

Raspberry Pi now on available for bulk order - dmcg
http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/1588

======
mindcrime
Awesome, can't wait to get my hands on one of these. Now I just have to figure
out whether or not this obviates the need for Arduino, and whether I should
stop bothering with learning Arduino, and just use RPi for everything... or it
each actually has it's own niche where it's most suitable.

Anybody here feel like commenting on the relative merits of the RPi vs.
Arduino?

~~~
dspillett
From what I gather (from having used neither yet) but from my PoV: * The Pi is
more capable out of the box but more expensive (than the basic Arduino
models). They are both essentially computer-on-a-chip units congregating on
the same point from two different places (at least in respect to where you
could use either for the job): The Arduinos are trying to be advanced
microcontroller boards that are relatively easy to develop for, and the Pi is
trying to be a full PC-on-a-board that runs a stock OS (potentially lowering
the programming learning curve considerably) that also has features meaning it
can be used in many contexts there a microcontroller like an Arduino would be
considered too.

* If you are working on something as a one-off the Pi is probably the better option as it is more flexible (if nothing else you've got a spare little PC to use when the project is done unless it becomes a permenant installation).

* For something you might make in bulk, an Arduino is probably more cost effective (though you need to account for the learning curve) and will consume less power (though if you are driving motors the power draw by the controller might not be your significant issue in that area). The price of the Arduino units has more room to drop either due to bulk purchasing or simply due to things getting cheaper over time, basically because the Pi contains more hardware.

* Of course the learning curve might be the point. You might learn more from playing with the Arduino.

* From the microcontroller PoV there is a lot of existing documentation and projects to crib from out there for the Arduino which do not exist for the Pi yet. From the full mini-PC PoV there are things the Arduino simply won't be able to do.

