I’m looking for a development board for hobbyist work. This will be for general purpose use; I have no specific project or application in mind, but the broad categories are computer vision and airborne vehicle control and navigation. However, it must be fast (1 GHz clock rate if that’s possible). Once the project is developed, I may field it on a smaller footprint and slower processor in the same family.
Past experience:
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Arduino - Loved it, but too slow.
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PIC16 - Fair. Old boards used RS232 for download. Limited capability free tools. ICD 2 LE never worked for me. Expensive full tools.
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Raspberry Pi: Little and poor experience. All set-up and no apps. Processor/board architecture seems to be difficult to use.
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TI Beaglebone Black: No experience. Will it be as difficult as the Pi?
Microcontroller Board Specs
Hardware:
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From either TI, NXP, or Microchip. Priced at under $100, if possible.
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A good set of application boards - motor drivers/controllers, WIFI, radio, etc.
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Method to upload code from a development host, to test application, over and over again, at least as convenient as the Arduino approach.
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16- or 32-bit processor; multi-core is not required.
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The more digital GPIO pins the better; some analog IO pins are required.
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In-circuit debugger would be nice.
Software:
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Free and full functionality IDE, compiler, assembler, linker and debugger. (I program in Assembler, but will use C if needed.)
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Associated board support software.
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A fast, small, deterministic RTOS, also free. Or I may build my own.
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A hardware emulator would be helpful.
Other:
- A large, friendly community to help when I get stuck would be great. This is a major factor in my decision.