On 07/22/2018 11:13 AM, Erik Christiansen wrote:
On 22.07.18 10:29, cyaiplexys wrote:
I think my mindset also came from my days of trying to program the WowWee
RoboSapien RS Media (ARM/Linux with Java). That was like a fully
programmable computer and robot all in one.
Then the full arduino environment will be more comfortable than raw C on
bare iron. While I program AVRs, including the ATmega328P used on most
arduino boards, in C and assembler, I understand that the arduino
environment provides a high level programming interface which allows
e.g. artists to write "sketches" to perform real-time tasks.
After watching some YouTube tutorials, I am starting to see that. The
IDE isn't "real" C in that you're not directly compiling using gcc from
the command line. It does everything for you behind the scenes. Not used
to that since my old Windows days.
There is quite a bit of peripheral hardware on an ATmega328P, from
serial USART, through timer/counters useful for e.g. PWM motor control,
through multi-channel 10 bit Analogue to digital converter. The chip
datasheet is 440 pages in length, and learning to initialise and drive
the on-chip paraphernalia is a non-trivial task. The arduino environment
provides a library of drivers AIUI, to allow programming at the
application level, rather than writing your own drivers¹. It won't
necessarily give you the last microsecond of real-time performance, but
it should be a low-pain introduction. (Must be some reason for its
popularity, I figure.)
I got the starter kit with the Arduino UNO R3. Not knowing what that
means yet (I need to read into that) I am assuming that ATmega328P is
the Arduino MEGA and not the Arduino UNO R3? Or is it the CPU in all
Arduinos? I'll have to look into that. I did find out a bit after my
first post in this thread that Arduino isn't and ARM processor.
I don't mind using C, but am pretty bad at it. Maybe this is the time to
finally get better at it.
Learning two things at once is for self-driven stoics only, at least if
they're both non-trivial. Beginning with a friendly development
environment and application framework, complete with examples which
could be downloaded and used for tutorial purposes, avoids the pain of a
lot of stuff failing not because of coding errors, but because not yet
grokking the 440 pages of hardware spec left one bit in that other mode
enabling register unset, so it'll never work until you find the clue in
the doco.
There must be an arduino ML or forum, which would be a sanity saver.
Once master of that, then there's the AVRfreaks forum when the more
serious C journey begins.
I'll have to look into these forums and find one to join. I find forums
and lists, etc. to be indispensable when learning new stuff. And also
even if I am good with using something (like I am with Debian), still
having some community based help had been very useful.
OK, there are one or two arduinos with ARM chips, but I don't count that
as original arduino.
Maybe that was the source of my confusion. But I think I'm sure that the
Elegoo Super Starter Kit's Arduino UNO R3 is *not* ARM. They say it's
100% compatible with original Arduino so I assume it's got the same
processor as the original.
A raspberry Pi, running linux, would be a more familiar environment by
the sound of it. No problem running python there, but would there be
python I/O libraries?
That's ok. I am getting good enough in Python (and have made my own
libraries at times) that if it's not there, I might be able to create
one. Thing is, Raspberry Pi seems more like a computer, rather than a
way to experiment controlling things (safely) like electronic circuits
on breadboards for the fun of it.
¹ OK, drivers for e.g. 2x20 character LCDs can be found on the net, but
where there's an arduino LCD "shield" (plug-in daughterboard), there'll
be an arduino driver ready to use.
Erik
The kit comes with a LCD display, actually, and tutorials and examples
on using it. That I know I'll find interesting too. Ever since I saw a
video about LCD displays on a "The 8-bit guy" YouTube video, I been
wanting to toy around with those things.
I am thinking this is going to be quite an interesting and fun hobby.
