The Connected Home: Which Board is Right for Me? By Alasdair Allan

The Connected Home: Which Board is Right for Me? By Alasdair Allan Posted 02/07/2014

http://makezine.com/magazine/make-36-boards/which-board-is-right-for-me/


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So, um, which board should I buy anyway?

Because of the communities that have grown up around them, I would unhesitatingly recommend an Arduino if you need an 8-bit microcontroller, or a Raspberry Pi if you need a single-board computer running Linux.

If you’re leaning toward the Pi, but worried it may not suit your application, the decision gets more complex. The Raspberry Pi is yet to become an unstoppable force, or an immovable object, like the Arduino. The most serious alternative, around the same price point, is BeagleBone Black. On the other hand, BeagleBone Black is relatively new, and its community is much smaller, so you might end up having to solve a lot of your own problems.

If you’re leaning toward an Arduino, but have specific needs (like wireless connectivity) that it doesn’t meet out of the box, then you should probably look first among the myriad of Arduino derivatives. You’ll probably find your desired feature set baked right into one of them.

Finally, if your project’s I/O requirements permit it, take a serious look at the TI LaunchPad MSP430. Its low-price, low-power requirements, and user-friendly development environment make a very strong case.

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