Re: [DIYbio] Re: Electronic requirements for redesign of Arduino PCR thermal cycler

I think the snip below is the clarification which leads to agreement.
When I say Arduino, I mean AVR hardware based kits. I'm not talking
about the software, which, since it is compatible with better hardware,
then the obvious choice is to pick the better hardware. Why use Lego
when you can easily switch to using real nuts & bolts. The software
used for Arduino is java based on Processing out of MIT which is still
good for it's purposes.

Regarding cost, the points mentioned pro/con have been simultaneously on
both sides of the fence so watch out. Typically pro-Arduino peeps will
argue for the kits because they don't require purchase of a programmer
then later will also argue that higher individual cost of boards are
okay because price is not a concern (the programmer is a single tool,
one time minimal cost) . Since this circular argument doesn't make
sense it probably just goes back to the pro-Arduino peeps preferring the
choice because of the glossy pictures and the perception of community
(much larger and helpful communities to help with real designs exist,
simply go find them). The best design choice is to buy a $20 chip
programmer as a 1-time purchase, and buy some cheap chips and cheap
copper boards and solder 'em up (this is scalable, longer term, more
educational) . This was also the recommendation on numerous chip
discussion lists for anyone serious about building anything more
interesting than simple blinking led's (it's not just my opinion).
But even this point is less necessary today anyway with the new hardware
choices as you've said, especially with built-in USB downloading across
the board. The choices steering toward using Arduino hardware are simply
even less valid today.


Biology analogy: we can also pipette using straws, and recommend that
everyone do this (esp years ago when pipettes were expensive), but why
recommend this today? Buy a real pipette, the real tool.

## Jonathan Cline
## jcline@ieee.org
## Mobile: +1-805-617-0223
########################

On 3/24/15 12:04 PM, Nathan McCorkle wrote:
> Arduino is also not just the hardware, it's the
> IDE and community and libraries. People have ported different/better
> hardware to arduino-land (teensy, MSP430 via Energia, probably others
> I don't know of).

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