
The New Altair: Why the Arduino Matters - atduskgreg
http://www.urbanhonking.com/ideasfordozens/2009/05/why_the_arduino_matters.html
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mellis
As one of the creators of Arduino (and currently its lead software developer),
I'm happy to see such a lively discussion of the platform. I'd also love to
hear any suggestions you might have for improving it.

I should note that we've done very little promotion ourselves, apart from
teaching lots of people to use it in various workshops. Of course, we're happy
that Make is such a fan.

One interesting feature of the platform that hasn't been mentioned here is the
fact that the whole thing (hardware and software) is open-source. We've had
lots of people take the Eagle (CAD) files and design their own custom
variants, which creates a vibrant ecosystem.

Finally, if anyone wants to get involved and help make Arduino better, check
out our developer pages at: <http://code.google.com/p/arduino/>

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cubicle67
There's two things you've (plural) done here then I'm very grateful for: USB
and OSX software.

I've a birthday coming up soon, so I've just been showing my wife these ;)
Thanks.

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ajross
_Way_ oversold. The Arduino is a nifty AVR microcontroller board, no more and
no less. It's distinguished from other such things that have appeared over the
years (anyone remember the BASIC Stamp?) only by price (cheaper, but not much
cheaper) and integration (it has a USB device plug and a reasonably attractive
IDE).

It's not breaking any ground that hasn't been a four-lane highway for the last
two decades. But it's cute and cheap, and if you're interested in playing with
embedded stuff or hardware control, I'm sure it's a lot of fun.

But "the next Altair?". Please.

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coconutrandom
In their defense, it's not claiming to "break ground" any more than the PC
broke ground over the mainframes at the time.

But as a software hacker wanting to move to meatspace, what do you suggest as
better?

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woadwarrior01
I feel the Arduino is little overhyped. It isn't too hard to build your own
PIC or AVR programmer on a veroboard and start hacking. I find the BeagleBoard
to be a lot more promising/interesting given the amount of raw processing
power you get on a tiny 3"x3" board.

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ladyada
"It isn't too hard to build your own PIC or AVR programmer on a veroboard and
start hacking. "

Actually, it is. People who are 'starting hacking' dont know how to hack, so
they dont clock, power or wire their chips correctly. They don't have a scope
so its impossible to debug, especially when there are multiple unknowns
(power, clock, wiring, programmer, progammer driver, programming software,
compiler, code)

"I find the BeagleBoard to be a lot more promising/interesting given the
amount of raw processing power you get on a tiny 3"x3" board."

I like the BB too. But am puzzled as to why people compare it to Arduino. They
are completely different things (computer vs microcontroller dev board) I
can't think of any projects that really intersect between the two. BB can't do
even the most basic things that an Arduino does, like blink LEDs or drive a
servo. And of course, an Arduino cant do real time video processing

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atduskgreg
Ladyada, I think the reason that people compare it to Arduino is not so much
because it's in the same category (which it's obviously not), but because it
seems to be bringing the "Arduino philosophy" to the low-level ARM/embedded
Linux sphere. As someone who went from zero embedded device hacking to some
fluency because of Arduino, the Beagle Board seems exciting because it has the
chance of opening up that related space to me as well.

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lallysingh
In comparison: <http://www.xgamestation.com/>

Build your own video game system, run atari-esqe games on there. More avenues
for fun in my book.

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jrbedard
yes, and I highly recommend reading André LaMothe's books (xgamestation's sole
creator) and his posts on the xgamestation forum (user necron). He's an highly
skilled hacker and entrepreneur.

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ralph
The xgamestation products seem good, but the website is awful. I've been there
on and off several times over the years and never purchased anything because
I've given up. There's now quite a few different products, but not a good
overview of the differences. And the faux game look and feel is tedious and
hard to read. View -> Page Style -> No Style helps somewhat.

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brianobush
agreed, the arduino is oversold in and of itself. However it does remove the
need for a separate programmer board/aparatus and a simple language. The ease
of just using USB is a win along with a mixed community of experts, amateurs
and kids. The synergy and accessibility is the main point of the article IMHO.

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atduskgreg
You got it exactly. I'm not arguing that the Arduino is going to be sitting on
office desks or pants pockets everywhere, but that whoever invents the thing
that is will have cut their teeth and learned what works on an Arduino.

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hugs
Arduino is the Python of dev boards in that Python has an explicit goal of
"batteries included" -- to include everything you need to be productive right
away. Ironically, in the case of Arduino, batteries are technically _not_
included, but that's because you get power directly from USB. :-) But
metaphorically, Arduino is as "batteries included" as Python.

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cubicle67
No, the New Altair is Lego Mindstorms
[http://www.amazon.com/LEGO-4494799-Mindstorms-
NXT/dp/B000E4F...](http://www.amazon.com/LEGO-4494799-Mindstorms-
NXT/dp/B000E4FDAE/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t)

Expensive? Yes. Underpowered? Yes. Thriving community? Yes. Read the reviews
(there's a few hundred of them) and see the number of kids for whom this is
their first intro into programming. It's an awesome piece of kit

