From Arduino's Terms & Conditions [1], Section 8.2:
"8.2 User shall not:
- translate, decompile or reverse-engineer the Platform, or engage in any other activity designed to identify the algorithms and logic of the Platform’s operation, unless expressly allowed by Arduino or by applicable license agreements; or
- extract or make copies of the information contained in the Platform (except with respect to Content owned by other users), make derivative works from the Platform, reuse the Platform, or make any other use of the Platform other than as set forth in these Terms or as permitted by applicable law."
Does anyone really want to use an "open-source" maker/tinkering platform with such egregious rules against tinkering?
The “Platform” is just the website. They are saying don’t hack our servers. There is a caveat for content published under an open source license (like the docs).
What I liked about the older, simpler Arduino was that you could move an ATmega328p project from an Arduino board to a chip on a breadboard then to a custom PCB with minimal complexity - with just hobbyist-level skills.
But the boards and modules just seem to be getting ever more complex, with lots of tiny SMD components, removing that path.
Sometimes you get lucky and the smd components have larger packages you can hand solder, but the price for assembly in a Chinese pcb shop is so cheap I don’t think I want to hand solder
Robotic pick and place board assembly means through-hole components are going the way of the dodo. Sorry.
Adafruit sells breakout boards for various SMT packages so that with a little solder reflow work you can adapt that shiny new chip to your breadboard.
https://www.adafruit.com/category/475
>pick and place board assembly means through-hole components are going the way of the dodo
The factories willing to do SMD mixed with through-hole high-power electronics is shrinking. However, package constrained power dissipation limits on SMD technology is real.
Is the long range in the room with us? It is I2C not very well known for long ranges. Especially with motors and electric drives and their EMI I2C is not the best decision.
From the title I was more in "Oh, what type of long range wireless they have opted for?" and didn't expect I2C.
For long range wired I would consider more a RS485 or CAN. Short ranges like in a small robot arm, a small car, and alike I2C maybe enough.
It is just the time-honored maker tradition of finding a cool IC and building a dev board around it for the hobbyist. There’s a i2c multiplexer chip, an i2c buffer, and a nicer motor driver.
A bit of topic , but I wonder if people who are starting in this field not directly start on esp32 platforms. It's so damn easy to develop with AI on these platforms. In the past we spend a week on lcd drivers alone. Now one can build an entire application that controls other devices via serial, has its own fancy UI, has all kind of useless features like 40 languages, its own webserver, OTA, demo modes and more.
With Arduino I am not sure what you get these days
The first ESP32 board I worked with had some damn WiFi stack running in the background—not nearly as "bare metal" as I had come to expect from having just stepped out of the Arduino world.
(I've since learned, from an LLM, ha ha, how to turn that off if you don't need it.)
I predict the AI enabled MCU development wave will lift all ships.
AI has absolutely crushed the barrier to entry for using this gear. It's a spectacular turn of events and I suspect sales have never been better, if my own behavior is any indication.
Arduino ships an STM32 which is really feature rich btw.
I really can't get over how many things in life do not require an OS but people used them anyways because it's easier to develop on.
Yeah I did a project with ESP32 and micropython recently and getting the proof of concept up was very very quick. The agent I was using also had no problem writing drivers for peripherals that didnt already have micropython drivers (I seem to recall it ported C or Arduino reference code)
I just started with esp-idf because I can't stand all the bloat of Arduino/Platform.io/ESPHome. Especially now where working with unfamiliar tech stack is easier than ever.
The Esp FreeRTOS projects are a great little ecosystem, and will offer quite a bit more insight than Arduino pseudo-C++ silent-polled architecture.
In general, it depends what you want out of the ecosystems. For quickly setting up a proof of concept, an Arduino used to be good for the exhaustive documentation, examples, community, and labs.
The modern Arduino integrated product line is now similar to other locked ecosystems like FPGAs. It no longer lets students learn by burning out $10 parts they made. The only people having fun now are the folks building those trademarked modules.
Probably wise to avoid LLMs if you are a student, and check out the $6 Pi Pico 2 if interested in low-level firmware build processes (it also supports the old Arduino IDE if you get stuck.)
From Arduino's Terms & Conditions [1], Section 8.2:
"8.2 User shall not:
- translate, decompile or reverse-engineer the Platform, or engage in any other activity designed to identify the algorithms and logic of the Platform’s operation, unless expressly allowed by Arduino or by applicable license agreements; or
- extract or make copies of the information contained in the Platform (except with respect to Content owned by other users), make derivative works from the Platform, reuse the Platform, or make any other use of the Platform other than as set forth in these Terms or as permitted by applicable law."
Does anyone really want to use an "open-source" maker/tinkering platform with such egregious rules against tinkering?
[1] https://www.arduino.cc/en/terms-conditions/
The “Platform” is just the website. They are saying don’t hack our servers. There is a caveat for content published under an open source license (like the docs).
And with such poor value for the money. When an Arduino costs as much as a Raspberry Pi 4, it's eliminated from contention.
