I tried the 3 Cheapest Arduino Alternatives! (That you Suggested)

[@XavierGr]

Unless you want a good quality ADC or low power consumption, then ESPs are the current kings of micro-controllers for DIYers. 1. Super easy to program with just a dirt-cheap serial device, no weird proprietary programmers needed. 2. Bluetooth and WiFi is a game changer. You program once and then if you want to change your program later you do it over the air. This is a must for permanent installations in hard to reach places. 3. For the performance features they provide ESPs are amazingly cheap. Just 1.80 euros for a ESP32-C3 little devboard and around 2 for the ESP32 module. 4. For ESP32 you don't even need a dev board. If you know what you are doing just the ESP32 bare module is enough for prototyping directly on it. 5. Native support for home automations with Home Assistant and ESPhome. These two projects really elevate the ease of use and practical use cases of ESP micro-controllers.

[@BloodAsp]

This, very much this. Are the ESP32-C3 presently the choice board for features/IO per price point? I just started playing with my old 8266 with HA and have fallen in love. I have heard there is some zigbee capable ESP devices now too?

[@macemoneta]

@@BloodAsp I find I've been using the ESP32-S2 mini board a lot lately. About $1.50/ea in 10pc quantities at AliExpress. Onboard USB-C for power and/or serial I/O (great for debugging), and PSRAM. I just load Tasmota on them, and you can then access them with a web browser to configure or program them in Berry. Because Tasmota includes LVGL and Haspmota support, recent projects have included displays, which is nice.

[@Ramog1000]

@@BloodAsp the esp32-c6 and the esp32-h2 are the ones I know that support zigbee

[@t0masz90]

100% true. My nobrainer is Lolin32 Lite - it is cheap, has battery connector, has mounting holes, it is small, soldered components only on one side and it can be kept in sleep drawing only 150uA(with minimal mod)

[@JakEneAS]

ESP32 is nice but power consumption is massive pain point for battery powered always-on application. If an application is low enough bandwidth for BT or 802.15.4 (Zigbee, Thread, etc.), there are similar performance modules with a tiny fraction of the power consumption. The power consumption of an 802.15.4 only chip while transmitting is often far less than what an ESP32 idles at.

[@tvpanda7926]

ESP units are also very cheap, the new lineup of the ESP32 series is also seriously awesome, more memory, speed, BLE and WiFi even Zigbee support on some, the ability to just flash ESP-Home and then do OTA updates, it just leaves arduino in the dust

[@HerbaMachina]

ESP32 has a couple downsides though including not very well timed PWM outputs and more importantly isn't secure and likely has a backdoor in the wifi blob. So they're not worth the risk from a security perspective

[@TecSanento]

​@@HerbaMachinaany backings on the backdoor statement?

[@justinc2633]

@@HerbaMachina esp8266 did, esp32 fixed security concerns

[@KnowledgePerformance7]

Another annoying downside is compile times. Basically every ESP project takes at least 30s to compile for seemingly no reason.

[@dan3a]

@@KnowledgePerformance7 The really long compile times on ESP32 only happens on windows for me, on linux it only takes a few seconds.

[@oberpenneraffe]

I once ordered a single stm32f303 for a few euros. I was pleasantly surprised when I got it because they sent me 100 pieces. That's great value ;)

[@vgamesx1]

Nice, had similar experience ordering a handful of DuPont cables, instead got a bag of like 200 of the things.

[@thanatosor]

How can I resemble the same thing with esp32-c3 😂

[@gaborm4767]

But that was MCUs only and not boards right?

[@mikehibbett3301]

"I2C is nearly everywhere" - I worked at Philips in the late 1980s, and I2C was everywhere then too. For cheap cpus on 8 pin soics, the microchip range of processors, pic10f and similar are also very low cost, but utilise relatively low cost programming tools and full supported SDK and IDE. As an aside, my first debug/programming device for the microchip processor cost me over £1000. Times have really changed.

[@bksne7918]

I used to LGT8F328 three year ago for read PIR sensor and control Fan, light. Currently, it still do work full time.

[@greatscottlab]

Good to know. Thanks :-)

[@torchris1]

I know the ESP32 family is way more expensive, I find having the onboard Bluetooth & wifi gives a ton more flexibility for IoT projects. Also they fully support Arduino AND MicroPython. Aliexpress prices are around $5 Canadian here.

