RPi 3 combined with Arduino...

[foxxyman]

A classmate recently told me that one can connect an arduino to a RPi 3 in a certain way so that to add more computing power to the RPi. I am ver much skeptical that this works ... does arduino even work that way?

Does it work? If it does, I would like to know.

Thank you
-foxxyman

[mlepage]

The Raspberry Pi is very much more powerful than the Arduino in many respects. So you are not going to add much "power" to the Raspberry Pi.

Think of it as, the Raspberry Pi is like the computer in a tablet, while the Arduino is like the computer in a smart thermostat.

You can certainly do projects where they are used together. The main thing to be careful of, is the Arduino is 5V while the Raspberry Pi is 3.3V.

Probably the most common thing an Arduino could do, is the sort of thing you use the Raspberry Pi GPIO (pins) for. The Arduino can do that more consistently and using lower power. If you run out of GPIO pins on the Raspberry Pi, it's common to use something like an Arduino to do more, and send the results of its sensing/processing to the Raspberry Pi (e.g. over USB or serial).

[Lob0426]

As he said;

The Arduino adds Real Time Control (RTC). There are different Arduino's that can be chosen. The Raspberry Pi will send commands to the Arduino that it will carry out to control projects. Arduino's are used as controllers in Laser Engraver's, CNC, some 3D printers. But they can be used control things by themselves.

So adding an Arduino does not add power it adds control. Especially more GPIO "pins" to control your projects.

[DougieLawson]

Why not get your mate to run a demo for you.

Arduinos, esp8266 and wemoses are brilliant for simple IoT tasks. The raspberry is ideal as a command & control server for that stuff. It isn't adding extra power to the pi it's offloading tedious workload to the microcontroller.

[gordon77]

The Arduino can also offer A to D

[MarkR]

Yes it adds some new capabilities, e.g. the Pi doesn't have ADC. It might also be convenient if you have a 5v Arduino and a 3.3v Pi (they all are).

But the single CPU of the Arduino is extremely slow compared to the Pi3's 4 cores. Nobody would allocate any difficult computing tasks to it, if they have a Pi in the system.

[foxxyman]

Why not get your mate to run a demo for you.

Arduinos, esp8266 and wemoses are brilliant for simple IoT tasks. The raspberry is ideal as a command & control server for that stuff. It isn't adding extra power to the pi it's offloading tedious workload to the microcontroller.

The Raspberry Pi is very much more powerful than the Arduino in many respects. So you are not going to add much "power" to the Raspberry Pi.

Think of it as, the Raspberry Pi is like the computer in a tablet, while the Arduino is like the computer in a smart thermostat.

You can certainly do projects where they are used together. The main thing to be careful of, is the Arduino is 5V while the Raspberry Pi is 3.3V.

Probably the most common thing an Arduino could do, is the sort of thing you use the Raspberry Pi GPIO (pins) for. The Arduino can do that more consistently and using lower power. If you run out of GPIO pins on the Raspberry Pi, it's common to use something like an Arduino to do more, and send the results of its sensing/processing to the Raspberry Pi (e.g. over USB or serial).

so how does one connect the arduino to the RPi as said above (my classmate can’t run a demo for me)

[DougieLawson]

You connect it with a USB-A to USB-B printer cable for a regular Uno. You connect it with a USB-A to microUSB for a Nano.

It will appear as /dev/ttyACM0 or /dev/ttyUSB0 depending on the serial interface controller on the Arduino.

[foxxyman]

You connect it with a USB-A to USB-B printer cable for a regular Uno. You connect it with a USB-A to microUSB for a Nano.

It will appear as /dev/ttyACM0 or /dev/ttyUSB0 depending on the serial interface controller on the Arduino.

oh simple