#85 Arduino vs Orange & Raspberry Pi Zero 🥧

Not really a head-to-head, but more of an investigation into what either the Orange Pi Zero or Raspberry Pi Zero can offer us Arduinites. I mean, what is it all about, and how do you program using Python anyway?
We take a brief (well, 30 minute) look at what either of these two boards can offer us, and how they might even supplant the Arduino in an embedded system. Or can they?
Were they easy to set up? And what is all this "zero" nonsense in the model's name? And the prices? Compared to an Arduino Uno, for example, are they even in the same ball park?
The pack leader is Raspberry; Orange is an open-source pretender to the throne. Which one is better? Cheaper? Nicer?
These, and further questions are posed and almost answered, albeit that only YOU can actually give the answer that's right for you! You will just have to watch the video and make your own mind up.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are lots of links here that I found useful during my "Pi Extravaganza".
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Putty download for Windows (Mac users see the video for inbuilt alternative)
www.chiark.gree...
Raspberry Pi Zero source (from The_Pi_Hut, UK Distributor)
www.ebay.co.uk/...
Note this contains the OTG (On The Go) USB cable, and various pin headers and feet.
Of these the OTG cable is an essential, but you may have one anyway!
Orange Pi Zero source (from Ali Express)
www.aliexpress...
Fantastic utility to burn your Orange Pi Armbian distro to SD card
etcher.io/ (for Windows, Linux and OS x)
Raspberry Pi official site for newcomers
www.raspberryp...
And the download page (be sure to download the SD Card Formatter utility they recommend too)
www.raspberryp...
Useful webpage on how to set up the Raspberry Pi Zero
www.everydaylin...
How to shutdown your raspberry Pi safely
raspberrypi.st...
Orange Pi vs Raspberry Pi pinouts - The Blink Program!
diyprojects.io...
Some basic Linux commands (for the Terminal program in Raspberry Pi or in headless mode for Orange Pi)
www.raspberryp...
Official site for Armbian Orange Pi Lite distro (OS)
www.armbian.co...
Official site for Armbian Orange Pi ZERO distro (OS)
www.armbian.co...
Beginners Guide to the Orange Pi Zero
lucsmall.com/20...
Armbian documentation on Getting Started
docs.armbian.c...
---
If you like this video please give it a thumbs up, share it and if you're not already subscribed please do so :)
My channel is here:
------------------------------------------------------------------
/ ralphbacon
------------------------------------------------------------------
How can I remember this? Memory tip: "See" Ralph Bacon, geddit?

[@RalphBacon]

I'm in foreign lands right now so my responses will be tardier than perhaps you are used to. But I'm back shortly so normal service will be resumed very soon.

[@willofirony]

The things people will do to avoid electioneering.

[@RalphBacon]

I've now returned from lands afar and whilst there I thought I might try the local illnesses too, which I did, and have brought back with me. But I've struggled from my death bed (well, the little boys' room) to continue my responses here. There is no end to my professional, it seems, nor my visits to the little boys' room either, it would appear. Sigh.

[@willofirony]

Get well soon.

[@RalphBacon]

Thanks Michael. My wife also says that, but adds "so you can go back to work". What CAN she mean?

[@willofirony]

One can only surmise that, given her natural feminine nurturing nature, she means that you return to your FULL health; which, of course, would result in your return to work. She didn't mention the phrase "under my feet", by any chance?

[@learnelectronics]

thanks Ralph, as an Arduinite myself, I think I'll stay that way.

[@RalphBacon]

Probably true of me too, but I'll still fire up that lovely Raspberry Pi now and again to see what else I can do with it. Thanks for your continued Arduinite support though!

[@Ed19601]

I am predominantly an arduino guy, though I start to like the ESP8266 very much as well. Bought my first raspberry mainly for File server use. Disappointment as I think the Raspian then was very instable. Put it aside for years untill I wanted to do something with Mosquitto. Works great for that. For Openhab I needed the model 3. so bought that and turned the old model B in a back up mosquitto broker, a file server and an Onion router. Jessie is much more stable than what I have seen before. But if I really want to make something... back to the arduino/esp/attiny

[@RalphBacon]

I've neglected my ESP8266 modules of late, even though they have massive storage (although even the basic blink sketch uses some 230Kb!) but I do like them. And I think they are becoming more popular as more IDEs support them (apparently even the Stino add-in for Sublime now supports its). The lack of analog channels could be a problem but then again, use a $2 Nano if you really want that functionality and send the results to the ESP8266!

