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New Arduino Due Brings More Power To the Table
mikejuk writes "After six years in the making, the Arduino Due is finally becoming available and, with a price tag of $49, is bound to give a boost to the platform. The Due, which means 2 in Italian and is pronounced 'doo-eh', replaces the 8-bit, 16MHz Uno by a 32-bit, 84MHz processor board that also has a range of new features — more memory, a USB port that allows it to pretend to be a mouse or a keyboard say, 54 I/O pins and so on — but what lets you do more with it is its speed and power. The heart of the new Arduino Due is the Atmel SAM3X8E, an ARM Cortex-M3-based processor, which gives it a huge boost in ADC performance, opening up possibilities for designers. The theoretical sampling rate has gone from the 15 ksps (kilosamples per second) of the existing boards, the Arduino Uno, Leonardo, and Mega 2560, to a whopping 1,000 ksps. What this all means is that the Due can be used for much more sophisticated applications. It can even play back WAV files without any help. Look out for the Due in projects that once would have needed something more like a desktop machine."
The only question I have is, have they fixed the problem with the chameleon circuit? Because otherwise, all I can build with it is a big blue box. -- Some madman
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
The TI Stellaris Launchpad ($5, free shipping, 80 MHz) and Raspberry Pi ($30, 700 MHz) beat the living hell out of the Due on price and processing power
Look out for the Due in projects that once would have needed something more like a desktop machine
There are a lot of microcontrollers that bridge the gap between a 16MHz Arduino and a desktop machine.
"It can even play back WAV files without any help."
Well, ZPUino does this for a long time (14.4KHz, stereo, and more), and it's also opensource (actually, BSD for hardware, and GPLv2/v3 for software). Runs at 96MHz, and it's fully customizable (even the chip is customizable: see SoundPuddle for example, or the Rectrocade synth).
What Arduino users were actually expecting (well, I was), was a proper IDE. I don't think writing proper applications for the Due platform with current Processing IDE is feasible. So far everyone has been quiet about this (there were rumours other IDE would be on the forge).
But the price tag is indeed attractive.
Alvie
is the pi better, or is that just limey bombast?
All I can say is that Arduino was ok for its time, but there are plenty of other better alternatives out there. Take the Digilent line of uController boards For example. the MX3CK is basically the Arduino Due with a whole ton better IO. If you want really advanced, jump to the MX7CK and kick the crap out of that Arduino. For additional fun take a look at their Pmods. Point being, there are plenty of better alternatives to the Arduino out there already; alternatives that compete and defeat on features and cost.
-=Geoskd
I wish I had a good sig, but all the good ones are copyrighted
TFA mentions 12-bit ADCs but appears to have a blank space in the spec chart. I`m also wondering what it has for timers.
With all of that speed and I/O it seems like this could be a better and cheaper board to use in place of Megasquirt for fuel injection. It would need the software written for it and it would need power transistors, etc. but for $49 damn! The lowliest Megasquirt board costs over $100 in kit form and the Megasquirt 3 which has comparable CPU speed is $400 or more if I remember right.
It is a great learning tool, but the Arduino always seemed a little overpriced: especially the Mega 2560 version. On the Uno you inevitably run out of I/O pins when you are building anything remotely useful. I've switched over to the Teensy for my projects. A much better value: http://www.pjrc.com/teensy/
The point that everyone - manufacturers and users alike - seem to be missing is the toolchain.
The popularity of the original Arduino was entirely due to the free IDE released by Atmel for their chips. Since then many other companies have released micro boards hoping to hop on the bandwagon, mostly with little success.
Micro boards have been available since the 1980s. I've personally used 68HC11 single-board computers ($50 each) in that era for personal projects. They are programmed in assembler, because the C compiler can cost several thousands of dollars - upwards of $10,000 depending on vendor and capabilities.
Look through back-issues of Hackaday to see all the neat, new single-board computers which have been released - none of them rise to the popularity of the Arduino.
Open source enthusiasts may mention that you can use GCC, but that's a compiler not a toolchain. Open-source tools require an investment of learning and trial-and-error to get things working correctly, and most of the time it's a large investment that people don't want to make. The standard practice for open source is to find a tutorial, follow every step, and then google for answers when it doesn't work.
