So what is Arduino? Arduino is a micro controller board that lets you read and write data over wires using electrical circuits. You can read the state of a button, knob or other sensor,
manipulate this data, and then control other hardware. You can turn on an LED, control a relay, or move a motor.
The Arduino can be used to do precise and fast calculations using data from inputs, and control outputs. For this, it's great to control robots and CNC machines due to its fast reaction time and
bare bones approach.
It's not, however, anything more than this. There is no easy to use operating system, so connecting it to a monitor or plug in a keyboard., Everything is written in code on a computer, compiled,
and uploaded over USB.
// the setup function runs once when you press reset or power the board
void setup() {
// initialize digital pin LED_BUILTIN as an output.
pinMode(LED_BUILTIN, OUTPUT);
}
// the loop function runs over and over again forever
void loop() {
digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, HIGH); // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
delay(1000); // wait for a second
digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, LOW); // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
delay(1000); // wait for a second
}
What is a Raspberry Pi
The Raspberry Pi is a system on a chip i.e. a mini-computer. The board is the size of a credit card, and packs a quad core ARM processor that can run Linux, Android and Windows. The Pi
features everything a computer should have - HDMI, audio, USB, WiFi, Bluetooth and LAN.
The Pi can be hooked up a monitor, plugged into a keyboard and mouse, and be up and running in minutes. The most common operating system is a Debian derivative called Raspbian. This features many
different apps and programming tools.
There are many pins on the Pi, called the GPIO pins, which function similar to the Arduino. Although the Pi cannot do analog out, and is no where near as instant as the Arduino, it can be used
where the processing power is more important than control over hardware.
You can use both the Raspberry Pi and the Arduino together is many different projects. You can read more at https://codeduino.com/projects/
