A couple questions regarding Arduino

Hello there, first, I wasn't sure which forum I'd use to post this, but that was the most relevant one to post a couple questions before buying an Arduino. Please tell me if I've posted it the wrong place.

  • How sending programs to the Arduino work? I am wondering if the Arduino can survive to bad thrown code (damaging the bootloader or something like that). Can all the software-related stuff be repaired?
  • Is it more noob-friendly than the RPi? I've recently broken one because of giving bad current to the ports. I couldn't replace the processor (some short happened in, I guess) so what am I wondering on this one is : If something hardware-side fails on an Arduino, is it easy to replace broken parts? I've also seen Arduino can support way higher voltages.
  • I'm always dreaming of making a simple (CLI or not) operating system from my own (Not basing my work on *nix or anything else). Here, I'm not really caring about the difficulty, but is it possible to make one (in C/++)? This is linked to the first question, I don't want to nuke up money because of messing around.
  • Not that I'm a lot caring about speed, but I'd like to know. Will an Arduino Uno, for example, be approximatively as fast as a z80-based texas instrument calculator (clocked ~@10MHz)? This is more about curiosity.
  • Is the Arduino Due a good choice for me? I believe the storage space/the processor speed is kind of what I want.
  • I just want to do easy stuff. I'm thinking about getting this, this and also this (I already have a mSD card) along with a Due. Are those good choices? Are there enough pins to put them all at once?

Thank you for reading.

Whoa, that was a fast answer. Thanks!

Delta_G:

  1. The program is compiled and loaded from the Arduino IDE using AVRDude. If you damage the bootloader then you'll have to reload it, but there is nearly zero chance of you doing that using the IDE.

  2. The Arduino has maximums too, and if you exceed those you will damage the chip. The part that's going to break is the chip itself. Some of the boards have surface mounted chips that aren't so easy to replace. Others use a DIP package and you can simply pop the chip out and pop a new one in.

  3. It's all programmed in C++. Just be aware of the memory limitations.

  4. Even the slowest Arduinos will be faster than 10MHz. The UNO runs at 16MHz and the Due runs faster than that.

  5. Probably, but since i don't really know what you want to do exactly that's an impossible question to answer.

  6. It depends on what you plan to do with them.

  1. Okay, that's what I was afraid of. I'll need to be really careful then :stuck_out_tongue:

  2. Memory limitations - I've been a bit used to work with my ti-84+ with Ti-Basic, and you can't have a proper definition of slowness and limitations without using it, ahah.

  3. I know the processor frequency is better, but I was wondering if the processors could compete at this point. Ti hardware is tightly linked to the other components (screen, input) while Arduino is not. But since I'd like to take the Due... Yes, shouldn't care about this :stuck_out_tongue:

5/6. I think you can't really know more than me because I don't have specific projects in mind, but as I've said testing up programming stuff, eventually bits of electronics later. I'd want simple interaction, so joystick/buttons seemed to be a good options, simple output and external storage in case the flash isn't enough for me (which has to happens sometime). But can all of those run on a single Arduino at the same time hardware-side?

and external storage in case the flash isn't enough for me

Flash is for executable code. There is no mechanism for executing code from any other form of memory.

AWOL:
Flash is for executable code. There is no mechanism for executing code from any other form of memory.

Wouldn't there be a way to keep space for putting SD card programs to the flash when required and to remove it when we don't need it anymore?
Anyways, I did not obviously meant to use it for putting code on - more like resources and such.

Edit : By the way - Is flash kind of fast?

Despite the good-looking specifications, the Due is not a good Arduino to start with. Get an Uno. If you're worried about toasting the chip, get one with the main chip in a socket.

Depending on what else you want to do, some of the smaller ones are very useful. Lilypad can be sewn into costumes, Micro is good for small size and USB features, Pro Mini is the smallest but requires a separate FTDI programmer. Then there's variants that have extra hardware built in like the Microview with an OLED screen or the Moteino with wireless as standard.

