I'm doing a project that requires multiple arduino processors, what are good quality equivalents to the 'own brand' arduino processors? I'm looking at mainly getting an equivalent to the nano and have seen that Elegoo do a much cheaper version for half the price, is this a good equivalent?
thanks!
Arduino Nano uses ATmega328P processor.
what are good quality equivalents to the 'own brand' arduino processors?
Are you looking for another processor cheaper than ATmega328P?
The Arduino is open source, so there are any of a number of decent clones out there. I've bought a few Elegoo boards and been satisfied.
Also DealExtreme, ICStation, and BangGood.
Look for high resolution photos that show the soldering quality. No hi-res photos = no buy, simple as that.
Solder joints should be bright and smooth. If they appear grey or rough then it indicates that the boards have been rushed through the reflow machine set to max heat.
Flux residue, crooked capacitors or solder splashes indicate poor quality control.
Just to be clear, you are using a forum paid for by the Arduino company and asking if it’s recommened to use a similar product made by someone else.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand..
Pay $22 for a actual Arduino nano built and tested to high standards.
Pay $9 for a similar microprocessor board built to someone else’s standards.
Pay $3.60 (pack of 10 for $36 on Amazon) built...
The real question for me is who is going to get fired when one stops working resulting in a repair/downtime cost more than the actual purchase price of the whole project.
Back in my day, it was a common phrase to hear ,”No one gets fired for buying IBM”..
Slumpert:
Back in my day, it was a common phrase to hear ,”No one gets fired for buying IBM”..
That kept a lot of companies using mediocre computers.
I wonder why you need multiple processors , how you going to connect them share data, power them etc etc ...there may be another way ??
Anyhow ...You could design your own device based on the 328 processor . Even using genuine Atmel parts it could work out inexpensive.
Incidently how are you budgeting this job - surely the costs of installing these things , wiring, software development will make the difference between a “ cheap” and genuine NANO fairly insignificant. Do the maths !
Slumpert:
Just to be clear, you are using a forum paid for by the Arduino company and asking if it’s recommened to use a similar product made by someone else.
...
We actually support any device that can be programmed with the Arduino software. And even some that aren't, for example Atmel Studio.
The content of this forum is provided by volunteers, who are not part of the Arduino company, and are not responsible for their product marketing.
That said, I have always found Arduino hardware to be very well made.
The Arduino is open hardware meaning you can go to the site and download the design files and make them yourself. So my suggestion is that if you want to support Arduino, you should buy at least some 'official' Arduino boards.
In fact, I have used the Elegoo Uno and mega2560 and they are actually really good quality.
tristan_thompson:
Elegoo do a much cheaper version for half the price, is this a good equivalent?
I don't know anything about Elgoo but I have been on this board for a few years and, despite all the nascent racism and paranoia, I don't think I have ever heard of anybody actually having to throw out a cheap Arduino because they bought a dud. So just get on eBay and buy what suits and, if you are paying more than about $5 you clearly didn't look hard enough.
And, since you mention budget, you might find a swag of $3 ProMinis more appropriate. Also, and further to the reply #6, if your multiple Arduinos need to be interconncted, you might look more closely into this aspect and forsake Arduino altogether for something with ESP8266.
As for "nobody got fired for buying IBM", it's just pompous horseshit, and anybody who bought IBM, and were supposed to be on a budget, probably did get fired - or should have been.
"Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM" is a slogan that came out of the IBM marketing department.
Nobody got fired for buying IBM
The analogies I liked were “more money than brains” and “you can always buy a better product but you’ll never pay more”.
My personal experience with Chinese clones has been very positive, other than for fake FT232’s.
I did get burned a number of times buying components from China, especially Analog Devices parts that were definitely off-spec. Anything that was sanded down and re-marked was not what I ordered, all of those ended up in the trash. I bought on eBay and got my money back so lessons learned. If specs matter, I pay full freight at a legitimate distributor.
What kind of numbers are you talking about here? How many boards? A few, or hundreds?
Indeed the Arduino is open source and open hardware. All designs are downloadable from the Arduino web site and you're free to build your own boards to your own standards. Or, what would make more sense, design your own PCB around the ATmega328p processor, which has whatever other hardware you need on board as well.
Arduino boards are great for prototyping, and I have used them to solder straight onto a custom PCB for small scale projects (just a few PCBs). For any larger scale custom PCB I'd ditch the Arduino boards and just take the parts that are needed.