To be potically correct ;-) : * Arduino *is not a micocontroller, its just a simplification of programming language. Mostly "Arduino" projects are running on Atmega MCU's from Atmel, but Arduino can also run on ESP8266, Atmel ARM and even som ST STM32.
I think the modern microcontrollers are mostly the same level for hobbyist and most commercial application. To switch a few leds or control a display any modern MCU will do the job. Its either a question of knowledge and infrastrcuture. If your company used Atmel for the last 10 years, its pricy to change to ST or so. About the "Arduinos" or Ardunio with own design: I really like it, since it takes a part of programming away. Arduino was designed for people who don't see programming or even electronics as their main hobby. Alot of people like to do stuff with lights (e.g. for Art projects) or other parts. Getting familiar with electronics can be a challenging hobby itself. The Arduino Language can be learned very fast, and the support is really great, even for beginners. You can get an anwer in the arduino forum even for the most simple (or hard for someone) questions. Try ask Microchip or ST Forums for "how to turn a led on" - you either get ignored,removed or people make fun out of you. I have a friend which is 15 years old, shes choose electronics as a voluntary school course. They get pretty cool projects to work in just a half year. I remember when i had to learn PIC programming for mandatory school, and we were learning just all the commands for weeks without doing anything usefull, or filling 2 pages with instructions just to blink a led. So arduino is just a good thing to "lure" people to programming, if you get a easy start you might be more motivated to learn more complex things. Also a arduino can be plugged to usb and you can start right away! No fancy debugger tools :-). On the downside, arduino is just a performance killer, if you take a look at "digitalWrite" as a professional, its just a waste of processor speed and code. And if you want to get arduino running on a custom chip, you will be on your own. My main MCU's are the Atmega328p (QFP & DIP) , ESP8266 and newly STM32 The ATmegas are cool because they run native with arduino, and there is still a DIP Model available which is just great if you want quickly test something - try to place a QFP in your breadboard :) ESP8266 is wonderfull because its really cheap and brings wifi on its own... I'm currently starting to learn STM32 (ARM), because i for my other projects the Atmega328 has just to few pins or is just too slow. But for nixie projects where time is not that critical the Atmega is still my favourite. But for like building a gamma spectrometer the chip will run out of speed, memory and power. As far as i know, ARM (STM32, NXP, etc) can be programmed mostly the same. Also the STM32 IDE's bring debugging features that can be really time saving if you just can place a breakpoint where you think there is a problem. If you have a very big code on arduino (like 10 A4 Pages) you will search for hours for errors. STM32 also offers quite nice evaluation boards (with displays) which can be used to save on custom PCB's ... -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to neonixie-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send an email to neonixie-l@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/c59ef422-1e28-4cab-9a7a-327fcd7afcce%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
