Arduino, etc.

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Zbigniew Koziol <softquake-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org>

| Does anyone around has an experience with tools like these? Where electronics
| can be joined with programming.

I feel that the most important part of these things is the community
around them: building projects, using tools, building infrastructure,
passing on experience, and communicating in general.

TLUG isn't the best source for Arduino experience.  In Toronto, I'd
gravitate towards <hacklab.to>.  Lots of Arduino and similar stuff
going on.  There must be good resources in Russia too.

There are lots of resources on the internet but I think physical
proximity has advantages when you are dealing with very physical
devices.

| Of course, I am interested in such ones that could be used on Linux.

In my (inexperienced!) estimation, the RaspberryPI is worth looking
at.  It has a lot of GPIO pins, is cheap, and has a lot more computing
resources right up to running several general-purpose Linux distros.
It also has more PC-like I/O built in (2 USB host, HDMI-out, analogue
video out, analogue audio out).  The obvious downside is that it takes
a significant power supply (1A at 5V, I think).  The community is a
lot newer so it might not have the depth or share your focus.

| The primarily reason I am interested in is to use these to teach medium school
| kinds of electronics and programming. However, I would enjoy myself as well to
| play with them.

This is exactly what the RaspberryPi project was aiming for.

I wonder if the software power of the RaspberryPi actually makes this
more difficult.  I imagine that the software on the Arduino is
primitive enough that it can be completely mastered in a reasonable
time.  Linux is much more intricate.

There is some effort to create "friendly" software but sometimes that
makes the user feel distant and disconnected from the real hardware.
Some people feel more motivated and in control learning a system
bottom up.

| I would possibly want to prepare a some sort of comparison chart between these
| tools. Hence, any opinions, recommendations, etc, please.

There would be so many dimensions of difference (rows in your chart)
that it would be hard to create.  Only a few would matter to you, and
only you know which they would be.

Googling for "raspberrypi arduino" gets a lot of hits.
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