Why is the Arduino Due cheaper than a Mega 2560 now??

Using Arduino Microcontrollers
1

I am a big fan of the Due, and find that most people don't realize how much better it is than all the other Arduino boards. I have noticed in the last few months that the price for the DUE is my local area of Toronto, Canada is now cheaper than a MEGA 2560. Why is that? I would guess due to supply and demand, and that people are scared of the differences between the standard ATMEL and INTEL processor in the Due.

Why is it that the Due didn't do as well as some of the other boards as far as exposure? The board is no bigger than the Mega, and the only down side is that the processor and i/o runs at 3.3v and not 5v. Which can easily be worked around.

Also "The Arduino Due board has powerful interrupt capabilities that allows you to attach an interrupt function on all available pins. You can directly specify the pin number in attachInterrupt()." This is a huge benefit over other boards.

Not to mention the 84mhz processor!

Thoughts?

2

Not enough functional libraries
No I/O 5 V tolerant
Concurrency by MBED project : one language for multiple vendors :NXP, ST, Freescale, Nordic, and so on, and now Atmel for IOT

3

  • I think the DUE scares most newbies, because it is a 32-bit, much more complex processor, and that might give out the idea that it is harder to program (even if that is not true... it is just the impression that it gives)

  • The DUE started out being quite expensive, and most people never looked again at it, because of its initial high pricetag.

  • It's IDE has been in beta forever. There never seems to be a release version. When a s/w stays in beta for so long, people starts to think it has been abandoned (I am one of these people).

  • Being 5V intolerant, like 68tjs wrote, is a huge let down. That alone makes the DUE incompatible with many Arduino shields. Bluetooth shields are an example: unless you're using the new BLE chips, the old BT chips will simply not work in 3.3V (I've tried).

  • When you develop a project using an UNO, for example, and that project will turn into a real product, sourcing Atmega328Ps is very easy, and building a board to host them is even easier. When it comes to turn a prototype developed in the DUE into a real product, things aren't that easy anymore.

To illustrate the example above: I've had 5 projects developed with an UNO that ended up becoming more than an Arduino: they became custom-built PCBs with a 328P as their core. The 328Ps are easy to find and pretty cheap.

  • Libraries and optimized code for the DUE are scarse.

  • Shields that use i2c cannot be used with the DUE, because of different pin position.

4

The reason ? Due != AVR :slight_smile:

Never underestimate the power of de facto standards! The first implementation often sets the pattern everyone else follows. Even if something else comes along that is a lot better, it takes a long time to change.

For example, I'm typing on a Qwerty keyboard. Many elements of the PC are based on how IBM designed their original PC. Westinghouse decided on 110V, 60Hz for mains voltage, meanwhile a German company decided on 240V, 50Hz.

Of course, the Due also uses an Atmel CPU, the Galileo is Intel. I don't think Mbed project has any bearing at all.

The libraries, 5V compatibility, lack of DIP chips are all reasons, but another big one is the knowledge base. If you search for anything to do with Arduino it nearly always comes up with AVR examples. Even here, most of the forums assume AVR, the single Due forum is down in the miscellaneous pages between classified ads and the sport section.

5

Unfortunately you're going to have to forget the DIP case like you have forgot triode and pentode.
The industry wants nothing more than SMD, and soon only BGA.

6

My guess is that Teensy is simply a better product overall; that is, those wanting to go into 32-bit can do so with a Teensy 3.1 at under $20 USD. They get a 5V tolerant chip, great support, and a fair number of ported libraries.

IMO, it is a no-brainer!

Ray

7

I must admit I am puzzled why Arduino chose the SAM3X8E for the Due. OTOH I can see why they don't seem fully committed it, Arduino's resource is spread so thinly.

The cheap Due clones on ebay < $20 (can't be genuine at that price?) might help popularity, but I can't see Due taking over from AVR any time soon.

To his credit, Paul is obviously fully committed to making Teensy a success, and picking a Freescale chip was a bit off the usual, but turned out to be a good choice. Freescale now have a range of M4/M4F chips in the price range other vendors have M3/M4.

8

I don't think you are comparing like with like.

On eBay.com you can get a Mega2560 for around $10 but the cheapest Due is $20 - So the Due is still twice the price of the Mega.

Due on Arduino's site is 36 Eurpos, the Mega is 35 Euros (all plus tax)

If you compare the Arduino website price with eBay or Amazon its not a fair comparison, Arduino Inc charge a substantial premium for their products as they are the official source.

But because, as far as I'm aware, the Due is OpenSource hardware, you can buy it from whoever you like.

Its possible that the boards on the Arduino site are better build quality than those on eBay, but the Arduino website doesn't make any mention of where they are made etc, so I doubt there is much if any difference between what you'd get from Arduino Inc and from eBay.