[@Ed19601]

yes, even the smallest programs take a lot of space, but somehow that seems mostly overhead coz at a sudden moment a much bigger program does not take proportionally more space

[@learnelectronics]

Ralph S Bacon I just got hold of a WeMos D1, so I'll play in the esp8266 universe with you.

[@rexeveringham1817]

Horses for courses... What this video is really about for me is selecting the right product type to suit your intended application. I certainly wouldn’t want to use a power hungry SBC for a simple monitoring and/or lightweight control requirement, but I would use something like the Pi if I needed a local data server or something that needed to stream audio/video media for example. The cooling requirements (heatsinks and airflow) are a concern when considering where they will be mounted and in what housing - especially in climates with high ambient temperatures. BTW; I have read somewhere that the R-Pi can be plagued with SD card image corruption issues, and that leaving a 2GB empty partition at the beginning of the card can help... I still have to try one of these out in the future, so thanks for jumping in and breaking the ice for us Ralph, but in the meantime I’ll continue with the ESP range. I know this video was made two years ago so it’s a little late to tell you to cheer up now, but cheers anyway!

[@RalphBacon]

Never too late to comment on one of my videos, Rex, thanks for posting.

[@roberteliassen5020]

Ralph, in Unix, “everything is a file” they say. And that’s in fact true for GPIO ports. That means you don’t have to write Python if you don’t want. You can make a blink program in Bash, AWK, C, C++, Perl, C# (with Mono), Lisp and any other language which is capable to read and write files. That applies to all of them I guess. :) Ever heard of a programming language that doesn’t do file read and write? ;-) Anyway, yet another nice piece of work. Thumbs up! Thanks!

[@RalphBacon]

Hey Robert! I'm afraid your Unix experience far exceeds mine (I wouldn't call my dabblings "experience" at all really) but I'm glad that there are other ways of using those GPIO ports as the interpreted Linux route wouldn't really be my preferred route. Now I've got it up and running, though, I shall experiment a bit more. Raspberry Pi for Dummies, perhaps, may be the next step. Thanks for posting.

[@roberteliassen5020]

I made a simple test in order to determine the "blink performance". In Bash you get 6 kHz square wave on a Raspberry Pi 3. In C the max frequency, with fopen(), fprintf() and fclose() for every transition, is 10 kHz. Optimized with only one fopen, and a fflush() after each fputc(), my scope says 275 kHz. For a simple blink-program it is of course good enough, but if you try to generate a high frequency square wave (in the kHz range), you have to remember the OS is a multiuser environment and the frequency would not be stable unless you tweak the kernel.

[@RalphBacon]

"...you have to remember the OS is a multiuser environment" which is an extremely valid point. An Arduino is running a bespoke, dedicated, compiled program. It can interact with the user (in a fairly limited way, key presses for example) and can measure and detect sensor readings. The "Pi" family is nothing like this. As you say, for a start it runs an OS. And multiple programs. All at once! Even if you compile stuff for a Pi it still does not have exclusivity on anything. Sharing is caring, they say, but not if you miss the leading edge of a pulse! Anyway, you probably read my update on what now transpires to be a *Wireless* Raspi Pi Zero, doh! If nothing else this video caused a lot of comment, for, against, whatever! All interesting.

[@Promilus1984]

Toggling outputs on arduino would just waste cpu cycles as well... what's the point of doing such thing instead of pwm? How many *duino projects uses ethernet, WiFi, cam, usb, webserver? Many. How many of those would run better on SBC? Probably all of them. And cheaper too. It's always best to pick best HW for a project first instead of adjusting project to the "favourite" hardware.

[@MaruAdventurer]

The difference is what is built in. Pi can operate in any now standard networking arrangement out of the box. My Arduous experience usually means adding bits to provide that connectivity.

[@RalphBacon]

So true. In fact, the "it just works" sound bite from Apple is more than just that; it's what users expect these days. The Raspberry Pi "just works" (OK, they've had a few revisions along the way) and that's why it is such a success.

[@maxximumb]

I got one of the first Raspberry Pi As and it was a great toy to play with, but seemed to fall down when I wanted to do anything useful with it. I'm sure the newer versions are usable now, but mine just works as a streaming web cam now, hooked up to whatever I need to watch remotely over the wifi.

