I've run out of pins on my Arduino Uno. Im looking for something that has more I/O pins. More sensors, larger LCD, more useless flashy LEDs, etc.
Something with more brains would be great as well. Im open to adding a visual LCD screen to a robot.
I'd rather stick to the Arduino line of products but if anyone can suggest some other type of controller that does what Im looking for I'll be glad to take a look and do some research to see if its right for me.
So far I've looked at the Arduino Mega 2560, Arduino ADK, Arduino DUE even the Arduino Micro (since it has more I/O pins)
Basically looking for more brains and more brawn all in one package.
Also open to something that has features I may not use in the immdiete future but may eventualyl use. Like Audio or something.
If you want to stay in the Arduino type world, then the DUE may be good for you. It’s has a lot mor power. It does live in the 3.3v world though, so you will need a voltage divider for 3.3v to 5v or a level shifter. I currently use a DUE on a medium sized bot I am working on and have been happy with it.
There are other options as well, like the RPI or other small single board Linux computers. Any will be fine but you loose built in ADC on some of them. There is also the Linux learning curve (though not that hard!) You will need level shifting on most os these boards as well.
Have you considered I/O expanders? After seeing in the shout box you have no solid knowledge of i2c or probably spi, I would suggest you try it out on your uno before you jump ship completely. Admittedly the uno doesn’t have the horsepower to play with a fancy screen and whatever else you have planned, but, it is still a sound, safe platform to work with.
Or STM32, which are ARM with the mbed environment. I’m trying them and so far and if you are already familiar with C there are boards at 16€ with same spec as arduino due, shield compatible with arduino uno and lots of extra features. The mbed environment uses git and an online IDE, with cool analytics. The STM32 boards are seen from the pc as usb storage, so you can even use them as emergency usb keys.
However i haven’t still used them on complex projects. If you really need more power use a SoC like Raspberry Pi or Odroid, more pin just use multiplexers. Arduino mega clones still cost less than due clones, at 9-16€, that would be a no worry upgrade.
Teensy 3.1 or LC If you like the small format breadboard friendly chips, there are the Teensy 3.1 (ARM M4), and the Teensy-LC (ARM M0+). These use the Arduino IDE with some additions and compile most Arduino code and libraries though there are a few pin differences.
There is also a Leaf Maple clone on eBay that still hasn’t arrived yet, but is fairly inexpensive and has more pins available than the Teensy line. Another ARM.
All of these have more RAM and Flash than the 8 bit Arduino’s.
