I sort of left the hobbyist electronics world back in 2018, and now everything seems to have an embedded Raspberry Pi in it. What's the best way to catch up?

agent_flounder, 6 months ago

You might want to check out OpenMV Cam which does some cool machine vision stuff and runs MicroPython.

I would probably start looking at OpenCV software for RasPi if you need more processing power.

I’ve been playing with ESP32 lately. I’m frankly kind of shocked at how well documented the API is and how well it all works. And it’s mostly open. I haven’t done anything with ESP32 Cams I bought, yet. No idea what is possible there or where to start.

Hopefully that helps.

Meanwhile I’m over here trying to wrap up a simple Bluetooth-enabled amp project for the last couple months lol. I should do more with machine vision.

DontNoodles, 6 months ago

I’ve noticed that outside of the fixed use cases and their combination, it is surprisingly difficult to make ESP32 do something. For example, i wanted to crop and apply simple filters on videos being streamed from an ESP32 Cam. Should be doable for a setup that can do facial recognition and AI stuff, right? Clearly not without writing your own libraries.

agent_flounder, 6 months ago

PS: to me RPi is overkill for all but the most intense compute requirements. So is the esp32 to a lesser degree. Don’t always need 240MHz dual core RISC with FreeRTOS and 2.4G radio…

I default to Arduino, usually attiny devices for simple, low power stuff. I am really liking the new TinyAVR line. Quicker programming, way more functionality, etc.

TCB13, 6 months ago (edited 5 months ago)

Now suddenly, there are embedded Raspberry Pis and ESP32s doing realtime facial recognition and video feeds.

Oh yes, you can buy an ESP32-S2 for 2$ and run with Python or something higher level than C and get something that would’ve done with an AVR in days quickly up and running in hours. It is the brand new world of hardware is cheaper than developer time and nobody knows how to code anything and read datasheets anymore. Also there’s the trend of cloud-backed platforms like PlatformIO that essentially make it so you can’t ever develop anything completely offline and become hostage of some provider, ecosystem etc.

Something that might interest you is ESPHome and HomeAssistant. Heads you, you can now flash a microcontroller (be ir an Arduino/AVR or ESP) from a Chromium browser :).

ch00f, 6 months ago

and nobody knows how to code anything and read datasheets anymore.

You seem a bit bitter which I can relate to. As someone who cut his teeth writing assembly for an 8051, I remember feeling a bit cheesed by people using arduinos to do what could be done with a 555.

My career has gotten comfy, but I can feel my skills stagnating with all this new stuff coming out. I of course would never ship a product with a Raspberry Pi embedded in it, but I’d like to have a feel for how to solve problems using newer more advanced hardware. With that in mind, do you have any recommendations?

GlitchyDigiBun, 6 months ago

It’s not that you can’t make a more efficient device without it. Hell, if you wanted to impress people, you can absolutely populate a board with IC’s and traces and build your own logic.

Orrrrr you could spend $45 to get a full GPIO header backed behind a vast online electronics community. Tbh pi’s, arduinos, and other ARM core hobby kits give you a root skillset to base any project on. Once you can get logic through your code, there’e no need to figure out wire logic if you can program based on I/O and software variables. But it -is- a different skillset that you’ll need to learn to use it efficiently.