When the [whatever other board you happen to like] comes with a plug-and-play IDE that lets developers concentrate on the code instead of getting the code onto the board, then you'll have something.
The Arduino was never about price or performance. If you really want a led display, you can get fastly more powerfull and usuable device by simply buying a dedicated device. Same for a remote control robot, even programmable ones.
But with an Arduino even those NOT blessed with a background in electronics could make it work. There are even interfaces for it where you program it completely through a icon interface like this http://www.electronics-lab.com/blog/?p=5865
Yes, there are more powerful devices out there, there are cheapers devices there are even more powerful AND cheaper devices out there. And they ALL didn't succeed to even come close to the support Arduino had. Even if you have no programming experience and never messed around with a battery and a led, the Arduino community is able and willing to give you a hand.
It is the difference between Ubuntu and Debian, between Linux and BSD, between PHP and Python. Sure, the "experts" look down on it, but the first are the stuff that gets used by noobs who might or might not become experts (if they even have a desire too) while the second are the stuff people TELL you you must use before they even consider talking to you.
I know some people who never coded anything yet messed around with Arduino after buying a kit and did some silly little projects that won't amaze anyone bit it was fun for them, not unlike the electronic kits you could buy when I was a kid. Sure sure, if you all did it from scratch with a soldering iron, you no doubt ended up a much better kind of human being but us mere dregs had to make due with simpler tools. And get things done.
When it comes time for you to move on, as you outgrow the Arduino, you can go for the more specialist tools and hopefully overcome the lack of manuals and guides. But some people need the training wheels and sneering at them is only get you complete and utter contempt from all the non-pricks in this world.
Like I have utter contempt for a person who lists as an alternative a board that isn't available at the stated price anymore and another board that has a shipping time of anywhere from a week to a month depending on what the supplier feels like and neither has anywhere near the 3rd party support.
Let me know when I can give away an arduino kit and have someone make something immediatly even if it is as trivial as a led lighting up to a light sensor but THEY did it, themselves and get that makers spirit burning in another product that is both as forgiving AND as flexible, THEN you can come back.
No doubt people like taktoa scoff at childrens books too because for less you can buy great literature, in latin!
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
It's an ARM CPU, but with only 96KB of RAM. That's very small for a CPU of that power.
Do we need "more powerful" embedded devices, or do we need smaller, more efficient devices?
PS: I don't reply to ACs.
You just don't get it, what made the Arduino so popular is that you could do things with it straight out of the box, without first having to solder on pins like the cheapest Teensy. Just put in a led, write some simple code and the Arduino ran. That is what sold it. The arduino is something a kid could take to work for show and tell and that I find an amazing idea in this day and age when most kids are raised with black boxes.
All the experts and people that knew what they were doing could already buy all the electronics they wanted and put it together, the Arduino filled no gap for them, it was for all the people who aren't experts that this kit exists. For all those who want to try their hand at it but don't have the patience and/or knowledge to start messing about with setting up something completely from spare parts. The Arduino is a kit just a tiny bit under the electronic kits sold in toy stores. The teensy would be sold in a hobby store. Different level. Some devices help people cross over. That is why Lego is so immensly powerful, sure, you can make far better stuff with raw material and a toolset but it helps people get started.
And it doesn't help anyone get started if all the "experts" sneer at the choice of starter tools. It is the reason makers areas succeed or fail by the attitude of their founders. Some can be really hostile to any newby who comes in all excited but makes the mistake of having only a 9 bucks soldering iron. Oh NO! SHUN HIM!
Meanwhile the maker area's that welcome people are exploding and running out room.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
This is not good news for the Arduino line. With a doubling every 18th month as prescribed by Moore's law, we'd either have had a 128bit or a 256 MhZ arduino by now.
Alternatively, you can factor in price. the Due specs, with an average improvement of 4,6 represent 2,2 years of Moore's law. (2^2,2 = 4,6) You can then take out the remaining 3,8 years in a price drop. Since 1/(2^3.8) = 0.07, the manufacturing costs of Arduino Due processor board should be only 7% that of its predecessor.
