Raspberry Pi Forums

I know this is a 'how long is a piece of string' question but what are these Arduino things? How do they connect to the Pi? What can I do with it? I would like to control motors, relays etc. I have a good knowledge of electronic engineering so am not completely useless, just feel it sometimes

Cheers

Brian

A pretty broad question.

http://www.arduino.cc/

Thanks for the link. I realise it is a broad question which is why I mention the string.

I am thinking of buying this: http://www.squirrel-labs.co.uk/funduino ... board.html.

Would it be a useful addition?

It depends on what you want to do.

You can drive relays directly from the Pi/Arduino (as long as you buy the right sort of relay board).

For motors (other than servos) you need to buy some external hardware, either a chip or a motor driver board. You can then control the chip/motor driver board directly from the Pi/Arduino.

All that Arduinos's bring in addition is their analogue inputs. For a Pi you'd need to buy an A/D converter chip.

However Arduinos have a extensive knowledge base and examples for interfacing to all sorts of sensors and miscellaneous hardware.

Thanks for that. I will do a little more research first.