[ELECTRON] Arduino.

[Clive Mitchell]

I guess I should post something technical so that the politics don't
start taking over the list.  :P

I started using microcontrollers pretty early on and learned to
program in hex on a Heathkit computer.  Subsequently I embraced PIC
microcontrollers before they even had flash memory (one time
programmable and EPROM based) and when the programmers were restricted
to just a few types of chip and still cost a lot despite being much
cheaper than the $10,000+  "development"offerings from other
manufacturers.

It follows that I've always been happy to bash out my code in
assembler since I've used it from the beginning.  Now theoretically I
could use PIC Basic or Flowcode or C and achieve results faster, but
the downside is that it would take longer to sit down and start from
the beginning again with a new language than it would to just bash out
some assembly code.

There's also the issue of speed and code compactness.  I sell some RGB
controller kits that use a humble 8-pin PIC12F629 microcontroller, but
through devious programming still manages to ram in an 8 million bit
randomiser, colour morphing routines and three channel pulse width
modulation at a respectable 350Hz for full 8-bit 255 intensity per
channel resolution.  I can do that in machine code (assembler) but
would not be able to do a fraction of that with a compiled language.

However, I do realise that for some applications it would be useful to
use an off-the-shelf system like an Arduino.  But which one?  What
sort of modules are you guys using and what language are you
programming them in?



-- 
Clive Mitchell