[@Vindolin]

ESP32C3 are dirt cheap. You get an MC with WIFI and BT for only $2

[@pepethefrog7193]

They are not more expensive. $2.50 retail, $2 in bulk.

[@torchris1]

@@pepethefrog7193 Good clarification - the $5 is for a full dev board with onboard serial-to-usb and power supply etc. Plug & play with Arduinio. The bare ESP modules are way cheaper!

[@Vindolin]

@@torchris1 The ESP32C3 Super Mini board has 16 pins and serial is handled by the chip itself.

[@domainmojo2162]

ESP is just on another level and the IoT field is exploding with projects based on it. The STM32s also, are just legendary. I love building projects and making products with the trusty Black Pill (STM32F411CE) and sometimes, it's popular older brother, the Blue Pill. The performance and response of the ESPs and STM32s relative to other microcontrollers are unmatched. Their cost, and the ESPs ease of use, sets them apart.

[@dcallan812]

Great video2x👍 I remember the cost of some of the first microcontroller chips years ago, and its fantastic you can get such good value chips now

[@greatscottlab]

Very true!

[@PatrickHoodDaniel]

I like that you are showing off some bare-chip alternatives. I like to work with bare chip STM32 with a simple breakout on a few breadboards.

[@vojtechadame5860]

I would probably choose the lgt8f328p, since it's basically an "Arduino on steroids".

[@greatscottlab]

Haha nicely said.

[@lua-nya]

Also one currently in production, right?

[@anonuser2640]

Hahahah lol

[@Zilli_341]

lgt8f328p for general use and ESP32 when you need connectivity or more power.

[@justinth963]

I'm looking for an arduino on crack, personally.

[@ExploringNew1]

Not gonna lie I was just searching for a cheap thing to control my leds behind the TV. What a coincidence

[@greatscottlab]

I hope I could help ;-)

[@cyanoure]

Try ESP32.

[@MMuraseofSandvich]

@@cyanoure Yeah, a super cheap DIY solution is cool and all, but WLED just saves so much time.

[@gipen]

@@cyanoure yeah, esp32 is way more powerful, can use python that is much easier to program and u can control it even with wifi or bt

[@cyanoure]

@@MMuraseofSandvich Yeah, I've tried WLED recently, it's an awesome project for controlling led strips no matter if it's single color, RGB or ARGB and easy to setup.

[@eugeniusz7144]

Well, my most beloved board is ESP32C3 Super Mini. It always just works and as a bonus you can have there OTA updates, Wifi and Bluetooth if needed - if not just don't power them up and power consumption will be very low. Not the cheapest option but is super reliable. Ah, and it works with Arduino IDE just fine :) Including OTA

[@SimplementeNico]

Stm32 is for me the greatest microcontroller series, they offer an enormous amount of features at arduino prices, if any one wants something at the price or a little higher than an arduino you should get a stm32 bluepill or blackpill for more prosesing power, mid level programming skills are needed for unlocking its full potential, great video btw😊

[@HerbaMachina]

They're not secure though, the have a custom wifi blob that is very likely to have a backdoor in them for the ccp

[@saiavinash555]

​@@HerbaMachinacan we use stm32 which don't have WiFi

[@greatscottlab]

Thanks for the feedback :-)

[@affieuk]

@@HerbaMachina Give it a break, you made the same reply about ESP. Just put it on a separate VLAN and check it's connectivity. Without any proof, all your spouting is nonsense.

[@jamesyoung6878]

@@HerbaMachinamate do you even read what you are replying to. The OP mentions STM32, not ESP32

[@MarioPL989]

You should have tried the cheap RP2040 boards. They are cheaper than arduino and much, much more powerful. 2$ version on Ali offers 4MB of SPI storage soldered on the board. Or even ESP32 (less than 3$ for dev board on Ali).

[@JustSomeVideos0]

Pico zero for the win.

[@SianaGearz]

I have bought some stm32f103cbt6 boards recently for a dollar a piece and have been having fun with those. Of course they have much less capacity than the mainstream c8 units but hey for a dollar not bad.