No, flash is slow. It's a very misleading name. However "slow" is relative - it may take 2 instructions to get data from flash that would take 1 instruction in SRAM. So it takes 1/8,000,000th of a second instead of 1/16,000,00th. You won't notice the difference.

MorganS:
Despite the good-looking specifications, the Due is not a good Arduino to start with. Get an Uno. If you're worried about toasting the chip, get one with the main chip in a socket.

Well, I toasted my raspberry actually... because of a metal ruler. I felt dumb at that moment. I don't think the Arduino is more secure about short-circuits, but having holes instead of uncovered pins is utterly safer.

MorganS:
Depending on what else you want to do, some of the smaller ones are very useful. Lilypad can be sewn into costumes, Micro is good for small size and USB features, Pro Mini is the smallest but requires a separate FTDI programmer. Then there's variants that have extra hardware built in like the Microview with an OLED screen or the Moteino with wireless as standard.

I've seen all others, yeah, but I think the Uno/due ones fits me better for what I want to do.

MorganS:
No, flash is slow. It's a very misleading name. However "slow" is relative - it may take 2 instructions to get data from flash that would take 1 instruction in SRAM. So it takes 1/8,000,000th of a second instead of 1/16,000,00th. You won't notice the difference.

Well, for me, that's still kind of fast, ahah. What about the write speed? Or is it possible to write to the flash?

Also, can you answer the last question of my first post? I'm kind of worrying about this atm. I'll try to check out.

Yes, all those devices should work together on one Arduino. You know the LCD screen also includes an SD card slot? You don't need a separate shield for it. However, the LCD you linked to isn't a shield, so you need some way of connecting it to the Arduino. A breadboard and jumper wires is a good way to start.

Hi,

Hi, what is your electronics, programming, arduino and hardware experience?

Tom.... :slight_smile:

MorganS:
Yes, all those devices should work together on one Arduino. You know the LCD screen also includes an SD card slot? You don't need a separate shield for it. However, the LCD you linked to isn't a shield, so you need some way of connecting it to the Arduino. A breadboard and jumper wires is a good way to start.

Great! But can you read data from it? I thought it only was for displaying bitmaps. Edit : Well I didn't see the line specifying we could access using the SD lib. Good.
I've already got a (two actually) breadboards and a bunch of jumpers. This should go well.

TomGeorge:
Hi,

Hi, what is your electronics, programming, arduino and hardware experience?

Tom.... :slight_smile:

Programming - Here's a mod for a game I've done in Angelscript (very similar to C/++), maybe the code can help you to get the answer :stuck_out_tongue: I'm not very good but not bad either.

Electronics - I only know a few rules, I'm not an expert at all, ehe.

Hardware - I don't know I can measure easily my level in this, because I don't exactly know what you're talking about. Embedded hardware? How works the hardware internally?

I am bumping this thread up with more questions :

  • I have a DS Lite and it has two screens. I'd want to get at least one of those since I'm not using it anymore (and I think one of them - the top, non touchscreen one is broken anyways). I've seen the battery can supply 3.7V. Will the screen will run properly @3.3V? Can the Arduino board drive enough current to turn it on without problems? Is it kind of easy to plug into an Arduino? I'd use the touchscreen and the buttons as virtual keyboards/input methods so I also don't need to take a joystick sheild.

  • I still want to take the large screen I was talking earlier. But something I noticed is that it says it's working with all AVR-based arduinos - But the Due is ARM-based. Will it still work? Will it work along with the DS touchscreen?

  • Is there anything hardware side worthy to use in the DS lite?

  • Do you know any "hack" to unscrew nintendo's patented tri-wings screws without buying a screwdriver? Even my smallest regular screwdrivers can't open those ones... I'd like not to put $10 including transport fee just for a screwdriver for a single console, ahah.

  • More important : Why is so much stuff out of stock in the store? When will stocks come up again?

1a. The screen will most likely run OK on 3.3v
1b. Maybe. Since it's originally a battery-powered device the current requirement will probably be low. However this is a good question to ask as the backlight in most LCDs is too much current for an Arduino on 12V
1c. Probably extraordinarily difficult. It is likely to require 40-50 pins to be driven at high data rates by a dedicated hardware chip.

