I have been out of the Arduino loop for a while now. Now that I have some free time, I have decided to relearn everything dealing with Arduino and do a project.
I have noticed that while I was away a new Arduino UNO came out. Now the one I have is the Diecimila. I looked up at the difference, and what I have noticed was that the new one simply has more Flash Memory and some other stuff that I do not understand, (SRAM, EEPROM).
Am I able to simply buy a new chip and replace the old one, or there are some difference with the board itself?
Is Diecimila considered an antique now, and do I have to get the UNO?
Not sure I can answer question 1 for you. I don’t think you can directly from looking at the IDE boards list, which shows a Decimilia with a Mega168 chip, while the UNO has the Mega328. The Duemilanove looks like it can use either chip. I’m relatively new to the arduino so I’ve started with an UNO, but it sounds like it is set up slightly differently in that it has a USB interface onboard that can also program the Arduino without needing to do anything special.
As for 2, I think you’re still good to go unless you’re hitting the memory limits. My understanding is that all of the code will execute on all of the arduino models as long as you can stuff it into the memory space.
All arduino boards are going to be supported for quite a while. What you’d get with an atmega328 is twice the program space, twice the EEPROM (memory you can write to that doesn’t disappear once power is lost), and twice the RAM (memory for storing variables). What you’d get with an Uno is the above, plus a faster upload time, even more space (smaller bootloader), power auto-detect (none of the jumper stuff), an extra mounting hole, and the ability to configure the arduino as any type of USB device (keyboard, joystick, etc.) with a little hacking.
I would not bother getting a new one unless you want some of the above things.
I was wondering since you are relatively new to Arduino. How are you starting out, and what are you doing with it?
Glad to help. What got me into it was finding a post about Mikal Hart’s reverse geocache. He was kind enough to post what hardware he’d used which lead me here among other places. I’m not a electrical or computer engineer, nor am I a programmer so I wasn’t sure how hard it was going to be. I got the SparkFun Inventor’s Kit for Arduino, and began on chapter 1, making an LED flash. (Which my best friend informs me is 80% of electrical engineering) That was fun and easy enough for me to understand what was going on, and I stayed up late doing a few tutorials that night.
I’m now playing around with an arduino connected to a venus gps module to make a simple gps for my truck that updates 4 times a second, and changes the lcd’s backlight automatically with a photoresistor. (The speedometer indicates 70 at 67, so enough to bug me but within spec)
I also picked up the weatherboard, so I’m seeing what I can do with it yet. I’m experimenting with running a solar cell to a li-poly charger and then into the board to see if I can run it continuously. If there’s an available input I’d like to hook up a gps so I can time stamp the data feed.
I managed to get a friend hooked on it, and he’s making one to watch over his hangar and possibly turn on his engine preheater remotely so the plane is ready to go when he gets there. I have some other parts, I might make a gps powered clock for my desk, or who knows what else. It’s really been a lot of fun for me.
That was fun and easy enough for me to understand what was going on, and I stayed up late doing a few tutorials that night.