[@crsv7armhl]

The RP2350 have a substantial erratta due to a manufacturing issue that Pi have said they will *not* fix Edit: I brainfarted and put rp2040 instead of the correct chip

[@louroboros]

@@crsv7armhl Are you referring to the ADC precision issue, or are there other issues as well? Hope we don't see any more similar problems with the RP2035

[@JustSomeVideos0]

@@crsv7armhl are you sure you're not referencing the issues the 2350 have been experiencing? I'm not aware of any issues with the rp2040

[@Isaac_Diggs]

bought a raspi Pico knockoff recently for a pico boot GameCube mod. just wanted USB c on the device. works flawlessly, all I have to do was to twist the cables a bit for less interferences

[@JustSomeVideos0]

"Pico" zero boards are pretty cool also. Very small....

[@cdh79]

a 20.000+ USD Keysight oscilloscope sponsoring for a video on how to save a few bucks on the cheapest micro-controller.. the perfect target audience ;)

[@bowzert]

IKR! 😩

[@DuroLabs85]

In my opinion STM32F103C8T6 a.k.a the BluePill seems like a good option as it's way more powerful than mega328 and also almost very cheap here at least in India, I get it for less than 1.2$ and is pretty compatible with the existing Arduino Ide (for some of the niche feature you can install libraries). And if we install a USB bootloader to it, it can also be programmed via USB and Serial works too. 12Bit ADCs, 16Bit PWM, enough Analog and Digital GPIOs, CAN bus, and a RTC. And for its full potential STMCube Ide seems like a good way to extract the most out of it. It also has GUI Configuration. Not exactly cheap if you want to save every penny but for a Nano Compatible I just buy these instead.

[@MarioPL989]

I agree. The BluePill is the GOAT when it comes to features / price ratio. If you need more power then pico 1 or 2 is the way to go, with some additional modules (like better ADC or additional DAC).

[@_DSch]

Depends, its probably the microcontroller that has a ton of different clones which are packaged as the real deal. Only issues with those things, the (real) board i bought before the scammer craze was nice tough.

[@kirishima638]

It was. Sadly almost every BluePill solid now is a clone and not all of them work correctly. It’s not worth it. See the Blackpill.

[@MrMaxeemum]

As an ageing gentleman, I wish we had devices like these back in the day. I can see the potential, but my brain struggles with new things these days. Devices like these will release creative juices all over the globe, solving problems the world over. I wish I was 40 years younger right now.

[@SianaGearz]

40 years ago you could already do a lot by wiring peripherals to the userport of a home computer. Many of these computers like Sinclair computers and VIC-20 were very affordable. Today's PC lacks realtime control of any IO lines.

[@TimHayward]

I encourage you to do it. It is quite fun and once you have a blink sketch running the rest is downhill.

[@OgbondSandvol]

​@@SianaGearz Are you talking about your own experience, or what? 40 years ago there were Sinclair and VIC-20 available, and even the LPT port of IBM PC was available too. But, because a lot of reasons (size and cost of computers, processing capacity, power consumption, reliability of software, etc) you could build something as a proof of concept, but in practice nobody used to do really useful and practical projects with those old computers; nothing that was done back then is minimally comparable to what can be done with a present-day MCU;

[@PeterLGଈ]

​@SianaGearz Yeah, you could, but nobody did for anything other than playing around, and when you were done the computer reverted to it's intended use. Computers of all sorts were relatively expensive back then. There were microcontroller systems (I had one) but they were for experiments, not setting up home control systems or the like. As an old fart who started in technology back in the mid-70s, I agree with @MrMaxeemum; it's both frustrating and exciting to see what people can do with electronics now.

[@landroveraddict2457]

The major difference is the relative cost. You could do all of this 40 years ago. I learned on Siemens PLCs but these things were £100s back then which was a hell of a lot of money, maybe a week or two's wage. OK you would not run a factory automation system on a $2 controller but you could prove a concept. That said I have an Arduino project that has been running none stop for over 7 years without problem.

[@tommyboi0]

One thing I'd love to see you build on your own... A recreation of the "Everything Presence dev kit"

[@RaOne-gk3ok]

Also that there's a range of controllers for tge ch32v series They give quite a bang for their buck And for that price giving up some comfort and writing custom code seems justified for large quantities

[@naervern2107]

I have purchased a number of ESP32-S2 Wemos Minis clones (Wemos? Lolin? Who knows... it just works besides the very crappy Reset/0-pin switches which are prone to breaking). Each came out at slightly under 1,50€ with 24% VAT.

