Hello, first post. I have been programming for 15 years in different languages but have little experience in electronics. I got an Arduino board 10 years but didn’t do much. I need help in figuring out what the best stuff to order of a small project. Basically I am wanting to use ranging finding like the Oak D light to turn a servo / motor depending on the distance. It is part of a lens follow focus I have been thinking about. Do I get an Arduino or Raspberry Pi, or something else? I know the Oak D connect to the computer where I can test but what would I use to make it mobile?
The Oak-D Lite needs at minimum an MCU that can run OpenCV. A Raspberry Pi running linux would be my choice, especially for portable units, although in principle you can learn how to use it on any PC, with any of the modern operating systems.
The RPi Pico W would be inexpensive and probably work well as a project starter. However, processor speed determines the responsiveness of the follow focus operation, and you will need to experiment to get a feel for what is required.
Hi Jremington, thanks for the feedback! Doing more research over the last couple days I came to the same conclusion. I ordered a Raspberry PI 4 that arrives today. Before I order the OAK D I want to get comfortable with it and run through tutorials. I am going to order a kit that has stepper motors, servos and such and get use to the board and how things connect and work before plunging in to the OAK D. I am looking forward to playing around with electronics again!