I have never used a RaspberryPi, although they look very useful. It's more a case of time and limiting my diversion of such. To some extent I use a laptop for which I would use a Pi. The Arduino, on the other hand, I have quite a few. As mentioned, the two are very different. I find the Arduino very practical as they are cheap, come in several forms, from tiny boards to the (still small) development size, and are easy to program with lots of online backup. As dozens of different additional modules for interfacing are readily available and cheap a small project can be put together easily. It is very easy to test software on your development board and then transfer a program to a smaller embedded module. The programming software is pretty foolproof and there is a lot of online help available.
Many of my applications are just playing / testing but the most useful application has been a small signal generator for testing at fixed frequencies over Medium Wave. I used an Arduino for fixed frequency generation and followed this by a switched channel filter for waveform purity. This is a rod pentode so a hybrid circuit, but works very well with good enough frequency accuracy (most Arduinos use a resonator rather than crystal for oscillator but I have not examined absolute precision). I was playing a bit using a pentode but it's my sense of humour to play such games lol. Very simple to implement all the same. I do also have a multi channel voltmeter using an Arduino with it's A/D and additional high impedance op amp inputs (I designed for 10 MOhm) - 10 channel so I used an Arduino Mega with it's higher number of A/D channels. The boards have slight variation but board is easily selectable in the programming software and, although differences can be slightly confusing (mainly slight pin differences) they are easily determined. In this case the display is via my laptop, which the interfacing is very easy to test with the programming software. Good PC display was a bit harder but I suspect applications are out there rather than writing my own as I did. Arduinos have multi channel A/D input (as well as similar digital) so are very useful but obviously linked to the 16MHz clock so limited to high audio for reasonable precision and low RF lesser so.
My suggestion would be to buy one as they can be obtained for a few pounds including the USB cable. The programming software is freely available online, and you could download and check it out even without the hardware. At the very least a new toy to fiddle with and very useful at times. The RaspberryPi is obviously more expensive so more of a venture but, although I cannot compare them honestly as I have never used a Pi, I suggest you start with the Arduino to get a feel for their points with little outlay.
It's well worth having a look around. There are projects for most everything.
Tracy
Many of my applications are just playing / testing but the most useful application has been a small signal generator for testing at fixed frequencies over Medium Wave. I used an Arduino for fixed frequency generation and followed this by a switched channel filter for waveform purity. This is a rod pentode so a hybrid circuit, but works very well with good enough frequency accuracy (most Arduinos use a resonator rather than crystal for oscillator but I have not examined absolute precision). I was playing a bit using a pentode but it's my sense of humour to play such games lol. Very simple to implement all the same. I do also have a multi channel voltmeter using an Arduino with it's A/D and additional high impedance op amp inputs (I designed for 10 MOhm) - 10 channel so I used an Arduino Mega with it's higher number of A/D channels. The boards have slight variation but board is easily selectable in the programming software and, although differences can be slightly confusing (mainly slight pin differences) they are easily determined. In this case the display is via my laptop, which the interfacing is very easy to test with the programming software. Good PC display was a bit harder but I suspect applications are out there rather than writing my own as I did. Arduinos have multi channel A/D input (as well as similar digital) so are very useful but obviously linked to the 16MHz clock so limited to high audio for reasonable precision and low RF lesser so.
My suggestion would be to buy one as they can be obtained for a few pounds including the USB cable. The programming software is freely available online, and you could download and check it out even without the hardware. At the very least a new toy to fiddle with and very useful at times. The RaspberryPi is obviously more expensive so more of a venture but, although I cannot compare them honestly as I have never used a Pi, I suggest you start with the Arduino to get a feel for their points with little outlay.
It's well worth having a look around. There are projects for most everything.
Tracy