[@greatscottlab]

Not a bad price as well

[@Lavadawg]

I hate the switches on those grubbers, i just gave up and use a screw driver for shorting the 0 button whenever i need to flash firmware, the copper traces always break, but 2 dollars is 2 dollars and now its running my WLED setup

[@superslash7254]

This is what I usually do too. I just get a generic esp32 devkit with a breakout board for dirt cheap from one of the better ali sellers.

[@Fouindor]

Thanks for this video ! My Arduino Nano v3 is my trusty companion in most of my tinkering but the LGT8F328P is looking like a real challenger ! While I'm not running after a few MHz, the 8-bit DAC feature looks really handy. I've ordered a green board as I've seen several reports of issues with the violet boards. I'm looking forward to playing with this new board !

[@mariobv947]

The PY32F002A is even cheaper than the CH32V003, has more memory and features, and you can program it with the tools you already have. Jay Carlson did a review of this MCU some time ago as the cheapest replacement for an 8bit microcontroller.

[@keiyano]

wouldnt say its better, just has alittle more flash and sram but ch32 is much faster. Like double the frequency. But im curious about the minimum amount of components needed to get the Puya mcu to "work". I have a couple of the ch32v003 and ch32v203 that only require 3.3v/5v power, no OSC or caps required. If its similar in that aspect then i might buy a few

[@_lolucoca_9735]

Having used the CH32V003 extensively over the last 18 months (only in Mounriver though), it's an amazing little chip for the price. It's way cheaper to pop in one of those compared to a dedicated IC in most cases. The software (especially the given examples) are a bit lacking though, you're going to need to piece a lot of things together for yourself. Once you've got a working codebase of your own examples to turn back to, the CH32V003 is a breeze to work with.

[@severinfriedl]

I would love to see more such videos, as I'm always searching for cheap, small 32 bit Microcontroller which are Arduino compatible

[@rokas69]

Oh you got the arduino tiny lil edition, soo cute. Btw love your videos.

[@andriydobrus4722]

At some point i decided to try another microcontrollers. And now i have work as an embedded dev. Thanks, Arduino

[@Nolano386]

I recently got a couple of the purple boys and the plug and play aspect is a pretty strong recommendation IMO. I've been disappointed by library incompatibility with other boards but so far this one works 1:1.

[@greatscottlab]

Lovely. Thanks for the feedback.

[@zeddpilsner4]

I would like to see a video on the: ESP32-C3, ESP32-S3, ESP32-H2 and the ESP32-C6

[@gkeepleft]

Nice video! I like how you showed the comparison tables with all the info! I was wondering if you were ever going to do any more beginner videos, maybe if you could do a video explaining what registers are and how to manipulate them. I have a basic understanding of what they are but no idea where they sit in the uC and what they communicate with. Just a suggestion. I'd love it if you did one though. ❤

[@Drjtherrien]

The fact that you found one with a DAC is very impressive! That said, ironically it is not idea for the specific use case you demonstrated. Because of the non-linearity of a LED's I-V curve you end up with only a small fraction of the output voltage that will light up the LED. Oddly enough PWM is more appropriate for giving a more linear change in apparent brightness. But boy is that a game changer for cases where one wants an actual analog output!

[@playmotion.trailer]

As a french speaker your english accent and pronunciation is really an improvement against american makers. Don't change and keep going ! (and if you can try raspberry spin off it would be perfect, thanks)

[@kleioscope]

sorry but i have no money to afford keysight stuff..... They are unreachable dreams to me.... sorry. your vidz are nice though !

[@greatscottlab]

Maybe one day ;-) Thanks for watching though :-)

[@SanderMakes]

​@@greatscottlab slightly ironic, having a sponsor for high end tools on a video where $3 is the high end of the spectrum 😉❤

[@Electrically-Electronic]

Me too.

[@felipenavas]

No one has that kind of money, but it's good for those who work in laboratories at wealthy companies or colleges.

[@ChessIsJustAGame]

I certainly can not justify new Keysight for my personal home lab, but as a long time techie working for several high tech companies, I enjoy seeing what's new. Many places require at least two different manufacturers for o-scopes with professional calibration services. So that would be Tek and... other. My personal "high-end" scope is from the 1990's, 2-ch, 200MHz with monochrome CRT display. Which I purchased very used but still working and able to be calibrated. The only way to save waveforms externally is with a 3.5" floppy. And using a floppy to USB adapter to my laptop.

