The Arduino
What is the Arduino?
The Arduino, in the simplest way I can explain it, is a printed circuit board. On the circuit board is the integrated circuit that coordinates all the functions of the Arduino. It is an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software. If this still seems unfamiliar to you, it is simply a smaller computer motherboard minus the HDD/SSD.
Arduino boards are able to read inputs — light on a sensor, a finger on a button, or a Twitter message — and turn it into an output — activating a motor, turning on an LED, publishing something online. You can tell your board what to do by sending a set of instructions to the microcontroller on the board. All such functions( for example- the light on a sensor) are done by connecting external devices onto the Arduino board, from the long serial black pin holes located on the extremities of the board. One such example of these devices can be a DHT22 sensor( covered in one of my previous projects on the Raspberry Pi4). This sensor can be manipulated using code on the Arduino IDE( more about that later on), and can be used to detect the temperature and humidity of the surroundings.
The main differences that separates the Arduino from the Raspberry Pi (and why it can be more useful in certain cases):
- The main difference between them is: Arduino is microcontroller board, while Raspberry Pi is a microprocessor based mini computer (SBC).
- The Microcontroller on the Arduino board contains the CPU, RAM and ROM. All the additional hardware on Arduino Board is for power supply, programming and IO Connectivity. Raspberry Pi SBC has all features of a computer with a processor, memory, storage, graphics driver, connectors on the board.
- Raspberry Pi needs an Operating System to run. Arduino doesn’t need any operating system. All you need is a binary of the compiled source code.
- The Raspberry Pi is capable of multitasking i.e running multiple programs at once, while the Arduino is only capable of running a single program for every instance.
The Arduino has an easier time interfacing with analog sensors, motors, LED’s or other components, while the Raspberry Pi has a more complicated path to get sensor readings (like installing libraries, software, and connecting to a monitor/keyboard/mouse). Arduino boards in general are cheaper than most Raspberry Pi boards, making them a good choice for beginners in the circuitry field wanting to explore. Raspberry Pi is good for developing software applications using Python/Raspbian OS, while Arduino is good for interfacing Sensors and controlling LEDs and Motors.
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