[@Ed19601]

my first one (the 'old one')was similar, always problems and had to reinstall the software many time. Put it aside for long time and recently put Jessie on it. Solid as a rock, just as my Pi3 with jessie

[@RalphBacon]

Yes, Maxx, I think they have sorted out any stability problems on the Raspberry Pi (as my video showed), something the Orange Pi group have yet to do (also mentioned in my video). I'll have to do more now I have my Wifi dongle and see how it goes.

[@RaadYacu]

Ralph, RPIs are little diff than Arduino. SBC ( Single board computers ) vs MCUs. There is newer version of the zero option that is called Rpi Zero W. W for wireless so no need for dongle anymore. The SBCs can be used as gateway hub that MCUs connect to. So while you can have many MCUs to collect things or track things, they all can communicate back to an SBC and therefore connect back to cloud. As for headless, rpi can run as headless by connecting through terminal also. but using visual is easier of course. Now running python apps, you can run them in the background by adding & to your sudo python command and it will fork a process in the background. But, to open source or not to open source, that is the question.

[@ytfp]

This is a raspbery pi zero w he is using, you can clearly see the wifi chip onboard in the video.

[@Ed19601]

yet he ordered a wifi dongle :-)

[@RalphBacon]

Hmm, I definitely ordered a standard Raspberry Pi Zero (no wireless) so if there *is* a wifi chip there I'll be mighty surprised. I don't recall any PCB aerial track either. But when I get back home I shall recheck! This could be rather embarrassing...

[@ytfp]

100% sure that is a pi zero w (wireless) the wifi chip and inductor, both not present on any other pi zero, are clearly visible. Also I would buy your pi's online via Pimoroni, Pi Hut, Adafruit, Modmypi, Canakit, or Adafruit. If your buying off Ebay not only are you overpaying but your also supporting people who gobble them up and hike up the price. Most sites are 4.80 or 5 pounds for a pi zero 1.3 and 9.99 for a pi zero w. If your seeing more than that price even on those sites, be sure to check all the options available. All of those sites mentioned have just the board without all the junk (aside from Adafruit because even thought they sell them they are CONSTANTLY out of stock on every piece of kit they sell)

[@RalphBacon]

*UPDATE!* I'm back home from lands afar (see pinned message above, all messages of sympathy gratefully accepted) and have dug out my Pi Zero. I looked for the antenna tracks and could see none (which would have alerted me from day one, of course). Turned the board over (for the first time!) and it definitely says *Raspberry Pi Zero*. At the end of which is also says *W V1.1*. At the bottom of the board, in tiny, tiny writing is says "Uses antenna technology from Proant". Doh! So, this is a *RASPBERRY PI ZERO W*. Well spotted ytfp. No wonder it was more expensive than I thought it might be. And more than the price *ytfp* mentions above too. (Thanks for that info BTW). Such is the price I pay when ordering too swiftly without much background checking (because my Orange Pi Lite was playing up I was pretty keen to get something actually working). Well, I'd better either load the correct distro for it, or just connect up the wifi on it! Woo Hoo! Thank goodness you guys are on the ball. Anyone need a spare (unused) wifi dongle?

[@tonydonnelly]

I was successful in getting my Orange Pi Lite working with Armbian. I added a heat sink to the CPU because it does get very hot just sitting doing nothing. I, too, had issues getting the HDMI working. It sounds like you may have a defective unit.

[@RalphBacon]

I was tempted to think this,Tony, but I haven't given up just yet. I'll try with a purpose built PSU and try again soon, as I think this board has potential. But as they say, if at first you don't succeed, try and try again then give up - no use being a damn' fool about it!

[@johnhschuster]

Love your video production. Talking head in the upper right corner is very nice. Like seeing the person behind the voice. Do you use a teleprompter or is this just an ad-hoc delivery? Good luck in your travels

[@RalphBacon]

Thanks for the vote of confidence, John. I don't use a teleprompter (other than Benny reminding me of certain features to mention!) although I sometimes have a list of things I want to cover, as an aide-memoire. Nice to hear from you.

[@elfenmagix8173]

Opposite the GPIO port on the Orange Pi Zero is the 13 Pin Expansion port, where there is a composite video out. You could have connected a monitor to that. With any Pi running faster than 1GHz, you need to install heatsinks to the CPU or you will have issues with the system crashing and possibly damaging the CPU.

