Are you here to learn electronics?
In this article, you will see two of the most well-known platform which is Arduino and Raspberry Pi.
So, confused about which one is the best for you to start learning?
Here, we will help you to make your decision better and you will understand which is best for you.
Arduino and Raspberry Pi both are different entities and are designed to achieve different tasks which makes them both the best in their respective domains.
1. Arduino:
Arduino is an open-source electronics platform that is very easy to use and understand for beginners. Also, it has been the brain of thousands of projects. It can be used to build electronics, learn robotics, interface sensors with Arduino, and more fun.
If you have not to build any projects before then we would recommend that go with Arduino first and start building small projects with Arduino. So, you will get more confidence in building projects.
So, Arduino is definitely easier than the Raspberry pi, but when it comes to functionality both are different.
Let’s try to understand with an example:
Suppose, you want to make a Bluetooth device to control the lights of your room using your phone.
What will you use, Arduino or Raspberry Pi?
Well, You can still use Raspberry Pi but you can also use Arduino in this case. Now tell me is it wise to use a full computer ( Raspberry Pi ) worth Rs. 3000, just to turn one or more lights ON or OFF? I don’t think so.
So you must learn to use both of them as they both are best.
But if you are a beginner, start with Arduino. In the beginning, you will surely blow up one or more of their boards as I did while learning. But it’s okay as they cost just around Rs. 200 for Arduino nano and Rs. 350 – 400 for Arduino Uno.
Once you are accustomed to these and other basic electronics components like MOSFET’s, BJT’s, Relays, etc, and some sensors you can move to Raspberry Pi as they are more delicate and are even prone to ESD ( Electrostatic Discharge).
Check out How to interface Arduino and 7 Segment Display here.
2. Raspberry Pi:
In the simplest term, we can say, Raspberry-pi is a pocket-sized computer where you can install an operating system called Raspian and connect it to a display and use it as a computer.
Also, it provides by default storage capacity on it’s SD card (which also holds the operating system to boot) and optional additional USB connected storage devices. It does provide a limited amount of I/O pins similar to Arduino. Mostly, Raspberry Pi used for complex projects.
Know How to Connect Arduino Uno to Android via Bluetooth here.
Suppose, you want to make a self-driving toy car that can recognize obstacles in its way using object detection and steer around safely without colliding.
What will you use, Arduino or Raspberry Pi?
Definitely, you will choose Raspberry Pi. It’s a complete single-board computer on which you can run Linux OS. There is no way you could use Arduino in this situation. There is neither enough storage space nor processing power to run an Object Detection Algorithm on an Arduino. While Raspberry Pi in this case is the best option as it is small enough to be placed on a toy car as well as powerful enough to run those algorithms.
So, An Arduino would be a much better choice if you are trying to start is some hardware tinkering, building a “maker” project with (a lot) of sensors, servos, LEDs, etc. At the end, It’s all depending on what you want to do, choose either one. If you are looking to start off learning electronics and build some cool stuff, I would suggest starting building projects on Arduino.
Once you get more knowledge and confidence level then start building the project with Raspberry Pi.
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