3 ms·

It's why I much prefer the Arduino platform. It doesn't depend on using a very specific chip that can suffer a shortage or be monopolized by the manufacturer.

It's why I much prefer the Arduino platform. It doesn't depend on using a very specific chip that can suffer a shortage or be monopolized by the manufacturer. It's an ecosystem that can use several families of chips, from 8 bit AVRs to 32 bit ARMs. The Arduino code you find online will most likely work on either one, as the most used low level functionality (timers, GPIO, etc.) are abstracted by a high level API that will work on any microcontroller supported by the Arduino IDE. The RaspbeeryPi ecosystem is too tightly coupled to that very specific Broadcom chip family, which gives them and the RaspberryPI foundation, a powerful monopoly.

moffkalast 4y ago
Arduino is good, but it can be better ;) The ESP32 is really a major upgrade in almost all areas. SPIFFs webpages as control apps via a wifi hotspot are just so damn convenient.
TaylorAlexander 4y ago
Well the Raspberry Pi and Arduino are two different kinds of computers. When you need a full Linux system Raspberry Pi is great. For embedded applications Arduino is handy. But there is now the RP2040, a processor from Raspberry Pi that works well in most Arduino-like applications. It has a lot of very powerful features! And what’s interesting is that last time I checked this, it was the most in stock processor at Digikey (to pick one vendor as an example). The stock numbers for the RP2040 are very high, and I suspect it will never experience a shortage. The RP2040 and its dev board the Raspberry Pi Pico don’t depend on Broadcom and they’re wonderful chips. If you do a lot of Arduino I highly recommend checking it out!
- ChuckNorris89 4y ago
  >When you need a full Linux system Raspberry Pi is great. Then you're much better off getting one of the endlessly available low-power X86 small form factor platforms either new or off the second hand market, available with Intel or AMD chips. And unlike the Broadcom based R-PI, you'll have a much better time as you won't get locked into any specific chip vendor so you can easily migrate to whatever chip offers you the best price or performance or energy efficiency at the time of purchase. The standardization of the X86 platforms is unbeatable by the current crop of ARM SBCs with their proprietary firmware blobs and weird boot methods. Locking yourself into a very specific chip platform of a single manufacturer, just for running linux and a web server, is a huge mistake and we're now seeing the consequences of not having a competitor/dual source.
  - TaylorAlexander 4y ago
    Depends on your needs. The raspberry pi may have poor stock right now, but when available they are cheap, low power, and have excellent documentation. I’m designing an open source autonomous farming robot and we’ve been using the Raspberry Pi CM4 as the main computer on the motherboard for a while now. It’s perfect for us. I feel like x86 would be a mess. The I/O on the CM4 is extremely important to us, and on the custom motherboard I designed we’re using every available pin of the CM4 to communicate to serial, SPI, I2C, and GPIO peripherals on the motherboard. > Locking yourself into a very specific chip platform of a single manufacturer, just for running linux and a web server Ah, yeah, I am very much not doing this and I’m surprised you didn’t start your comment with this stipulation. I use raspberry pi for robotics where the standardized documentation and abundant I/O are extremely helpful.
  - KaiserPro 4y ago
    Yeah but what are you _after_ though? if you want a simple host of software, then yeah a VM/docker host on a low powered x86 machine is probably what you want. but. As soon as you start worrying about power, or GPIO, then it starts to get a bit messy. There is still a sweetspot for the rpi. but as soon as you start wanting to do pure software, then you might want to think again. Its very much a spectrum.
    - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
      >As soon as you start worrying about power, or GPIO, then it starts to get a bit messy. 7nm-10nm X86 CPUs from Intel and AMD are nearly as efficient as a R-PI, IPC for IPC, and GPIOs can be extended on them via USB in a standardized manner if desired. Most people buy R-Pis to run linux, python, a web server or turn on some LEDs. Linux, python and web servers can be run on low power X86 machines, and LEDs can be turned on by an Arduino or R-PI 2040 microcontroller. People stuck to using R-Pis out of comfort and inertia because it was the only thing they heard about and it was the best thing at the time when X86 was not competing in the space, but today it's no longer the only option or the best option. People need to start exploring the other options.
      - 4y ago

moffkalast 4y ago

Arduino is good, but it can be better ;) The ESP32 is really a major upgrade in almost all areas. SPIFFs webpages as control apps via a wifi hotspot are just so damn convenient.

TaylorAlexander 4y ago

Well the Raspberry Pi and Arduino are two different kinds of computers. When you need a full Linux system Raspberry Pi is great. For embedded applications Arduino is handy. But there is now the RP2040, a processor from Raspberry Pi that works well in most Arduino-like applications. It has a lot of very powerful features! And what’s interesting is that last time I checked this, it was the most in stock processor at Digikey (to pick one vendor as an example). The stock numbers for the RP2040 are very high, and I suspect it will never experience a shortage. The RP2040 and its dev board the Raspberry Pi Pico don’t depend on Broadcom and they’re wonderful chips. If you do a lot of Arduino I highly recommend checking it out!

ChuckNorris89 4y ago
>When you need a full Linux system Raspberry Pi is great. Then you're much better off getting one of the endlessly available low-power X86 small form factor platforms either new or off the second hand market, available with Intel or AMD chips. And unlike the Broadcom based R-PI, you'll have a much better time as you won't get locked into any specific chip vendor so you can easily migrate to whatever chip offers you the best price or performance or energy efficiency at the time of purchase. The standardization of the X86 platforms is unbeatable by the current crop of ARM SBCs with their proprietary firmware blobs and weird boot methods. Locking yourself into a very specific chip platform of a single manufacturer, just for running linux and a web server, is a huge mistake and we're now seeing the consequences of not having a competitor/dual source.
- TaylorAlexander 4y ago
  Depends on your needs. The raspberry pi may have poor stock right now, but when available they are cheap, low power, and have excellent documentation. I’m designing an open source autonomous farming robot and we’ve been using the Raspberry Pi CM4 as the main computer on the motherboard for a while now. It’s perfect for us. I feel like x86 would be a mess. The I/O on the CM4 is extremely important to us, and on the custom motherboard I designed we’re using every available pin of the CM4 to communicate to serial, SPI, I2C, and GPIO peripherals on the motherboard. > Locking yourself into a very specific chip platform of a single manufacturer, just for running linux and a web server Ah, yeah, I am very much not doing this and I’m surprised you didn’t start your comment with this stipulation. I use raspberry pi for robotics where the standardized documentation and abundant I/O are extremely helpful.
- KaiserPro 4y ago
  Yeah but what are you _after_ though? if you want a simple host of software, then yeah a VM/docker host on a low powered x86 machine is probably what you want. but. As soon as you start worrying about power, or GPIO, then it starts to get a bit messy. There is still a sweetspot for the rpi. but as soon as you start wanting to do pure software, then you might want to think again. Its very much a spectrum.
  - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
    >As soon as you start worrying about power, or GPIO, then it starts to get a bit messy. 7nm-10nm X86 CPUs from Intel and AMD are nearly as efficient as a R-PI, IPC for IPC, and GPIOs can be extended on them via USB in a standardized manner if desired. Most people buy R-Pis to run linux, python, a web server or turn on some LEDs. Linux, python and web servers can be run on low power X86 machines, and LEDs can be turned on by an Arduino or R-PI 2040 microcontroller. People stuck to using R-Pis out of comfort and inertia because it was the only thing they heard about and it was the best thing at the time when X86 was not competing in the space, but today it's no longer the only option or the best option. People need to start exploring the other options.
    - 4y ago