[@RalphBacon]

Yes, you are correct, I could have connected a monitor to the composite video output. I didn't know about using a heatsink on 1Ghz+; I use them sometimes on my Pi modules (Zero W) maybe that is why the others are a bit unstable, good to know.

[@alexwilson9881]

The big advantage of a Pi is that it can do a lot more than an Arduino -- want to store and analyse the sensor data it is collecting? Serve the analysis up on a web page? Control the sensors from a web page? The Pi can do all that while also running a streaming music and ad-blocking web proxy all at the same time. Blink sketch is a good start, but it's really not scratching the surface of what the extra memory, processing, and threading abilities the Pi offers that makes it different.

[@RalphBacon]

Absolutely, Alex, and I wasn't suggesting that the Blink program was in any way indicative of what the Pi family of boards can achieve! And I've had a few questions about data storage and number crunching, so maybe using an Arduino at the sharp end of data collection/detection and let a Pi board to the donkey work in a fraction of the time an Arduino could do might be a good approach. Using I2C it would be easy to join the two together. Now *there's* an idea for a future video. Good post Alex.

[@weirdscix]

I bought a Pi Zero essentials kit for the Pi Hut a while back, I paid about £13, currently the Pi Zero v 1.3 essential is £11.00 and the Pi itself £4.80

[@RalphBacon]

As it turns out, WeirdScience06, I had actually bought a Pi Zero W (I didn't realise it was a "W" variant) which is currently retailing all on its lonesome for £9.60, or with that essentials kit I bought £15.60. Considering my purchase was from the same place (ThePiHut) I wonder why I ended up paying more? Shipping, maybe? Caveat emptor as they say. Or, don't buy things in a rush during lunchtime!

[@weirdscix]

Yeah the W is considerably more.

[@grahamwise5719]

Arduino is fine for real time signals, the RiPi wins when you want to use a camera to cature still or video. The RiPi "W" with the PCB printed wifi antenna is a cheaper way to get started. I do love the ESP32 or ESP8266 for IOT sensors for simple control systems, the 8266 does lose time to go and service the WIFI, but the dual processor in the ESP32 should resolve this. The Arduino IDE plugins are good but don't yet do everything yet, but is good coverage. Most Arduino libraries work, sometimes you have to change pin numbers. You can program over the wifi if you have the additions to your code and the OTA (over - the - air) library.

[@RalphBacon]

Your post, Graham, is highly indicative of the dilemma we face: too much choice! Or, perhaps, horses for courses, where we should select the correct platform for the problem we're trying to solve. I'll look at a couple of the items you mention later as you have piqued my interest! Thanks for posting.

[@anonymousss1473]

keep going,,,, your videos really helped me,,,,, thanks :)

[@RalphBacon]

Glad you liked the video Abdullah, nice to hear from you.

[@MarcelOoms]

Just what i wanted to know, thanks!

[@RalphBacon]

Glad this was of interest Marcel, sometimes a brief overview is all you need to determine whether the dark side, er, Pi path is the one you want to follow!

[@alanpowell328]

Hi Ralph, A few years ago I forayed into the Raspberry Pi world, partially out of interest being an ex Linux mainstreamer ( some 10 years ago) but mostly because I wanted to remote control my 3D printer - this was before IOT stuff was available. It worked well but the initial hardware overheads - keyboard/mouse/monitor - make it more like a small PC. That got reduced to a tablet app in the end so yeah - a good system. Until you remember that the 3D printer was using a Arduino Mega variant to do amazingly complex and accurate stuff. So in my view, the Arduino has a long future despite these new and quite attractive Pi options. The Arduino gives you complete ownership of your project so I've not been tempted to change. Kind Regards Alan

[@RalphBacon]

To paraphrase a modern saying, I was "Pi-curious" but having delved in to the Pi world I have no fears that the Arduino is being supplanted any time soon. It is probably about time we had a Uno/Nano v4 (with dual serial, another I2C bus, more memory and perhaps a bigger processor - even a 328PB would be nice) but it is still a viable platform on which to build. Interesting experiences you have there Alan, very interesting!

