Arduino vs. Raspberry Pi - Which is best

There are a large number of controller boards that you can pick from for your projects. Two of the most popular are the Arduino and the Raspberry Pi. So which one do you pick? On the surface these boards look about the same. They are a couple of circuit boards with some chips and I/O connectors, right? In this episode of AddOhms we're going to take a look at the differences between these boards and how you choose one for your project.

Let's start by looking at the Arduino. If we visit the product page on the Arduino website you're going to see that there's many different boards available. So in this tutorial we're going to focus on

the Arduino Uno, which is based on the ATmega 328.Inside of the 328 is 2K of RAM, 32K of FLASH memory, some timers and hardware that talks serial, I2C and SPI, or also known as "spy."

Outside of the chip the Arduino board contains parts like, voltage regulators, passive components and the I/O connectors. It is a relatively simple design with an even simpler software structure. The code that you write in the IDE is the ONLY code that runs on the chip. There's no interpreter,no operating system, and no firmware. Your C-code is compiled into machine language and then it runs on the Arduino itself This is as bare-bones as you can get! The Raspberry Pi, on the other hand, is actually a single board computer or S-B-C. On the board there is a  32-bit microprocessor and ports

that support: Video, Audio, USB Host, Ethernet, SD cards and even an HDMI port. There's also some GPIO headers that look like Arduino pins and are KIND of like Arduino pins, but we'll talk about how they're different here in a little bit. Overall what does this mean? Well it means that your Raspberry Pi has more in common with your computer, than it does an Arduino. For example, instead of writing code to control the hardware directly you are actually writing programs that run within an operating system. In the case of the Raspberry Pi the operating system is typically Linux. I said the Arduino is a microcontroller and the Pi is microprocessor. So then, what's the difference between those two? They both have a CPU which is what execute the instructions, timers and memory. As well as io pins. But those I/O pins is where the key difference lies. Microcontrollers tend to have a strong I/O capability so that they can drive external hardware directly, While "micro processors" tend to have weak I/O which need transistors to drive most hardware. Micro processors are good at

processing so they're a little bit "brainier" (get it?) than a microcontroller. So for the sake of comparing the Arduino to the Pi, let's look at some raw specifications between the two. The Raspberry Pi has a clock speed that's over 40 times faster than the Arduino and is based on a 32-bit architecture. The Uno's RAM is measured in KILOBYTES, while the PI's is measured in HUNDREDS of Megabytes. Both have general purpose I/O, or GPIO, but the Arduino can drive OR sink up to 40 milliamps, while the PI is really limited to more around 5 milliamps. In terms of power consumption, the PI consumes more power than the Arduino but, always keep in mind what is the project going to have and what other hardware is going to be included. Lastly remember that the Pi usually runs some form of Linux while the Arduino has no operating system.So at first you might look at this and say clearly the PI is better! But we have to really talk about how would you pick one of these for project. It's not all about the specifications! This often leads to the question: which one is best?? But. there isn't a simple answer. It does get a little simpler when you add the phrase, "...for my project." Think about projects with things that get controlled like motors, character LCDs, and sensors. These are going to work really well with a microcontroller like the Arduino. And then projects with things like video or cameras, complex math, and graphic interfaces are going to be better suited for the Raspberry Pi Both boards have their place in the electronics world neither is perfect, and neither is going to be perfect for every single application. However if your application is more about controlling things, the Arduino is probably a better choice. While if you need to process lots of data the PI is your best bet For links and resources related to the Arduino and the Pi, as well as, downloadable versions of this video, visit addohms.com/ep7. To stay in touch you can follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or leave comments along with this video.