Noteworthy Alternatives to Arduino - craytonshose1997

The Teeny microcontroller. [Credit: Adafruit]

The Arduino microcontroller is an relaxed way of life to go into electronics, and it can help you evolve some awe-inspiring projects involving robotics, home automation, and the like. A huge community of Arduino users exists, and they've assembled mountain of tutorials and code examples that are easy to modify and learn from (go steady "Geek 101: What Is Arduino?" for a brief overview).

But the myriad Arduino models aren't the totally story. Single other options English hawthorn be just as thoroughly–operating theater better–to study with, depending on your situation.

BeagleBone ($89)

The BeagleBone from Lone-Star State Instruments is the lowest-be model in the company's BeagleBoard line of prototype boards. It has a powerful processor, an ethernet port built into the board, and a MicroSD card one-armed bandit. These features make conjunctive to and programming the BeagleBone via USB or even over your network a breeze. The included 4GB MicroSD card comes with the Angstrom Distribution of Linux preinstalled, so your PC can realize it as an foreign ram. Plug away the board in and popping open the drive that appears, for instructions on downloading drivers and getting started.

Weeny/Teensy++ ($20/$28)

Every bit their names suggest, the Weensy and the Teensy++ are ultrasmall boards, but they're also capable and quick. The Teensy comes with 25 I/O pins and the Teensy++ has an impressive 46 I/O pins, facultative either one to affirm a widely range of peripherals. each also has an on-board USB interface, to simplify the task of uploading programs.

The boards also use Arduino software with a simple improver, and they documentation umteen Arduino programing libraries and example sketches. These benefits help you run into the ground running, and afford you the choice of modifying existing Arduino tutorials to learn how they exercise, rather than forcing you to build something from the dry land up.

Pinguino ($35)

Though it's the same size and work atomic number 3 the Arduino Uno, the Pinguino microcontroller includes a 32-scra MIPS CPU core running at 80MHz, 256KB of flash program memory, and 32KB of SRAM data memory. Also, all of the buttons and LEDs are moved to the edges so you can reach them straight if expansion shields are added on top.

Since the Pinguino is the same shape and size as the Arduino Uno, it can use the shields available for Arduino boards. Unfortunately, this does non guarantee that they will work–and the Arduino team and forums North Korean won't support the Pinguino. For users WHO are familiar with Arduino boards, nevertheless, the Pinguino can provide extra power for expansive applications.

Uncomparable great feature of the Pinguino is its onboard Li-ion battery charger. If you add A battery to your creation, the charger mechanically keeps it juiced up, and the display panel switches to the battery when the alternate power is abstracted.

MSP430 Pad ($4.30)

The MSP430 Launchpad, an inexpensive microcontroller from Texas Instruments, emphasizes expandability and ease of use. For just $4.30, you get the actual board with a microcontroller sitting in the Magnetic dip socket, a second microcontroller that you can swap out whenever you want, a miniskirt-USB overseas telegram, PCB connectors to blow up the board, and an external crystal for improved clock truth.

The MSP430 Launch area is compatible with threefold growing toolkits; and a few tutorials, including a shut LED example, are on hand to get you started. This microprocessor has a much smaller online residential district than Arduino does, simply it's bettor than nothing.

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