[@renesolis2604]

Hi Ralph, but why do you connect on SSH the first time, the C.H.I.P., OrangePI, RPI, etc can connect via UART Serial using a FTDI232 Basic (example kzbin.info/www/bejne/pqKbZHmbmJxrpKc) inside check IP, $nano the python program,etc.

[@RalphBacon]

Hey Rene, thanks for that info. As you may have seen from other videos I have often connected using my lovely FTDI USB-to-Serial converter to other boards (eg to the ATTiny85) but never to a "Pi" type board (mainly because I have no idea what I'm doing with those boards, but felt it would be interesting to take a quick look). So thanks for the video link, and I'll see how I get on.

[@ianide2480]

I prefer C or C++ while programming in the RPi world. I find that the overhead of Python is um... undesirable. Python is an interpreted language and uses more resources. Call it what you will but I prefer not to have extra overhead when I can avoid it. It does have it's uses though, all the built in libraries are indeed very useful and they have their place. RPi is a much more than a microcontroller as you have noticed and much less in some cases. When you want something lightweight, very low power, and purpose built, well you can't go wrong with a micro controller. Having a full computer in such a small package also has it's place. Full access to Python, C, and Java to control or serve a much larger purpose; full home web server, file sharing, media device, DB access, the uses are limited by your imagination with either device.

[@ianide2480]

Also the desktop isn't needed on the Rpi at all and can be disabled easily. Since it can be connected to the internet easily, you can set up a simple mail daemon and have it send you email alerts for whatever you have it connected to, um... Water is raising in your basement because the sump-pump quit working, would be cool to get an email telling you that a failure has occurred while you are away from home.. Just an example that I pulled from the air. If you want to run a Python script (or anything) in the background.... sudo python script.py & note the & at the end, that's all you need to add... But you wont get feedback from your print() commands in the current terminal (it's running elsewhere now), which isn't an issue either. You can open another terminal in Putty and log in again to get another window. You are never stuck or limited by the terminal. I understand where you are coming from (arduino is cheap and easy, I agree completely) and I am not bashing your technique but Linux and this small computer do so much more than they are credited for. I encourage others to think of a project where a full (small) computer can be useful then go ahead and learn how to make this project into a reality.

[@RalphBacon]

Well, Ian, I knew I was comparing Apples with Organges when I wrote the title to this video, but it was just to show what a Pi might do compared to an Arduino. Very different animals as you have pointed out. But maybe the Arduino is more capable than you think: the example you gave about sending out emails can be accomplished very easily using an Arduino and Ethernet shield, for example, as I demoed in another video. But as you say, where there is a need a small PC-on-a-board is cheap and very capable (like the RPi Zero W I used in this demo). Thanks for your thoughts, makes for interesting reading.

[@andreweastland9634]

You should also include the esp8266/32 products in your analysis. They all do different jobs, use which ever is appropriate. I have 3 rpi, 4 esp8266 and about a dozen arduino/328p based gadgets all running doing various jobs. For your simple water monitor use an arduino, if you want to Web enable it then use an esp, if you want to log in and have full web enabled control of a water system with lots of data analysis then maybe use a rpi.

[@RalphBacon]

I did a video #33 a while ago now on the ESP8266 (one variant anyway) and I was impressed, not least with the massive memory and storage! It might be time to have another look using an ESP8266 module attached to an Arduino rather than a whole board. Hmm, good suggestion, Andrew.

[@midnightrizer]

an adruio in combination with python using Pilab can graph and log sensors in real time also.

[@gfodale]

First, I stick with Raspberry Pi, as it works. No surprises. I advocate for both arduino and raspberry pi. They both have their uses. Currently I'm working on a little robot car to be a plaything for the cat. Obviously arduino based. On the other hand, if I were building a security robot for monitoring the property, I'd have raspberry pi managing and feeding video, watching over and taking messages from arduino subsystems. I plan on learning to program in C/C++ on pi, before doing anything serious with pi in my projects. (already found a site that provides libraries and such.) As this is my first reply, I'd also like to say thank you for your videos. They have been helpful in several cases.

[@RalphBacon]

I'm glad my videos have been useful to you, thanks for letting me know. As for Pi vs Arduino - well, as you have rightly illustrated, it's horses for courses. I'm still trying to find the time for a Node-Red/MQTT workshop automation system and the hub will be my RasPi 3 but the sensors are all ESP8266 Sonoff things. Great to hear from you, thanks again for posting.