[@filumeyer7895]

Love seeing your videos. Interesting thing to look at alternatives to Arduinos. 👍

[@greatscottlab]

Glad you like them!

[@Robbedoes2]

I like the STM IDE far better than the Arduino IDE. You should definitely check it out. Arduino IDE is toys compared to the STM IDE while keeping it reasonably simple

[@darth_dan8886]

The CH32 really sounds like the most promising option here - as long as the limited onboard memory is something you could work with. I'm sure that with such a nice board available at such a low price, one can absolutely use this as a core for many projects. Using such a controller is also a great opportunity to learn to write for the RISC-V core, which is gradually becoming more and more prolific in the sphere of microcontrollers. Especially if you're willing to try writing assembly.

[@flomojo2u]

Definitely a great controller, I got two different versions of the controller chip for $5.00 for 50, not sure if the price has gone up since when I bought mine. There's also a bunch of different options for the CH32V family, depending on the price and performance required, up to 144 MHz and 262K of flash, with tons of GPIOs and peripherals.

[@omniyambot9876]

how to start writing in assembly? is it still worth it?

[@darth_dan8886]

@@omniyambot9876 How to start - it's about the same as starting with any language. You set up the compiler and IDE, learn some functions and how they work, and start stringing them together into programs, first simple, then more complex... Assembly will be worth learning for as long as we use the current paradigm in computing.

[@insu_na]

I love esp32 and stm32 for my projects. yeah they're more expensive, but being able to program my esp32 chips with C++20 with PlatformIO just makes them super comfy to use.

[@PotatoClips]

Definitely good options to consider for chips. For low cost microcontrollers (not quite that cheap but ill eat the $2-3 difference to save the extra steps) the raspberry pi pico and the xiao esp32c6 are amazing

[@PrazgreenStudios]

great video. I would love to see a sequel to this for a replacement to the Arduino Nano ESP32

[@bicrome]

omg the LGT8F328P is awesome!!!

[@HerbaMachina]

I'm a fan of the Attiny 1614s plenty of memory for flashing arduino, and can do a lot, if you need wifi/Bluetooth connectivity just ad a periferal chip

[@VisDeux]

Nice review, thanks. Please consider adding the RAM size in the comparative specifications next time, it can be very important for some projects.

[@tin2001]

I bought a few of those STM8 boards a few years ago when I was first getting into DIY gadgets. Never used any of them yet, but I've got a plan to add rotary encoders to my flight sim throttle quadrant... STM8 will read the encoder, and toggle a GPIO hooked by optocouplers to the existing buttons on the front that I never use... I did briefly consider finding a microcontroller that had USB and loads of GPIOs and just replacing the entire guts of the thing, but that's much higher risk than just tapping into the existing buttons.

[@jeffbornes3986]

The purple board has an external oscillator where the green board has a builtin oscillator. These board can act weird depending on the timing. and applications. I like them due to the speeds and cheap price. Thanks, Jeff

[@sjonjones4009]

I use ESP32s with my Home Assistant server through ESPHome. I have BME280s wired to each around the house. I can update them OTA as needed and add new compatible hardware (lightning sensors, magnetic trip sensors, distance/radar/ultrasonic sensors, air quality sensors, weather stations units) as I see fit.

[@CraigHollabaugh]

That STM8 part will probably be around for a long time. Whereas others could drop out of production without any warning. Thanks GS!

[@lecornubruno2507]

stm8 is old and is replaced by cheap stm32U0 serie

[@CraigHollabaugh]

@@lecornubruno2507 agree, I need some simple and cheap at 5000 units. I found the STM8S003F3 which is perfect for $0.17 each with more than 1M+ units in stock. Can any of STM32U0s touch this?

[@CraigHollabaugh]

@@lecornubruno2507 agree but I need 5 thousand, found the s001 STM8 for 17 cents.

[@razhterize]

I don't know how many times, but I'm sure someone, actually few people already mentioned PlatformIO as Arduino IDE alternative but give it a try if you have spare time, or y'know just want to try something new and yes, it does have Arduino framework, that is Arduino names for functions for most popular boards like STM32/8 and ESP8266/32

[@shangchiwu]

This is a great comparison. Just a suggestion on info presentation at 10:30: Describe the power mode (idle/wait/sleep and sleep/halt/standby) using uniform terms. Or put the equivlent power mode of each MCUs on the same side (up/bottom). 😊

[@d.jensen5153]

FWIW, I completely agree with your conclusion. I've started using LGT8F328P Pro Mini clones ($0.83) almost exclusively. ESP32s are great, but they are several times bigger, several times more expensive, and overkill for almost everything I do.

