Hi I am contemplating using a microcontroller (along with a MEMS unit) to control the positioning of a nightlight mounted on a moving vehicle. This is only the beginning of more elaborate plans but would an older Nano have the power to process the MEMS data or should I look to a more powerful processor (like a Raspberry Pico? Or one of the newer Arduinos?
Thanks for all of the constructive criticism!
More info required.
What sensor?
How much data?
How fast is the data collected?
Where is the data stored?
What sort of calculations are necessary?
How often?
Well that is essentially my question….what hardware would be recommended for a beginning project? I envision a controller in the vehicle that would communicate with the light/MEMS unit/controller on top and outside of the vehicle. I envision the controller being inside the vehicle and communicating with the outside light/MEMS unit/controller via an nrf24l01 module. I would like for it to have 3-axis sensing and control. This is just the beginning of more ambitious plans, but my main question is what kind of processor would I need to crunch data from a MEMS module such as a ADXL335?
Save the trouble and go with an MCU with multiple UART/SPI/I2C interfaces i.e. Arduino Mega. It should be more than capable of crunching data for what you need (unless you have plans for using it eventually for inertial navigation of a surface-to-air missile). The Arduino Nano IoT with WiFi is also a good choice albeit with a lower pin count. The more integrated the board with sensors and components you need, the better and less soldering and wire mess to deal with.
Thank you!! Great food for thought!
Need to define MEMS unit
And MEMS sensor. What is the difference?
Light/MEMS unit/controller ?
To us a MEMS sensor is a
MicroMachined MicroSensor.
Temperature, air quality .... etc
Search for adxl335 UNO
See what videos tutorials blogs etc come up.
This has all the earmarks of an X/Y PROBLEM
Parts selection before application deffination
When I said “MEMS” sensor, I meant a device which measures its 3D orientation in space and outputs this data in a usable format. So my question is essentially , “what kind of processor power is needed to not be overwhelmed with data from one of these “MEMS” units? The application is to make a spotlight that will stay fixed in one direction despite movement/motion of the light itself (here such as on top of a moving vehicle).
I don’t think I will need a raspberry pi cluster, but maybe something faster than a Nano….that is my question.
Hi,
From what I see you;
Want to mount something like a spotlight on a mobile platform
The aim is to keep the light aimed at a particular azimuth and elevation, no matter what the angle/rotation of the platform is?
How quick are the movements of the platform.
You would be worth looking at how the code in the balancing robots functions.
They would not be working in all 3 dimensions but the control principle is the same.
Being on a vehicle, will you also need to compensate for change in altitude/height if you are spotting on a close object?
Tom.... 
search for the name of the sensor and arduino.
see if there are scores of posts, tutorials and vidoes. if that is the case, you have a good fit.
if you get forum posts and they say, too slow, use a ......
or too little memory, use a .......
your answer is clear.
instead of the pronoun game, use the name of the sensor you want to use.
based on the general concept, moving lights around, either physically, or by controlling what lights in a light array, would seem to be a very slow application. much slower than how fast the parts would interface, calculate and control.
I think most would say to get the parts, try it out and evaluate the response.
chances are there are ways to speed up the control, but if needed, a faster chip could be obtained.
you might find that the Arduino is faster than a RPi cluster when doing these simple tasks. has to do with processing cycles more than speed of the chip.
the X/Y problem is a classical mistake first time users make.
choosing something because they have an idea, but the idea is not based on experience.
considering a PRi cluster to be superior when the whole project is unknown reinforced the likelihood of an X/Y Problem.
flesh out the problem logically, using parts numbers and not generic categories (MEMs sensors are a major source of sensors for Arduinos, I use many different ones, temperature and humidity, pressure, etc)
the more specific you get, the higher the quality of the answers.
Thank you man, I will do just that.....thanks for the direction....
Sorry for the late reply.......it is intended to be mounted on a small (17 ft length) fishing boat so that the co-mounted light will stay pointed in the same direction despite movement of the boat itself. I envision some functionality in the future with keeping the light on a particular spot (using a laser range-finder) but this is just the beginning......
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