  1. If they say AVR-only then it probably is AVR-only. They might have used some AVR-specific feature in the SPI interface or something. It is possible to re-write without this or you may already find someone has published a more generic version of the library online.

  2. I don't know. Buttons?

  3. I think you get to buy yourself a screwdriver. Or just cut the case open. A temperature-controlled soldering iron can be used to melt plastic.

  4. The arduino.cc store? Don't buy from there. Try Adafruit, SparkFun or a local electronics retailer. They sell genuine arduino.cc products and they're very good at it. Radio Shack actually has some good stuff in the US stores and there are similar stores in most other countries.

  1. Okay, sadly let's throw out this idea in the bin until I'm getting some idea - My DS will sleep under my desk meanwhile. I could have thought of a custom cartridge sending data with its pins but this would take much time to do, I'd need yet another adapter and this would waste current. Though it may worth messing up around.

  2. Actually they haven't said AVR-only but more like compatible with AVR, so I was not sure if they did mean it.

As an alternative to this screen, which one may do? When i'm looking for "arduino due lcd", I'm only seeing high prices (50€ or more)... And this principally from SainSmart (seriously they take up 90% of the results or so), and I haven't heard a lot of positive things of this company...

I've only seen this one : http://www.amazon.fr/pouces-série-affichage-Module-Arduino/dp/B00NHKM1C0/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1432743481&sr=8-5&keywords=arduino+écran (sorry for the french link) - It seems well rated, only takes up 4 pins and is really cheap (for an OLED screen, that's great imo), has a kind of backlight (not sure if that's one), and uses very few current... but is screen res is a bit low res and 2-bit - But that shouldn't be a large problem for me. Here's a question : Do they use a special kind of pins (SCL/SDA) on the Arduino? It seems these are I2C ports. How many of them supports I2C on the Arduino? I'd like to get two of them.

  1. I would have hoped its card could have helped since its processors are ARM (iirc there's a 32-bit one for the main work and a 8-bit one for some IO interaction) too.. But it's most likely too hard to make those two interact.

  2. Hm, right, but I don't want to destroy everything in though ahah. Anyways if I'm buying stuff from amazon it won't go too expensive... And sadly I don't have a solderer. I'd need to get one soon if I ever need it.

  3. I'm in France and I once bought something from Adafruit (the RPi and some other stuff) - The surprise was having a $50 fee, which didn't please me a lot about buying stuff from the US, eh. I'll try out amazon as said above, since I've never had an issue with them.

Another mild question. I think yes but : Can the arduino be powered via USB only?

  1. Don't search for "Arduino Due LCD" There aren't any screens that are dedicated to the Due. It's best to look for all Arduino TFT screens and then pick one you like.

I've heard good things about BuyDisplay in China but I've never bought anything from them.

SCL/SDA (the I2C or "Wire" pins) are used by a lot of different devices. They can all share the same bus together so it doesn't matter how many devices you add, you only use 2 pins on your Arduino. (Plus ground.) Depending on the device, you can put more than one of the same identical device. Most of them have "Address" pins that can be used to designate temperature sensor 1, temperature sensor 2. The display may or may not have this ability.

The Due does have two independent I2C interfaces, so you can use two identical devices at the same time on different pins.

There still are mostly sainsmart, and the remaining is often using a lot of pins or are way more expensive (50€+ is kind of much) or very cheap and has negative comments. I think I'll get 1x the screen I've talked about + 3 4x4 buttons to make a simple keyboard.

Thanks for all the advices, I think I'll buy this arduino and a couple other things this evening. I'll give you some feedback if I'm not overhyped for the next 30 days, ehe.

Received the screen (it is surprising how damn small it is!) and the SD card module along with a couple jumpers male-to-female i needed. All working! After fighting a bit with a crappy usb cable that didn't allow data transfering and so almost driving me mad, I could upload programs to it. Didn't try my screen yet.

Edit - Alright, screen working.

Thanks for all the answers, I'll test it a bit more in the next following days.