[@aleatza]

I bought a lot of esp32-c3. The smallest dev board I could find with an usb-c port. They are awesome for my smart home. I usually use them downclocked to 80Mhz for power saving and temperature management and I love them!

[@OzCreationsAU]

you can get the D1 mini ESP2866 with usb-c (v4), they are a lot cheaper.

[@aleatza]

@@OzCreationsAU I bought 8 esp32-c3 super mini for 2,61€ each, while I see the ESP8266 at €2.30 each. Yes, they are cheaper, but not by much, and if I need to use Bluetooth, I can always increase the clock speed of the ESP32 (the ESP8266, although it also has Bluetooth, in my opinion lacks the processing power to fully utilize it

[@OzCreationsAU]

@@aleatza True, but it's also not as supported as I would like. especially for WLED etc, they still only officially support the std esp32. I also use them a lot in long life battery powered projects, so power consumption is a factor for me as well.

[@youpoofoowoo]

when picking one out of st micro, stick to 32bit. I suggest STM32G030 series for better compatibility and reasonable price.

[@nil3010]

There new stm32g0xx stuffs are the only MCU available right now it's fast small and efficient

[@mariobv947]

​@@nil3010 And It has plenty of undocumented features... Double of the flash memory, a TrueRNG, CRC unit, a 128MHz timer/counter....

[@saultube44]

Long Live All Microcontrollers! such an nice abundance of functions and possibilities, very nice! 😊😍🥰🤩👍👌🤟🤘

[@technicalfool]

RAK wisblock is like an entire ecosystem of bits and bobs that go together with a really low-power main controller chip, usually based around the Nrf52 family. Think of it as being kind of like the microcontroller version of a PC. You can get various sensors and daughterboards that plug right into the baseboard, or solder your usual stuff into the available GPIOs.

[@ianlee6416]

A lot of comments do not understand the concept of a cheap uC IC. If you need to replicate a design 100 times, a 0.5 USD uC will come up to 50 USD; while a 1 USD uC will come up to 100 USD. Thats a big jump. Thus the esp32 and stm32f103 are not an option for designs that need multiple uC.

[@drstefankrank]

Would be lovely to see stuff about nRF52 and the new nRF5340. As far as I know, nRF chips are perfect for battery operation.

[@t0masz90]

True, I reached 2uA in sleeping mode and 300uA while keeping ble connection using seeed studio. When powering it with 18650 - it will be on for years😆

[@arduinoblokodtr3699]

Best alternative is esp32,built in wifi and ble,dual core 210mhz cpu,a lot of pwm,dual uart,capative touch etc. these boards are powerhouses.Also they sold for same as arduino nano in Turkiye.(idk about global)

[@HFZ1010]

I used to work with AVR microcontrollers at first, now I use STM8 for normal projects and STM32 for high end projects. Also, I use VS Code editor with Em-IDE plugin and SDCC and ARM-GCC compilers to program microcontrollers.

[@TechnologistAtWork]

I love ESP32. They're reliable and come with so many features.

[@IndonesianGaming]

I would love to see arduino leonardo alternative one... great content btw, ❤ from indo

[@andymouse]

Pick any and add a usb controller for pence.

[@EduardSebastianDogaru]

Would love to see something with 3d printing customization , adding bltouch etc. to a old printer , or maybe a series named cheap 3d printer build

[@jblack3761]

ESP32-C3 Supermini and RP2040-Zero are my go-to options for cheap microcontrollers. Both under $2, supported on basically every IDE out there, work with basically all Arduino libraries, and have plenty of GPIO for most applications. Those are all neat boards, but I don't see any advantage to them over these two, unless you're doing something with like 50 MCUs where the ~$1 per piece savings of the STM8 becomes relevant.

[@suji730]

Nice one...😊 Can you make a tutorial about the programming the FPGA ic and make a simply functional project.... Honestly i am a limited aware of FPGA's.. See you soon ♥️❤

[@dbuezas]

Nice core you are using there for the lgt328p!

[@greatscottlab]

Yeah thanks

[@ivolol]

Do you think the crystal / clocking was wrong on the purple board?

[@dbuezas]

Was it resetting?