I'd rather go for the Papilio board than the Due, but moreso, I'd be curious to know why they've all got Italian names. (Papilio is italian for butterfly)
Damn Americans.
"replaces the 8-bit, 16MHz Uno BY a 32-bit, 84MHz processor"
It's "replaces... WITH a 32-bit, 84MHz processor".
It acts as a host though a microUSB. And exactly how many mice, keyboards, memory-sticks etc use that?
So it looks like the first job on getting one would be to de-solder the socket and try and replace it with a full size USB.
Did a project for a friend of mine. Simple, he wanted some solar power/battery lights to come on 30 minutes after dusk, stay on three hours, turn off. (Far end of a very large backyard - no mains power)
Yes, plug together modules like timers and relays are available, but total cost would have been around $100. :), so I'll get that back in favours.
I used a mega initially because shaving $15 off the cost wasn't worth the extra hassles during development, dual relay board $4, precision light sensor $6.
O.K. dev time was several $100, but he has a lathe and a better workshop than mine
Parts $50 including the case - and the lights RELIABLY turn on 30 minutes after dusk, stay on exactly three hours and turn off, no matter what you do (short of shining a torch into it all night) it works reliably - UNLIKE the commercial units.
Point is, all the bits I needed were readilly available and CHEAP for Arduino, even volume it'd be cheaper to buy the Arduino parts than do a custom board.
The IDE for Arduino on Linux is a breeze to use, yes, you do need to know how to program, but it's a very easy environment to work in.
And I'd have to say, there's no POINT trying to make it easy for fools to program, if you can't think logically and clearly and you can't count to twenty without taking your shoes and socks off, you won't be able to program embedded devices no matter how pretty the tools are. (Java programmers need not apply)
Once again Arduino has taken a nice chip and cut off it's legs while mounting it on an compatible platform. It looks like almost half of the Due CPU's available IO pins are NOT accessible on the board (unless you are good at soldering fine wire to .4mm spaced pins by hand). They did the same thing on the Arduino Mega with the atmega1280 and atmega2560 parts (leaving out at least 16 of the IO pins, including the XCK signals so you CAN'T use the usarts in SPI mode!).
If you want to go ARM, you might consider the Teensy3.0 which DOES make all of the I/O pins available (though you will have to solder some wires to pads on the bottom of the board, but at least the pads are there!). The Teensy 3.0 is also about $15 cheaper than the Due.
There is a £10 Cortex-M3 reference board STM32 DISCOVERY that has a couple of USB interfaces, stereo amp and headphone, microSD slot and a few buttons plus I/O pin availability with lots of examples from STM and programmable over USB.
Seems like a cheaper and similarly capable alternative?? Available from Farnell in the UK
Agree that these are miles away from a Linux-based product, but both serve a part of the embedded market
silly rabbits don't understand what the phrase "bare metal" means.
a rasberry pi is a compact computer. i suppose you COULD program it bare-metal.
Seriously .... FIX THE FUCKING PIN SPACING YOU ASSHOLES.
I know thats going to kill what little karma I have, but for fucks sake the pin spacing the digital pins with that nice little nonstandard gap is freaking obnoxious to all hell and back making it practically impossible to use with say .... a normal freaking prototyping board.
Yes, it will break shield compatibility but it'll make it work with all sorts of other non-Arduino boards and moving forward the damn shields will be fixed too.
No, I didn't use enough cuss words and caps in this post. Someone should be strung up for taking a nice little prototyping board and fucking it up. Douche.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
I looked this over, and while the starter $40 board looks comparable, the Pmods are all overly expensive compared to the Arduino. I also don't see any built it yourself kits for a fraction of the cost? Perhaps if you want to point out something "better", next time try posting something that is, you know, actually better.
Hi To all at slashdot. I was wondering if you could tell me if it would be possible to use the Arduino to run an external firewall.The firewall in question is Smoothwall firewall. I wand to mount it on a SSD, would the Arduino be able to support it. Thanks for your replies.