty neat for what's possible, and other devices would struggle with.
- matthewfelgate 6y ago
  Do you have a link to the demo with two DVI screens?
  - detaro 6y ago
    https://github.com/Wren6991/picodvi https://github.com/Wren6991/picodvi
- davemp 6y ago
  PIO feels like a lateral progression from the arm+fpga socs that have been floating around for awhile. So you could already get socs with even more powerful configurable logic behind their IO. Most FPGAs support partial reconfiguration so they can be reconfigured dynamically as well. PIO is still pretty cool from an ease of use and cost perspective though.
DanBC 6y ago
Have a look at kits for BBC Micro:Bit. EG, this one gives you a nice breakout board and a few sensors and switches. It also gives you an instruction book. You'll also need to buy the actual Micro:Bit too. This kit has a website for more projects here: https://tinkercademy.com/microbit/ https://tinkercademy.com/microbit/ You program the micro:bit in MakeCode in a webbrowser. That also has an emulated device so you can see what it's like without having the actual board. And you can program the Micro:Bit with Python. It looks spendy, and it is, but the colour-coding of the cables and the keyways of the sensor PCBs make it friendly for children. There are lots of kits for micro:bit https://www.elecfreaks.com/micro-bit/kits.html https://www.elecfreaks.com/micro-bit/kits.html You may want to wait for Version 2 to be released. https://www.element14.com/community/docs/DOC-95670/l/introducing-the-bbc-microbit-v2 https://www.element14.com/community/docs/DOC-95670/l/introdu...
- slezyr 6y ago
  > You may want to wait for Version 2 to be released You can already buy it from Ali Express.

by SamBam 6y ago

Bigpet 6y ago

Seems to be clocked a lot higher than the lower cost arduino models. And has a little more memory. So it might be worse suited to battery-powered applications, unless you do some power managment. Not that I know what you would necessarily do with more of that compute.

giantg2 6y ago

"but my guess is that this is designed mostly for the beginner/educational set, where everything can be nicely standardized and not the Cambrian Explosion of the *duino boards" That was my take on it. I first saw it and thought of my adurino nanos. Then reading the specs, I wondered why not use an ESP32 with wireless etc. I think they are only $3 more. Standardization was all I was left with.

regularfry 6y ago
It's also a nice and relatively straightforward first step into custom silicon, which is probably going to turn out to be quite an important strategic move for them.
- giantg2 6y ago
  I wouldn't have thought so, but I guess it could. I thought their whole point was to use existing chips that were low cost to promote education. Jumping into custom chips seems like an odd move for that, unless they want to monetize.
  - regularfry 6y ago
    They've got scale now. I think that's the difference.

detaro 6y ago

the PIO part as far as I know does not have a match in anything else in that market segment. I was sceptical too at first, but it seems like this actually does add something new to the market. More examples will be around, but e.g. the first demo going around driving two DVI screens is already pretty neat for what's possible, and other devices would struggle with.

matthewfelgate 6y ago
Do you have a link to the demo with two DVI screens?
- detaro 6y ago
  https://github.com/Wren6991/picodvi https://github.com/Wren6991/picodvi
davemp 6y ago
PIO feels like a lateral progression from the arm+fpga socs that have been floating around for awhile. So you could already get socs with even more powerful configurable logic behind their IO. Most FPGAs support partial reconfiguration so they can be reconfigured dynamically as well. PIO is still pretty cool from an ease of use and cost perspective though.

DanBC 6y ago

Have a look at kits for BBC Micro:Bit. EG, this one gives you a nice breakout board and a few sensors and switches. It also gives you an instruction book. You'll also need to buy the actual Micro:Bit too. This kit has a website for more projects here: https://tinkercademy.com/microbit/ https://tinkercademy.com/microbit/ You program the micro:bit in MakeCode in a webbrowser. That also has an emulated device so you can see what it's like without having the actual board. And you can program the Micro:Bit with Python. It looks spendy, and it is, but the colour-coding of the cables and the keyways of the sensor PCBs make it friendly for children. There are lots of kits for micro:bit https://www.elecfreaks.com/micro-bit/kits.html https://www.elecfreaks.com/micro-bit/kits.html You may want to wait for Version 2 to be released. https://www.element14.com/community/docs/DOC-95670/l/introducing-the-bbc-microbit-v2 https://www.element14.com/community/docs/DOC-95670/l/introdu...

slezyr 6y ago
> You may want to wait for Version 2 to be released You can already buy it from Ali Express.