GEM, DC55, AKA60
So, I just started in the past few months experimenting with the Arduino's. Plenty of basic reference texts and info out there, found it easy to learn (still learning).
My question is how different is the programing for the Geckos? And how is the reference material and support?
Thanks,
John
Nice!!
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Short version:Originally Posted by DepthCharge
It's a lot harder. Like "climbing off a kid's pushbike with trainer wheels and into an FA-18" harder.
Long version:
The Arduino is based on decent, basic hardware (the Atmel AVR). There's a huge user base and lots of documentation, support boards, a very very simplified development environment with most of the embedded firmware wiring done for you behind the scenes. Anything you can think of hooking into, pretty much, someone else has already done and written and published a library for. So it's usually a case of pulling in libraries and writing a bit of glue and "business logic" for your application to hang it together.
The Geckos offer a lot more power. ARM 32 bit vs AVR 8 bit core, fast processing, a tonne of peripherals on chip and a lot of flexibility in how to set them up. Their IDE is good, super powerful with all sorts of features and based on Eclipse. It's nowhere as dumbed down as the Arduino, but it just installs - unlike trying to program an AVR without Ardunio, instead using the Eclipse/AVR-GCC/AVRDUDE toolchain. Their starter kit boards give you something to plug into your computer and they have tonnes of example source to play with. They have APIs and a hardware abstraction layer that does stuff for you, sorta kinda like Arduino but nowhere as good. Coding these things is still done in C or C++, and you generally have a fair bit more memory to play with than the Arduinos.
The down side? Unlike the silicon itself (which is totes amazeballs) the API is utter shi t. You usually end up bypassing it, go straight to the chip's reference manual and smash registers directly. Seriously, "just give it to the graduate/intern" is not something you do with a HAL/API and they dropped the ball big time with this. With all that flexibility comes lots of config too, so you end up having to do a fair bit to get anything happening at all. And exactly what that "fair bit" is depends heavily on what you're trying to achieve, so you need to understand a whole lot more than you want to before you can whittle it down to the few lines of magic that get your app working.
I'm glad I made the jump, but:
1. I wish I was doing it on a client's job, that was a lot of hours of bashing my head against a wall I would love to have been paid for; and
2. Since starting on this project I had to do a little interface between a CNC control board and a laser power supply. Gecko? No way, Arduino. And for quick and dirty stuff I'll go back to the Arduino every time because it's quicker and easier by an order of magnitude.
GEM, DC55, AKA60
Thanks for the response. I think I'll stick with the Arduino..................for now.
Thanks again,
John
Prism,rEVO,Mk15.5,KISS,Hmblds
I am with you guys. I can barely keep up with things some days when Simon gets on a roll. He sometimes notices my blank look and dumbs it down for me.
I tend to be the litmus tester or the "help me think out of the box" guy. "Why wont this work?" How else could I do this?
Simon's shed and office would make any DIY'r drool.
Wiz
I love this level of nerdery and I love my diving. That combination meant a bereaver was inevitable, I guess.
Would like nothing more than to put the workshop to full time use and make a career of making dive gadgets, unfortunately divers seem to make a very small market of individuals who tend to be very cautious about how they spend their toy money.
One day...
APD Classic, Vision Anolog JJ
I'm with you, the first sentence in the OP lost me,
alby
A little more progress. And a lot more respect for those random bits of plastic that we encounter in our lives and the people who design the tooling to make them - it's a lot trickier than it first looks, as it turns out.
Ten days all up to get the design for the mould finished and a first cut 3D printed. The stainless core is for the battery holder, also will hopefully locate the PCB during the plastic shot.
Still needs polishing etc and a test shot and I'll be looking forward to that when I get home from site in a couple of weeks.
What a great project. Good on ya! I'd be interested in the source code and schematics if you'd put them up somewhere.
How are you going to get the threads in the body for the cap? I may have access to a CNC mill if you'd rather try milling the body, or the mold. I have no experience with mold tooling, but the mill at the office eats up Delrin and Aluminum.
-James
No thread on the cap, James, at least not on the first iteration. It'll rely on a friction fit between compressed O-ring and the smooth bore to hold the cap in on the surface, and ambient pressure to keep it in as you descend. That may change later which will mean putting a thread on the mould insert and screwing it out instead of normal ejection.
Thanks for the offer of the CNC too - I'm lucky enough to already one at home. Small, but plenty big enough for this job.
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