I've been using many different Picaxe's for quite a while to develop different types of robots but ive never used or touched an Arduino.
i was thinking of buying one except i have no clue about the different types. is there a certain model that is simple to learn the basics with and are there any extra parts or tools i need to use Arduino.
Arduino is easy… The only major changes you’ll find in switching from picaxe to arduino is the change in language from p basic to arduino ide and the use of supporting shields. Some ease from the picaxe will end (like you’ll not be able to drive motor from the board and will have to use motor shield instead) but stuff like using using sd cards and other types of shields will be easier. For starting, I’ll suggest you to start with arduino uno r3. It is cheap, uses atmega 328 and is a decent board in terms of memory and flash (memory can be increased later as well using EEPROM I2C chips). If during experiments, you end up smoking your IC, you’ll still be able to buy a replacement IC cheaply (for around $3 to 5). If you have some really specific requirements, you can start with other arduinos as well. Want to use a lot of inputs and outputs, go for arduino mega, want to use a small well packaged board, go for arduino nano, want to make yourself a funny costume, go for the arduino lilypad, want to access the arduino architecture cheaply, go for the decimila (spelling may be wrong). Depends on what you want to do. And I wish you best of luck for your future developments.
Yeah, thanks for that.
it Yeah, thanks for that.
it seems for me that the language change is the biggest problem at the moment. none of it makes sense. but then neither did pic basic when i started using that. i guess i’ll soon learn it.
Arduino book. You can download a book titled Arduino Robotics. It is one of the best guides (even dan m has given it 5* rating) and will give you a jump start into programming and making projects with arduino.
ok, so what ive understood about the motor driving capabilities of the arduino with a atmega avr shield is that you cannot drive a motor directly from this you need to get a motor shield. with all my picaxe projects i used a L293D motor driver, is this able to be used with the Arduino?