Thread: ARDUINO users?

I use them a fair bit, mainly the nano though.

Do you mean the micro controller chip is removable from the board or the whole Arduino is removable from a programming circuit?
I haven't ever programmed a chip and removed it from the board as it seems like to much fiddly work haha

I mainly use an Arduino nano and program it while on a breadboard and then make up a circuit on a vero board with female headers for the nano, when the code is working how I want it I just pull the nano board out and put it on the female headers on the vero board.

The nano has mostly the same features, is smaller and cheaper.

Depending on how fast I want them I buy online from Asia (Just look for the cheapest ones on ebay, I just bought 3x Arduino nanos all up for $9 delivered) or to get them quicker I buy off tronixlabs.com.au which is an awesome site with great support, located in Melbourne.

Genuine Arduino products are a lot more expensive, just get one of the boards that says its compatible.

If you want pictures or any other details just let me know.

Something to consider if you just want to use the Arduino board as a ISP interface is that the Arduino pins dont necessarily correspond to the atmega chip pins (with number or pre/post fixes). So if you use the Arduino IDE to develop code it may cause confusion troubleshooting later. While looking at how to do some bits with my Arduino Mega I stumbled across a few people struggling with the difference in PIN allocations causing them grief. They were using Arduino to program the Atmega256 but then had the Atemga256 by itself in their own circuit.



The Uno's actually seem to be pretty good in this regard but still some differences to be aware of before you jump in.

If you want to make multiple devices using arduino code I would use the Nano as recommended by Jimmy and get some cheap via ebay.

I'm currently making a Marine Aquarium controller with an Arduino Mega (while I continue to save for the aquarium itself). It started off as an automatic water top off but I'm putting in temperature monitoring, 4 relays for control of appliances, 4 line LCD readout and starting to play with the web interface too. Later on I will add a PH probe and PWM control for lights and potentially pumps too.

Its so much easier than when I used to play with the Atmega Chips as standalone MCU's years ago. You basically go out, find the library you need, copy and paste and its done. I've got a bunch of Atmega32's chips and some Atmega128 boards sitting around but with how cheap you can now get Arduino bits off ebay its not really worth me trying to make use of these anymore.

Originally Posted by VladTepes

Any ARDUINO users/programmers here?


I want to kick off and wanting a solution where I can program a chip then take it out to use in a stand alone circuit (to put in a machine etc) and then put in a new chip and program it.


Is the Arduino Uno R3 suitable for this? And if so, best place to buy?


Cheers

It depends on what you're using it for, what your design aspirations tend to, etc.
Are you a beginner programmer ? Then the Uno is a good place to start.
If you progress to bigger and better things, the 32bit processors are much more useful. Apart from being faster and having much more memory, it gives you the ability to load Linux and program in C or C++ directly. Also, if you're building servo control systems, the A/D conversion rate of the more advanced processors are an order of magnitude better .
If you're like me, thinking of cloning an ECU for example, these processors are much more powerful than the ones that are used in the average family car. Only the hard work that the manufacturer has done in the signal conditioning department makes the effort for hobbyists that much more difficult. But if someone had heaps of money and wanted to employ me, I wouldn't back down !

Thanks all.


Yes I'm an absolute beginner at this, and was planning to get a Uno R3 (equivalent) board.


Could I do the development on the UNO and then use the nano for the final version? So the cost of the hardware in the 'machine' I build is as low as possible? Is there any advantage in doing it this way?


What does the UNO do which the Nano does not?

I dont see why you would want to develop on one board and then use another.

It is possible to use the same code on the uno as the nano although it would need adjusting, like if you use pwm, the pins are different on either board so the code would need adapting.

Much easier to develop on one board and use the same one or else youll double the amount of debugging haha

The differences between the two are pretty much just size.

You would need to use arduino.. then export to hex, then on your production board just re-build the atMEGA arduino pcb as you need. Just depends on what the end reason is. Although a lot of hardware people are finding it easier to put put pin headers on their pcb boards and soldering in chinese pcbs (for prototypes) because you can get the chinese chip + pcb etc for a fraction of what we can buy the chip itself for.

Thanks all. I have the following in mind.


Project 1:
A 'useless box' project, tailored for my missus as a 'different' birthday present.


Project 2:
Doing lost of research as I have an idea to make a 2mp digital camera that can go into a vintage camera (or given that I want and 1880s design, much more likely a replica vintage camera).


Based on my research I am wondering why they even make the camera shield thingy as consensus seems to be that the Arduino isn't capable of powering such a camera for a good frame rate, let alone make use of the cameras video streaming capability.


This leaves me thinking that a Raspberry Pi might be the only way to accomplish this but this involves a bigger $ investment which I'd prefer to avoid....

What is your electronics engineering knowledge like ? Besides programming, you need to be able to design input/output interfaces. The controller ports can't drive everything that's around. Simple electronic switching is easy to do, but something like A/D conversion would require circuit construction knowledge. Then again, you could buy the interfaces as separate boards. However, and this is my thoughts, it would be a pity if you just go the way of monkey-see monkey-do.


Raspberry Pi is ok, but there are better android based arduino compatible boards around.


Buy the cheapest arduino and start programming.