Arduino & raspberry pie, anyone use them?

[Monkey Mark]

Another hot afternoon and I think the heat is affecting me, giving me more project ideas, as if i haven't already got enough to last a lifetime. :?

Anyway, enough of that. I've seen a little project that i may want to copy/adopt but it uses arduino and i believe raspberry pie. I know roughly what these both are but have no experience of either.
What I'd like to know from anyone that uses either, is how hard are they to learn? I don't mind taking the time to learn them, but there's no point if it's a long long time to get to grips.

Any thoughts?

 

[novocaine]

I use an Arduino on occasion for different things (I've got a couple of nanos and a uno).
the language is simple enough, hooking up various stuff to it is easy enough and there is a ton of information and help out there easy enough to find. most of the things you want to do will have been done before if you can find it, makes life a bit easier.
for the 20-30 quid it costs for a starter kit with lots of bits to play with it's worth giving it a go.

not had the pleasure of a PI yet, but intend to in the near future, thinking I might build a small CNC and that's the best small unit to communicate to the arduinos with.

 

[Wuffles]

I use about 5 Pis around the place as media centres, recently retired one and bought an Arduino kit from HK and my intention is to run them together.

There's a pretty cool book called The Maker's Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse which intentionally uses projects with a Pi and an Arduino. Written by the guy who does a good book called Programming Arduino - Getting Started with Sketches.

 

[monkeybiter]

Wuffles, I wanted to use my Pi B just for youtube playlists in the workshop using Kodi or whatever the current version is and got nowhere. Will it work and if so what's the trick?

 

[Wuffles]

Osmc to start, then you'll need a YouTube plugin installed. I don't do that myself, so no idea how stable it is. I use a PS4 and do it from my phone or tablet straight to that.

AirPlay is dicey, or was last time I bothered trying it.

Pi B is what half my media boxes run fine on though, got a Pi 2 and a Pi 3 which has retired one of the Bs.

 

[Wuffles]

http://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/qu ... pi-model-b

I'll try it on one of the older ones here and see if it works out of the box, bbiab.

 

[Wuffles]

With the latest plugin and some fiddling with the view you can get this far.

Seemed to work alright.

Try enabling AirPlay if you have an iDevice knocking about.

 

[monkeybiter]

That's great, it'll be a couple of days or so before I can try it [I may ask a stupid question or two at that time!] but I'll be chuffed if I can listen to my playlists while butchering wood.

 

[Wuffles]

Is it an original Pi B? Do you have access to an SD card reader? You'll need it to install OSMC on it, from here https://osmc.tv/download/

I didn't realise you're a different monkey from the OP, soz OP, bit of a thread hijack. If you'd rather go to PM (or email) Mike, feel free.

 

[worn thumbs]

I have a Raspberry Pi and find it quite impressive,considering the modest cost it is amazing.You will need to learn a little about operating systems that aren't marketed by Microsoft.If you have any experience of downloading Linux distros it takes very little time to get a Pi working.I found Kodi quite easy to set up and it offers a world of entertainment,specially if you investigate some of the add-ons.

Arduino is something I have yet to explore and I shall watch this thread with interest.

 

[Wuffles]

I have a Raspberry Pi and find it quite impressive,considering the modest cost it is amazing.You will need to learn a little about operating systems that aren't marketed by Microsoft.If you have any experience of downloading Linux distros it takes very little time to get a Pi working.I found Kodi quite easy to set up and it offers a world of entertainment,specially if you investigate some of the add-ons.

Arduino is something I have yet to explore and I shall watch this thread with interest.

Yes, I saw a YouTube video with I like To Make Stuff and a Pi arcade cabinet, and I was up to speed until he started banging on about "and I'll use the Arduino to switch on the lights around the cabinet with a PIR sensor..." and I thought to myself, hang on a mo, WTF is one of them. Used to work in IT and I can imagine this is the kind of thing we'd all be playing with in the geekery at the time, now I'm left to find out things from blokes on YouTube.

From HK you can get a dazzling array of kit for just under the threshold of import duty, coupled with a book and a computer, you can have a right old laugh.

