What is Arduino? Arduino Vs Raspberry Pi? Technology Explained!

1) What is the Raspberry Pi?

The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card-sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard. It is a capable little computer which can be used in electronics projects, and for many of the things that your desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word processing, browsing the internet, and playing games.

2) What is Arduino?

Arduino is an open source, computer hardware and software company, project, and user community that designs and manufactures microcontroller kits for building digital devices and interactive objects that can sense and control objects in the physical world.

3) What is the difference between the two?

An Arduino is a microcontroller motherboard. A microcontroller is a simple computer that can run one program at a time, over and over again. It is very easy to use.

A Raspberry Pi is a general-purpose computer, usually with a Linux operating system, and the ability to run multiple programs. It is more complicated to use than an Arduino.

4) How does the Arduino work?

The code you write for the Arduino is executed by this controller. And it is directly connected to the I/O pins. The controller is programmed via the TX, RX pins connected to the USB to serial controller and contains bootloader code. It can also be programmed directly via the ICSP pins.

5) What would I use each for?

An Arduino board is best used for simple repetitive tasks: opening and closing a garage door, reading the outside temperature and reporting it to Twitter, driving a simple robot.

Raspberry Pi is best used when you need a full-fledged computer: driving a more complicated robot, performing multiple tasks, doing intense calculations (as for Bitcoin or encryption).

6) Is there a simple rule of thumb to help me decide?

Yes, there is! Think about what you want your project to do. If you can describe it with less than two ‘and’s, get an Arduino. If you need more than two ‘and’s, get a Raspberry Pi.

Examples:

“I want to monitor my plants and have them Tweet me when they need water.” That can best be done by an Arduino.

“I want to monitor my plants and have them Tweet me when they need water and check the National Weather Service, and if the forecast is for fair weather, turn on the irrigation system and if the forecast is for rain, do nothing.” That would best be handled by a Raspberry Pi.

7) What is the programming language for Arduino?

In fact, you already are; the Arduino language is merely a set of C/C++ functions that can be called from your code. Your sketch undergoes minor changes (e.g. automatic generation of function prototypes) and then is passed directly to a C/C++ compiler (avr-g++)

8) How do you use Arduino?

Open up Arduino:

Configure the Boards Manager. Go to File>Preferences>Additional Boards Manager URLs and paste (CTRL + V / CMD + V) this link.

Click on Tools>Board>Boards Manager…

Select the Type as “Contributed”

Click on the Spark Fun AVR Boards and then click Install.

That’s it! Boards are all installed.

9) Can you run Windows on a Raspberry Pi?

A fresh install of Windows 10 on the Raspberry Pi doesn’t boot to the familiar Windows desktop. Instead, Windows 10 IoT Core will show users a single full-screen Universal Windows app. The system will only display the interface of a single app at a time, although additional software can be run in the background.

10) Which operating system is best for Raspberry Pi?

Let’s check them out.

Raspbian. A free Debian-based OS optimized for Raspberry Pi’s hardware, Raspbian comes with all the basic programs and utilities you expect from a general-purpose operating system. …

Ubuntu MATE, Snappy Ubuntu, Pandora, Linutop, SARPi, Arch Linux ARM, Gentoo Linux etc…

11) Look, this is confusing! Just tell me which one I should buy!!!

An Arduino. It’s a system designed for beginners.