17 Apr
2012
17 Apr
'12
1:33 p.m.
I find the dislike of the Arduino by some people in this forum a bit
silly, yet funny in a history-repeating way. The Arduino, in my
opinion, occupies roughly the same space that the Vic-20 (or ZX-81)
did back in its day. It's a great intro to the field.
There's nothing that says I like the ZX81 either... In fact I feel it did
a lot of harm to home computing over here. But that's a separae issue.
There is a big difference between a computer system and a
microcontroller. It's possible to use the former without understanding
any electronics (I didnt;' say it was desirable...). You can learn to
program without understandign what goes on inside the procesosr.
But the whole point of a microcontroller is to control things. That means
taking inputs (swithces, esnors, etc) and driving things (relays, motor
drivers, DACs, etc).
Unless yyu are only goign to use the ready-built 'sheilds' (as I believe
they are claled), you _have_ to understnad electroncis to do that. You
have to be sable to solder. The Aurduino board I saw (admittedly not an
offical one) had a few DIL-packaged through-hole ICs on it. Soldering tht
sort of thing is not a problem, or at least shouldn't be,
I realyl feel that anyoe who can design and build the necessary circuitry
to interface to their devices is not going to ahve a problem with wiring
a microcotnrolelr to a crystal.
-tony