 

[timbo614]

Another hot afternoon and I think the heat is affecting me, giving me more project ideas, as if i haven't already got enough to last a lifetime. :?

Anyway, enough of that. I've seen a little project that i may want to copy/adopt but it uses arduino and i believe raspberry pie. I know roughly what these both are but have no experience of either.
What I'd like to know from anyone that uses either, is how hard are they to learn? I don't mind taking the time to learn them, but there's no point if it's a long long time to get to grips.

Any thoughts?

This is a bit ike the joke about asking an Irishman directions to somewhere...It depends where you are starting from and it depends on the project.

[Raspberry Pi]: Even if you have no experience of linux or installing operating systems you will get the basic system installed fairly easily. Instructions and walk-throughs are plentiful. You can even buy a kit with the installation already done so you can plug eveything in (Memories of 1980-90's home computers will help!) and away you go with a working setup that is much like any linux computer. After that if what you want to do comes in pre-built packages then you will eventually get there. If you want to create your own solution to a particular problem you are going to need some additional skills like programming (I would suggest python initially - its simple but very poweful). When moving up to actually connecting things you will need a bit of electronics of course. There are systems that simplify this too, Grove is one.

[Arduino]: Arduinos operate at a much lower level that a Raspberry Pi. There is no "linux" no O/S at all. Just a boot loader that starts your program or in Arduino speak "sketch". Just to do something simple you need some programming skills. The same as the Raspberry Pi you need a little electronics to connect things without letting the smoke out - all these devices run on smoke, if you let the smoke out, they genrerally stop working .

[I don't mind taking the time to learn]: If the above is meaningless to you then it will be a long but hopefully fascinating road.

Timbo (30+ years of programming with some R&D mixed in).

 

[Fergal]

Another easy way of getting a media player going on a pi is OpenELEC (http://openelec.tv). This is a stripped-down version of linux set up just to run Kodi. Very easy to set up and use. If you haven't already got Pi, make sure you get a Pi 3 as this has WiFi built in so no messing about with USB dongles. Also, if you have a modern smart TV, you can use the remote to control the Pi directly through the HDMI port.

As for connecting things to the Pi (sensors, LEDs etc), it is a bit limited in that regard and a bit fragile, which is why you generally see an Arduino used for connecting to the outside world and the Pi used as the brains. If you want to do anything like this you will need to learn some C/C++ programming and basic electronics for the Arduino side. There are thousands of Arduino projects out there already so chances are that it's already been done by somebody so there's no need to start from scratch.

Some good websites to look at for inspiration:

http://hackaday.com/
http://www.instructables.com/
https://www.hackster.io/

 

[DTR]

A quick question, if I may? What are the options like for connecting one of these gadgets to parallel ins and outs? Ladder Logic is my bread and butter, and I've often wondered if one of these pastry-based desserts could be used as a poor man's PLC. No particular application in mind, just wondering what's possible

 

[morfa]

A quick question, if I may? What are the options like for connecting one of these gadgets to parallel ins and outs? Ladder Logic is my bread and butter, and I've often wondered if one of these pastry-based desserts could be used as a poor man's PLC. No particular application in mind, just wondering what's possible

It's definitely possible. Check this link:

http://www.open-electronics.org/arduino ... oller-plc/

I've not personally done it tho.

 

[RogerS]

What's the development environment? How do you get your program into either Pi or Arduino?

 

[Woodmonkey]

What the pineapple are you all on about?

 

[Monkey Mark]

Thanks for all the replies guys.

It certainly sounds like something I will be interested in. I'll have a look at the Arduino side of things first I think.

I've watched a few YouTube videos on these and think they seem reasonably simple to use. I have done some basic C++ coding years ago, though it really was very basic I got the jist of it and with some sort of reference as to terms it could prove fun with some patience and practice.

I'm surprised at just how many different Arduino kits there are available, I'll have to have a browse and see what I fancy.

As for the Pi, I will have a go at that too, but one step at a time. I've used Linux (Ubuntu) before so hopefully it won't be too steep a learning curve when I do decide to give it a shot.