[@MaxintRD]

Hello @dbuezas - Nice core indeed! Thank you for all your work, allowing makers like me to add this nice alternative to their collection and use it within the Arduino ecosphere.

[@warpie7]

one of your best videos, very valuable information

[@gosdeCarrer]

The new Attiny series should be considered also as a cheap alternative, not all is power. They are just an IC that you can drop in your circuit, no need of dev board or additional components. Are cheap, can be programmed with just one pin, have 12bits ADC, I2C, SPI, differential ADC with gain, comparator... Small package or a lot of pins, all available. A very low consumption, can run for months or years with just a coin battery in some scenarios. Work happily from 5.5V down to 1.8V, so you can use LiPO/Li-Ion... without regulation. Work with Arduino. And programming this little monsters is a lot of fun!

[@GrandNecro]

the stm has really good ide and fine control over all the hardware and also uses arms instruction set. not for beginner but is good if you want to have control over all the hardware

[@DarronBirgenheier]

Thanks! I just ordered some of the LGT8F328P boards. I need to use them to convert the 1-4V signal from the Hall Effect throttles on my older 24-Volt and 36-Volt electric scooters to either a 5V PWM or 0-5V DAC signal, to control the new motor speed controllers I'm installing in the scooters.

[@greatscottlab]

Thanks for the feedback. Sounds like a fun project.

[@MCsCreations]

Pretty interesting boards indeed, dude! 😃 Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

[@greatscottlab]

Thanks, you too!

[@krzysztofmatuszek]

A good Arduino alternative is ESP32-C3; you're basically getting 20x the clock speed, WiFi and Bluetooth and ulimited PWM pins for 2 dollars on Aliexpress.

[@msdcrafter8336]

Great video Scott. Although one thing: my guess, as to why your setup at 8:29 didnt work, would be because you didnt account for the adc having a higher resolution. As the Arduino nano only has a 10 bit adc, it's value only goes up to 1023 (which you then remap to 0 to 255 in your code). But the new board has a 12 bit adc, which means that the value doesn't get remapped properly anymore and goes out of bounds. So maybe if you change your map to be from 0 to 4095, it might work with the LED example. Edit: Ok, maybe i should've watched 5 seconds further, as the same microcontroller on a different board seems to work. Who knows what happened with the first one

[@cyanoure]

ESP32 is the best. Only downside is the analog input and the power consumption, but it's not a huge deal.

[@pjosephlthewonder5082]

So, I have been using the STM8Sxx devices now for about a year. I can think of no reason that I failed to make the connection with you and the 'cheap choices' that you have been talking about before. (I do not mean cheap as in less useful but less costly) When time allows I will post some minor projects on the discord. As a side note I went from the STM32 to the STM8 for a former company project. Peace

[@poong322]

정말 좋은 영상이네요. 많은 참고가 되었습니다. let's get started~

[@suchy.chomik]

Love your videos, good luck on getting two milion subscribers!

[@greatscottlab]

Fingers crossed!

[@thegreyfuzz]

For projects requiring less functionality than a nano, the ATTINY chips work great, Got a deal on 50 ATTINY-85's for like $20 a year or two ago. Edit: just looked them up, I got a VERY good deal, they are now running $1/ea in bulk.

[@TheSomar1991]

Great video as per usual, very interesting, can you make a video series about uC technologies and internal structures?

[@GingerNingerGames]

It's worth learning baremetal, it just runs faster, a little bit more complicated to do some things but it's worth the effort

[@issoupewd]

The LGT8F328 is quiet good , i used it with in FM radio , used an old a rda reciver and an encoder Although my pc crashed once with a blue screen while uploaded but everything was fine

[@BRUXXUS]

I picked up some ESP32-C3 Minis a few weeks ago and have been super impressed! It's not the cheapest tho.

[@rklauco]

Esp32 for the win! :) And if price is problem, Esp8266 :)

[@powermouze]

Perfect video as usual! Thank you! Keep going!!!

[@keiyano]

You forgot to mention that ch32v003 is a Risc V chip which is newer than the other arm chips you have in the video. Wch chips arduino support is decent and still going. Plus wch provides many tools to program the chips.

[@aldob5681]

stm8 saved my days in 2020 with shortage and price spike, but is tricky in term of arduino compatibility

[@mariobv947]

Stm8 is an 8 bitter with some flavour of their 32bit Big brothers....