[@elfenmagix8173]

I come from both the Pi and Arduino worlds, and yes, there are differences and there are similarities. But a Pi (Raspberry, Orange, Banana, etc) is not the same as an an Arduino. It use a Pi, you would want something complex, besides monitoring your water tank; you can have it monitor your home and have it send video to you through the internet while interacting with the device. You can connect several to a pi, but you can do the same with one Arduino being a master and the others being a slave but yo have have the Pi process the data the Arduinos are sending. This is more of a preference and needs than a needs and preference type of solution. The only thing one could say is that the Arduinos are still 8bit and the Pies are 32/64 bit.

[@RalphBacon]

Yes, Elfen, it was unfair to compare an Arduino to any Pi module - but sometimes it's the only way to get a message across for people who have never considered using a Pi for anything. You have summarised the differences very well, thanks for posting.

[@elfenmagix8173]

@@RalphBacon , Thank you for the video!

[@johncherry108]

I don't think you should describe what you did as 'logging into the Internet'. You used Putty to connect to a device on your local area network. The internet wasn't involved.

[@RalphBacon]

Did I really say that, John? Oops, slip of the tongue I'm afraid. Logging into the PI via my LAN is about as far as it got. Thanks for correcting me, I will be more precise in future videos!

[@BerndFelsche]

Meanwhile; ESP32 pops in with a plethora of connectivity and Arduino-fied development options. Runs cooler than a Pi with far less power. Pi can still come in useful as central control, as could any Linux or BSD, capable of running Node-Red for managing e.g. home automation.

[@RalphBacon]

Definitely. If we are, at heart, Arduinites then the ESP32 is *much* closer to the embedded µcontroller we have come to know and love, Bernd. The Pi undoubtedly has a place but running an entire operating system with a monitor and everything (albeit optional) is definitely a step too far for some of us. Each has its place but I do like the ESP32 and look forward to the supporting libraries maturing over time and making it easier to just plug in and go, a la UNO, or even the ESP8266 these days. Thanks for the comment, I'm sure many will both agree and disagree but that's the fun of it.

[@Ed19601]

How about the banana pi ? :-)

[@RalphBacon]

I had to draw the line somewhere, Ed, and this was it! However, as I had "difficulties" with one of the Orange Pi boards I might, one day, try the Banana Pi board depending on what general support is out there. We shall see. A great pity the Raspberry Pi is not open source, but I guess they need to make money from it to keep development going.

[@Ed19601]

I understand Ralph, it was more a rethorical question given the fact that the Banan Pi is not much cheaper than the raspberry but has the support level of the orange Pi i think :-) Price wise the orange Pi zero is about the same as the raspi Pi zero... but with the added shipping it becomes less sttractive. getting a raspi zero from a local distributer in my own country then makes more sense and is cheaper. Indded too bad it is not open source, although if someone wanted I dont think it would be too hard to make one and as it all is standard components I doubt if there is any form of protection other than the name. makes one think though why the orange pi would be so fiddly to eoperate

[@gg-gn3re]

Raspberry pi, Banana Pi, Orange Pi I use in semi-commercial settings for several years now. Orange Pi has the best specs of the 3, but you have a 15% chance of the hardware actually being supported, and if it is it probably runs like total garbage. Also they run hot so hopefully you put it in Antarctica. ARMBIAN is best bet to get the most things running correctly (keep in mind it'll still be broken all over, especially wifi, the antenna should be 10 times better than it is currently, for example) Banana Pi is a good middle man and has great SATA speed, I can get around 120MB/s however keep in mind over ethernet it is going to die due to CPU maxing out and over encrypted scp, rsync, ssh, sftp, etc it will slow greatly. CIFS (Samba) and FTP are fastest options. Many things are terribly supported in bananian and others. ARMBIAN is probably the best support but lacks a lot, still. Raspberry Pi has by far the best support but lacks many hardware features. It'll get you started far faster than the others. The stuff will actually work 99% of the time, too. special mention: ODROID will give you serious hardware that actually works. the HC2 will give you serious NAS capabilities for such a small device. It does run hot, though. For any "Mini computer" type of SoC I stay away from banana and orange now, I've ran and used dozens in different projects throughout the states. They break much quicker than the Raspberry, in fact I have yet to have a Raspberry break. I left one in the rain in Oregon (accidentally) monitoring mountain weather data for 3 months and came back the entire board was rusted and still running and uploading via cell tower, which is probably why they use them in Antarctica etc. Only times I go ODROID is when I need more power but don't want to go x86 instead of ARM chips.