Consider yourself Qualcommified.
What I liked about the older, simpler Arduino was that you could move an ATmega328p project from an Arduino board to a chip on a breadboard then to a custom PCB with minimal complexity - with just hobbyist-level skills.
But the boards and modules just seem to be getting ever more complex, with lots of tiny SMD components, removing that path.
There are modern MCUs that require a total of 5 passives and a dream. Sure, they're still QFN at best, but they're within that "hand soldering" range.
Not to mention that both factory made custom PCBs and pre-assembled PCBs are cheaper than ever nowadays.
Sometimes you get lucky and the smd components have larger packages you can hand solder, but the price for assembly in a Chinese pcb shop is so cheap I don’t think I want to hand solder
Robotic pick and place board assembly means through-hole components are going the way of the dodo. Sorry.
Adafruit sells breakout boards for various SMT packages so that with a little solder reflow work you can adapt that shiny new chip to your breadboard. https://www.adafruit.com/category/475
>pick and place board assembly means through-hole components are going the way of the dodo
The factories willing to do SMD mixed with through-hole high-power electronics is shrinking. However, package constrained power dissipation limits on SMD technology is real.
Depends on what your firm builds. =3
"Long-Range" sensor projecs?
Is the long range in the room with us? It is I2C not very well known for long ranges. Especially with motors and electric drives and their EMI I2C is not the best decision.
From the title I was more in "Oh, what type of long range wireless they have opted for?" and didn't expect I2C.
For long range wired I would consider more a RS485 or CAN. Short ranges like in a small robot arm, a small car, and alike I2C maybe enough.
For "long range", at least longer than wired i2c, I was expecting current gen zigbee, zwave800, or something LoRA based.
ISn't this just https://www.sparkfun.com/qwiic or https://learn.adafruit.com/introducing-adafruit-stemma-qt/wh... ?
No, it’s not just QWIC connectors.
It is just the time-honored maker tradition of finding a cool IC and building a dev board around it for the hobbyist. There’s a i2c multiplexer chip, an i2c buffer, and a nicer motor driver.
Article title is nonsensical.
A bit of topic , but I wonder if people who are starting in this field not directly start on esp32 platforms. It's so damn easy to develop with AI on these platforms. In the past we spend a week on lcd drivers alone. Now one can build an entire application that controls other devices via serial, has its own fancy UI, has all kind of useless features like 40 languages, its own webserver, OTA, demo modes and more. With Arduino I am not sure what you get these days
The first ESP32 board I worked with had some damn WiFi stack running in the background—not nearly as "bare metal" as I had come to expect from having just stepped out of the Arduino world.
(I've since learned, from an LLM, ha ha, how to turn that off if you don't need it.)
I predict the AI enabled MCU development wave will lift all ships.
AI has absolutely crushed the barrier to entry for using this gear. It's a spectacular turn of events and I suspect sales have never been better, if my own behavior is any indication.
Arduino ships an STM32 which is really feature rich btw.
I really can't get over how many things in life do not require an OS but people used them anyways because it's easier to develop on.
Yeah I did a project with ESP32 and micropython recently and getting the proof of concept up was very very quick. The agent I was using also had no problem writing drivers for peripherals that didnt already have micropython drivers (I seem to recall it ported C or Arduino reference code)
Pull off the C/C++ band-aid already, it will give you a clearer understanding of how these chips actually function. =3
Not everybody has time or needs to understand how these chips function. I don't need to know how a CPU functions to write python.
I just started with esp-idf because I can't stand all the bloat of Arduino/Platform.io/ESPHome. Especially now where working with unfamiliar tech stack is easier than ever.
The Esp FreeRTOS projects are a great little ecosystem, and will offer quite a bit more insight than Arduino pseudo-C++ silent-polled architecture.
In general, it depends what you want out of the ecosystems. For quickly setting up a proof of concept, an Arduino used to be good for the exhaustive documentation, examples, community, and labs.
The modern Arduino integrated product line is now similar to other locked ecosystems like FPGAs. It no longer lets students learn by burning out $10 parts they made. The only people having fun now are the folks building those trademarked modules.
Probably wise to avoid LLMs if you are a student, and check out the $6 Pi Pico 2 if interested in low-level firmware build processes (it also supports the old Arduino IDE if you get stuck.)
Best of luck =3
Lab:
https://learn.adafruit.com/using-raspberry-pi-pico-pico-2-wi...
Pico 2:
https://www.mouser.com/en/new/raspberry-pi/raspberry-pi-pico...
https://www.mouser.com/en/ProductDetail/Raspberry-Pi/SC1632?...
Breadboard and common components to build and blink LED lights (set everything at 3.3v to start exploring):
https://www.amazon.com/EL-CK-002-Electronic-Breadboard-Capac...
I thought arduino was on everyone's shit lists for trying to go closed source? Did that change?
Not for me, still in Camp-Teensy.
Qualcomm still sucks, but there’s not much Qualcomm in this.