[@skywy]

Important feature for me is also EEPROM availability to save configurations or states of some of my projects.

[@AlexanderWeurding]

Thanks! Always great vids!

[@John_Ridley]

I've moved from Arduino to ESP8266 MicroPython, because a lot of what I do needs internet access. My default right now is a D1 mini 8266 based board. They're about $2.75 each.

[@davisdiercks]

Awesome! Buying a handful of those LGT boards right now lol, better specs and USB-C AAAAND cheaper??? Yes please!!! EDIT: I think the issues you were having is just quality control. I bought 4 of these boards, 2 of them worked fine, 1 booted but wouldn't connect to my computer, and 1 wouldn't even light up and actually shorted out my whole USB hub when I plugged it in 😬

[@shantilkhadatkar1195]

Ayooo. Did you have any other issues with it? I'm also omv to buy these boards

[@davisdiercks]

@shantilkhadatkar1195 No other issues so far. The DAC is only 8-bit which is not super useful for high precision cases, but the Arduino Nano doesn't have one at all so it's technically a step up 😆 The working boards have been great so far

[@LoZiooo]

In my opinion, the Arduino framework misses a lot of features that an embedded dev. framework must have. So not having the Arduino support by an external core is, at least for me, an opportunity to try something different and probably better-designed (like ESP-IDF or the STM32CubeIDE for example)... cheers

[@andymouse]

Your not clever enough.

[@eberger02]

When the Arduino program allows usage of the Zigbee abilities of a Seeedstudio Xiao ESP 32 C6 that will become my favourite. Wifi uses loads of energy and in 2024 I need some sort of connectivity. Pity LoRa doesn’t have a cheap development board I can use with my gateway or it’d be awesome too.

[@eitantal726]

STM advantage: It features a debugger. Arduino does not. (Though you can "sw-debug" it, by putting a gdb server that runs on the arduino)

[@germanrocha5814]

🎉Amazing MC alternatives!

[@gfabasic32]

Another great video!

[@stevenpaul9307]

great video. thank you. Maybe you would try ch552, cheaper than ch32. with usb built in, everything is simple

[@deterdamel7380]

I guess it's a MCS-51-ISA. Of course a pimped version (much faster than 8051), but they were introduced in 1980. ch32v/ch32x is Risc-V.

[@stevenpaul9307]

@@deterdamel7380 yes. 8051 with USB.

[@misteragony]

If we're talking about a few bucks difference between boards, I would pick the most Arduino compatible one. Troubleshooting a less known alternative costs you excessively more in manhours.

[@tt-sz9mt]

LGT8F328P is an awesome chip and it gets even better if you dive deeper into it. It has a DSP, a comparator, more timers with extended functionality and a x2 speed multiplier. I used all this stuff - it works perfectly

[@greatscottlab]

True :-) Thanks for the feedback

[@Fabian3331234333]

Nice new room! I would add some sound dampeners though. You got a bit of a hall

[@greatscottlab]

Thanks and true. I tried to remove the hall in post, but did not work out that nicely.

[@DejitaruJin]

I would honestly advise against using the Arduino core as a crutch. It is a _fantastic_ tool to begin learning about code, and to bridge the gap between software engineering and electrical engineering! But it is also _phenomenally_ inefficient, and as you've seen, not every chip is compatible. I can definitely recommend programming an RP2040 in VS Code as the next step, because it's barely a step above Arduino in complexity.

[@pcdispatch]

My 12 year old nephew likes Arduino because they played with it at school. I'm a software engineer with also an interest in microcontrollers. So, I gave him an Arduino clone and some stuff to play with. He likes it. I have some stk500's and Dragon's laying around so when Arduino becomes too easy I will show him how to program on a lower level. I think it does not matter so much which microcontroller is used. It is about learning the basics. As he gets more knowledge he will find out about other microcontrollers and possibilities by himself I guess. Or he loses interest lol.

[@DERKONIG12345]

Yeah the greatest caveat with this STM boards is that usb connection has nothing to do with flashing unlike arduino boards like arduino nano. Yet the USB connections can be utilized for USB communication if that is used in project. If the chip on board has USB communication feature of course...

[@grindfi]

Ive ordered an attiny88 board for 2 bucks a little while ago, havent tested it but the pcb looked nice :)

[@hofertyp]

Cool video! Any update about the staircase lights 😅?