Hi there all, i am a relative noob when it comes to this, but i am interested in getting more advanced. I have an Uno, but i have a project idea in mind that i believe will need a bigger board, such as the Mega, Mega ADK, or the Due. I was just wondering if anyone would be willing to kind of lay out the main differences and pros/cons of each of those boards for me? I apologize for the noob-ness of this post, but any help would be most appreciated! Thanks everyone.
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Edit
Can you say why you think you need a bigger board.
Are your sketches filling up the available memory ?
Do you require more io pins ?
I have been looking at the boards, but to be honest some of those tech specs are still a little over my head. I guess i'm just not really sure how the added features of the ADK and the Due would really help me...or rather in what situations those features would be needed? I was just going to purchase a regular Mega, but looking at the added features of the ADK and the Due, i just wanted to see and try to understand if those extra features would help me with future projects and such, or what projects those features would be most useful in.
What programming experience do you have of the uno then ?
If you have done much you would understand better.
Not seen you here before which is surprising if you have done much with it and understand the ins and outs of the arduino.
From you name i guess you are into music though.
Keyboards are often a good reason for needing extra io though.
Tell us more about why you think you need a bigger board.
I am indeed into music...i'm a doctoral student in music technology and would like to get into building my own instruments and such. I have an Uno because of a class i took, so i have a bit of experience with Arduino, but i would definitely not consider myself an advanced user yet.
I believe i need a bigger board mainly because i need more i/o pins...i am trying to design an instrument based on a number of different sensors (and perhaps buttons/faders/potentiometers)...but those extra features on both the ADK and the Due look very intriguing for future projects that i could come up with.
If you want to generate sounds, the due is probably your only option without external hardware has it has 2 built in digital to analogue converters
Its also much faster than the previous generation of arduinos
HOWEVER ..
Its a totally different generation of board and uses 3.3 v instead of 5v and is less well supported , because its new, also its easier to electrically damage.
Yea that's what i've heard (about the Due)...Most of my sound generation will be done via Max/MSP and other computer programs though, so i don't necessarily need that capability on the board itself. I will mainly be using the board for sensor i/o and other various components to generate data that i can transform into sound later.
Not sure if this is relevant but the main difference between the mega and the mega adk is the presence of a usb port thet can talk to an android device.
Definitely relevant!! So that USB port is strictly for communication to an Android device? I'm trying to think of other uses for it, but it seems that that is mainly what it's for.
Also, in terms of the Due, what things would i really need the presence of the CPU for? I know that it is a much faster/more powerful board, but what uses would i mainly use that stuff for? I'm imagining that it's probably for much more complex projects than the stuff i'd be mainly working on.
A common reason for using the larger board i for the extra io, the power of the cpu may be irrelevant, just needs to be bigger for the extra pins.
Have a look at crossroads offerings, he may have an expander board to suit.
Usb, there are two types of connector.
One supplies puwer such as pc while other end is un powered such as uno.
The adk board usb provides power allowing it to connect to unpowered devices such as android.