[@RalphBacon]

Wow, you certainly have a wide-ranging experience with these boards - and in Real World situations too. Interesting what you say about the robustness of the RasPi but I guess they are not building down to a (clone) price, and the quality of RasPi board is evident. My new-ish Model 3B+ is very good and robust, albeit in a laboratory type environment - I haven't left it out in the rain, that's for sure but I'll take your word that it would probably survive! Thanks for this post, grats gg, very interesting.

[@gg-gn3re]

Yea I have more experience with them than any micro controller, which I'm now getting more into (and discovering your channel). I don't know how it survived but it was on accident, it was mounted on the side of a fence and the cover fell off in a storm apparently. The guys working up there said part of the fence fell down and for some reason didn't put the cover back on the board.

[@Guyc00l]

you had a rpi sending weather data for 3 months so was it connected to power cabble or batteries? I wonder how something drawing maybe 200mAh on average can go on for so long and in the rain! I also have an orange pi and the software is really so sloppy, it shouldn't even be considered alpha in any real company and the boards shouldn't be selling with advertised features when there aren't any Operating systems to support all these capabilities in a stable way

[@gg-gn3re]

As I said there were people up there working by it, they had solar & wind running all the time, wasn't much to power such a small board. & Yea orange pi has so much hardware but none of it even works.

[@sarunasz5167]

Orange Pi Zero actually has TV out.

[@RalphBacon]

Really, Saras, that would be useful? The official spec sheet states "Video Outputs: Supports external board via 13 pins". Here's a link to the official web site: www.orangepi.org/orangepizero/ and try as I might I can see no video output at all on this board. Now some distros apparently support pin 9 as video out (with ground being the other pin you'll need, pin 2) but I haven't tested that and it's an unsupported feature as you'll end up with overscan in all probability. But possibly worth trying! Maybe someone (you?) will try/has tried this and can confirm?

[@MrBobWareham]

To much, in many ways, I sold my Pi to expensive and more than I need to make small projects it's ok if you want a home system but you can do that with Arduino.

[@RalphBacon]

Hello Arduinite! I'm currently on vacation 5,000 miles away from home so I'll have to be brief with these comments until my return, mid-July. Horses for course, Bob, I guess! the 'Pi' family really is a pocket sized computer on a board but the Arduino is a microcontroller that interfaces to the outside world. I'm still not decided what I can use my Raspberry Pi Zero Wireless but one day I will come up with something.

[@michaeljtessmer3689]

It look's like you bought the RaspPi Zero W, which has WiFi built in. If so, you do not need a WiFi dongle.

[@RalphBacon]

Absolutely correct, Michael, as at least another viewer was quick to point out . In my confusion over Orange, Raspberry and Arduino I failed to spot that I had indeed bought the WiFi version - and it worked just like that! I really want to explore the Pi's a bit more, maybe over the festive break...

[@ste76539]

I've resisted watching this video for a while, as honestly the title really put me off. It's like asking which is best, a circular saw or a carpet? They're totally different things - it depends what you want to do. You can't watch HD video with an Arduino. You can't use an Arduino as a retro gaming machine (a super simple version of Pong! on a tiny OLED screen does not count, sorry!) That said, although you can use a SBC like a RPi to control electronics, a microprocessor board like an Arduino does it better. I have a foot in both worlds (new to Arduino though), I don't have a favourite, I don't have a 'which is best' mindset, I love them both!

[@RalphBacon]

Definitely apples and oranges being compared here, but bearing in mind my viewers are familiar with the Arduino I just had to include it for comparison purposes only!

[@ste76539]

Sorry, now I've seen a bit more of the video...You say you needed to buy a wifi dongle for the Raspberry Pi...then show the eBay listing for a Raspberry Pi Zero W - which has wifi and bluetooth built in. Also - the Zero (non W format) is a fiver, pay more and you've been had. The Zero W is a tenner. Anything more and you guessed it...you've been had.

[@RalphBacon]

As it happened, and as pointed out by others, that Raspberry Zero was already a Zero W! Well, I was new to Raspberry Pi at the time so it was an easy mistake to make!