FYI
Both the Mega and Due are out of stock on Arduino.cc, which probably shows Arduino inc are not that interested in the Due

I don wonder what percentage of total Arduino sales (not just on Arduino.cc) are taken by the various boards.

I suspect that it would be 80% Uno, and 10% Mega and 10% for all others.

BTW.

I have 2 Due boards (only really wanted one but there was a shipping mix-up with an eBay supplier, and it was easier in the end to pay for and receive both0

But I've never used either board for a real project.

I find both the Mega and the Due are physically too large for most projects where I'm incorporating a micro controller.

Normally a Uno for prototyping and a Pro Mini for deployment seem to be adequate for most things.

However I'm moving over to STM32 (Maple Mini) as a replacement for the Pro Mini, where I need a bit more performance or more interfaces or more ram / flash etc

9

Normally a Uno for prototyping and a Pro Mini for deployment seem to be adequate for most things.

I guess we all have our favorites for development, but the nano with pin-headers on my larger Global breadboard is great for software & prototyping (8-bit).

The UNO is a large board and ideal for newbies who may be insecure with wiring and prone to shorting circuits: that is, the uC is easily replaced. But years of playing around with the 328P-PU suggests these chips are very hardy even when abused. These days, the UNO is used with a ZIF shield as a dedicated Arduino_ISP. Two other UNOs live in their official cardboard boxes!

My 3 Megas purchased for a project are now dormant since I first used a 1284 on the Bobduino board.

To be certain, I'm not a stacker so a large format uniform shield compatibility is not that important to me. I do understand that others have different needs. Some rave about the Due, but I would go for 2 Teensys or 8 Maple Minies!

It's a good time to be alive in Arduino land as the choices are fantastic on the hardware side... Unfortunately, the software side, especially library support, has not matured completely.

So, to newbies reading, consider your software library support requirements first, then pick your hardware from the various choices.

Ray

10

I'm just not seeing this. On ebay clone mega2560s can be found for less than 5 pounds sterling. The cheapest Due is still over 15 pounds.

11

most people don't realize how much better it is than all the other Arduino boards.

"Better" is a subjective term. As others have said, the Atmega328 (to give one example) is easy to program low-level code, can run with minimal amounts of power (eg. 100 nA when asleep), interfaces better with 5V devices, has more support in general, and has many many more libraries and projects for it.

So if you take that into account saying the Due is "better" when you mean "faster" is a little misleading.

Also "The Arduino Due board has powerful interrupt capabilities that allows you to attach an interrupt function on all available pins. You can directly specify the pin number in attachInterrupt()." This is a huge benefit over other boards.

Depends if you need interrupts or not. On the 328 you can have pin change interrupts on all pins. Admittedly you don't get a separate ISR on each pin, but how many projects really need that?

I have a number of projects running here where the 328-based board does the job. A faster or more complex board would not improve the project in any way at all. In a number of those cases I have soldered the board together myself, which would be difficult or impossible with a SMD processor with pins very close together.

12

I'll point out that the SAM3x8E chip used on Due is currently slightly cheaper than the ATmega2560 (when bought from real distributors (digikey), in small quantities (11))

As for why they chose the Sam3x8e, you have to remember historical context. At the time that the due was designed (~2010? Announced in 2011, shipped in 2012) many of the more modern (CM4 and CM0+) arm chip didn't exist yet. (There's interesting history of Teensy3 on its kickstarter page. Apparently it was designed ~2011, aiming at a chip that did not in fact ship in time!)

13

68tjs:
Unfortunately you're going to have to forget the DIP case like you have forgot triode and pentode.
The industry wants nothing more than SMD, and soon only BGA.

In computers and consumer electronics this may be true, but there are fields where through-hole is still preferred and I think it will stay so. There is still a use for tubes in audio amplifiers, after all. And of course, there are hobbyists too. If I were an IC maker, I wouldn't want to lose them as customers.

14

rogerClark:
I suspect that it would be 80% Uno, and 10% Mega and 10% for all others.

I think you are quite right, and I would even go as far as 90/5/5. There is the software, the libraries, the community help and all, but I'm sure the possibility of detaching the MC from the Uno plays a big role too in this imbalance. I wonder how the sales of SMD Unos go versus the classic version.

15

330R:
There is still a use for tubes in audio amplifiers, after all.

Well, not really! It is more a matter of decoration, a very niche market!

I was going to point out that I suspect the outright biggest seller in Arduino (clone) boards is actually the Pro Mini.

16

I suspect the outright biggest seller in Arduino (clone) boards is actually the Pro Mini.

I have more Pro-mini's than any other Arduino board, but I don't think any of the regular contributors to the forum could be viewed as average users of the Arduino

I suspect Uno and Uno clones are probably the biggest sellers.