Sometimes I feel really stupid, or just old

[alanp]

Can someone tell me what this "Arduino" thing is? Places like Seeed sell tons of Arduino "stuff", Rully seems to be into it...

Maybe it's because I don't really look to see what people make with it. But I saw on muffwiggler a guy who made a copy of a Moog 960 Sequencer, running off Arduino. So it must be grunty, whatever it is.

I got the impression with the PIC chips that they were something on the order of ZX80 or Commodore 64 systems in a single chip, are Arduinos more like Pentium-66's in a chip?

I just scratch my head and furrow my brow, and think "Am I just getting too old?"

[rullywowr]

Arduino is a great easy way to work with AVR microcontrollers.  The "uno" is the most popular model to get into using but there are a lot of variants such as the pro mini, nano and more. Lots have a built in USB port so just connect to your computer and upload the code. Once you have a project which is working you can design a board which uses just the chip to do whatever you want.  I made a small breakout board for the ATtiny85 which allows easy programming from Arduino IDE.

The Arduino "IDE" (integrated development environment) is an open source and free program which allows you to write and upload code to your arduino compatible boards.  It is based in C++ and has a similar flow in the programming.

The cool thing about Arduino is that there is tons of code and projects out there to freely use. It is quite simple once you get the hang of it and the Atmel AVR family of chips is huge.  From 6 pins up to 50+ pins, lots are compatible with Arduino IDE.  Basically these chips can do whatever you want (read sensor/pin and trigger something else. Processing audio is really not their forte but you can use them for lots of audio related stuff (relay switchers, sequencer, led control, etc).

For more info check out the Arduino.cc website as well as:

sparkfun.com
Adafruit.com

[muddyfox]

My only problem with Arduino is that I have no idea what I'd like to have one do. What little I've seen of Arduino projects usually revolves around some form of ars-gratia-artis or a CS student project. Four wheeled robots, weather stations, wireless home automation, LED/MIDI controller, web server... nothing that floats my boat and that would justify the time (and money) spent on buying this thing (and needed periphernalia) and developing code on it.

Maybe I'm getting too old as well... 

[RobA]

You mention the PIC chips and how they relate to the chips in the Arduinos. They are very similar in their purpose and capabilities. The PIC's could have been used to do the Arduinos with. I think the main reason they went with the AVR chips was that the compliers for the AVR processors are more open source compatible. There are differences though and an individual project might be better served by one or the other. And then there are the new ARM microcontrollers which are really better than both the PIC and AVR but a bit more of a pain because they are all SMD (except one smaller one that I've found).

I wouldn't think about them in terms of older processors though. Even though the processing power is inline with those that you mention, the peripherals and memory architectures are aimed at different tasks.

There are lots of music related things you can do with them. Dave Smith uses the PIC's in some of his synths for DCO's. They are an easy way to do MIDI control. Switching systems with relays. Tap tempo systems with with digital pots, etc. The Arduino stuff really is just a platform that makes it fairly easy to program the AVR's (and now ARM) at provides a support community that is pretty nice.

[Leevibe]

Alan, shame on you for posting this thread. I've been bitten badly now by the micro-controller bug. This coincides with also being smitten with the idea of getting into pickup winding. It's like I opened pandora's box and found an already open can of worms inside.

I'm thinking an arduino would be perfect for controlling a winder. PWM for motor control, hall-effect sensor to an input pin, LCD display for turns count. The only thing left is to build it... Oh yeah, and debug it... and gain years of wisdom and experience in the black art of pickup winding.