{"id":52,"date":"2018-02-05T23:16:52","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T23:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/larrylaskowski.com\/?page_id=52"},"modified":"2019-01-04T18:14:05","modified_gmt":"2019-01-04T18:14:05","slug":"microcontrollers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/larrylaskowski.com\/?page_id=52","title":{"rendered":"Microcontrollers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are several, new, interesting microcontrollers that are available as well as a number of existing ones.<\/p>\n<p>Quick list:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Micro:bit &#8211; A BBC\/Microsoft collaboration which was developed for STEM education.&nbsp; This is a very capable and inexpensive device with excellent support.&nbsp; It can be programmed via a graphical interface, using JavaScript, or Python.&nbsp; Check it out at:&nbsp;http:\/\/microbit.org\/<\/li>\n<li>Sino:bit &#8211; This is also a STEM learning tool, but this one is from China and sports a larger LED array.&nbsp; Check out:&nbsp;&nbsp;https:\/\/www.elecrow.com\/sino-bit-v1-0.html or&nbsp;https:\/\/learn.adafruit.com\/sino-bit-with-arduino\/dastels-overview<\/li>\n<li>Circuit Playground Express &#8211; This board can be programmed using the MakeCode environment in the graphical editor, JavaScript, or Python, just like the Micro:bit.&nbsp; Check out:&nbsp;&nbsp;https:\/\/learn.adafruit.com\/adafruit-circuit-playground-express?view=all<\/li>\n<li>Feather and Trinket, also from AdaFruit and they can be programmed with on-board Python.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Raspberry Pi Family:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is a new addition to the Pi line of microcontrollers, the ASUS Tinker Board.  It is faster and has more memory than the Raspberry Pi 3 B+, so it feels pretty zippy when working with it.  The larger question is whether the additional performance justifies the higher price.  Preliminary work with it shows that it is very effective as a small Linux machine, so if the application requires performance, the price is probably fine.  For teaching microcontrollers, it seems a bit pricey since performance is generally not as critical in such an application.  Also, there are some really good tools for STEM teaching available from UC Davis which don&#8217;t currently run on the Tinker Board. (Check out: http:\/\/c-stem.ucdavis.edu\/)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are several, new, interesting microcontrollers that are available as well as a number of existing ones. Quick list: Micro:bit &#8211; A BBC\/Microsoft collaboration which was developed for STEM education.&nbsp; This is a very capable and inexpensive device with excellent &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/larrylaskowski.com\/?page_id=52\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-52","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/larrylaskowski.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/larrylaskowski.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/larrylaskowski.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larrylaskowski.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larrylaskowski.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/larrylaskowski.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/52\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59,"href":"http:\/\/larrylaskowski.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/52\/revisions\/59"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/larrylaskowski.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}