Is it Cheating to use an Arduino?

[kolbep]

Hi Guys.
I just wanted your opinion (just to ease my Conscience)
I have been using PIC's for some time now. And even have my Generator Controllers built up around them.

Now,
For some time I have wanted to do Mains Voltage + Current Logging to an SD Card (mainly for my own curiosity).
But the PIC SD Library looked cumbersome, and took too much memory. And I do not have much free time (except when I am sleeping) to figure it out.

I then looked at logging with an Arduino, and with just the Uno Board, and an SD Card Shield, and a few lines of code,
I can be up and running in an afternoon.
And it looks like it will just work.

So I bought myself the following (from a Local Online Supplier) last night
1 x Arduino UNO Clone
1 x Ethernet Shield with SD Card.

Then today I noticed a special for a UNO R3 ATmega328P Board + 2.4 Inch TFT LCD Touch Screen Module for $12.20usd on Banggood.
So I decided that If I get one Arduino, I might as well get 2. Even though the Banggood one might take a month or 2 to get here.

Anyway, I feel dirty for wanting to go this apparently 'Easy' route instead of slogging on trying to get a PIC solution going.
Is this normal?

[Jeroen3]

Using pre-build blocks to implement in your system design can be good engineering.
But you have to make a proper decision based on the limitations imposed by pre-build blocks versus the time and effort saved by using it.

Licensing, modification, speed, size, hardware dependency  and availability, manufacturer dependency, bugs, exploits (for Internet of Things).

Also, remember that Arduino is an:

Open-source electronic prototyping platform

If you're actually in the field of Generator Controllers you might have high reliability standards. Make sure that Arduino can meet those.

[kolbep]

My generator controllers I will keep my pic design as it is proven and works

But I am looking at the arduino more for my own playing around and things that interest me.  If I do go on to produce something worthwhile , then I will spin my own boards with the at mega micros and whatever else it will need.

[firewalker]

If you don't need a file system with the sd card, it should be fairly easy to use it with any mcu.

Alexander.

[bookaboo]

I'm old school, frankly anything except winding your own coils and using relay logic should be considered cheating if you ask me.

Just make your engineering decisions based purely on logic, not ego or how it looks to others. Use whatever get the job done correctly and quickly for you

[tggzzz]

Anyway, I feel dirty for wanting to go this apparently 'Easy' route instead of slogging on trying to get a PIC solution going.
Is this normal?

There are two attitudes...

You should fully understand everything you build, which implies you should have built the processor out of discrete TTL/CMOS - no, wait, RTL/DTL, with home-grown transistors.

You should "stand on the shoulders of giants" and choose whatever is best for achieving your goal.

One is fun and valuable. The other is fun and valuable and shows good engineering judgement.

[TJ232]

I'm old school, frankly anything except winding your own coils and using relay logic should be considered cheating if you ask me.

Just make your engineering decisions based purely on logic, not ego or how it looks to others. Use whatever get the job done correctly and quickly for you

you are NOT winding your own coils? omg...now that's cheating    (in the HAM World)

[retrolefty]

Anyway, I feel dirty for wanting to go this apparently 'Easy' route instead of slogging on trying to get a PIC solution going.
Is this normal?

 Unlike some Grey Beards, I sure wish as a 11 year old I had access to an arduino and all the cheap Asian stuff available at the real prices involved. It's never been a better time to learn electronics and and build stuff that works.

[zapta]

Unlike some Grey Beards, I sure wish as a 11 year old I had access to an arduino and all the cheap Asian stuff available at the real prices involved. It's never been a better time to learn electronics and and build stuff that works.

+1

As well as all the free information on the internet, online catalogs, and people I can ask.

This kind of 'cheating' is gold.

[alsetalokin4017]

Hurrah for Arduino!

[obiwanjacobi]

Arduino software (in general) is a pile of horse dung (IMHO).

It is very good for quickly getting your prototype to work and perhaps working out the details of some devices you wish to interface with.

Once that is done, make the same thing (use the same MCU to start with) in something like Atmel Studio and program to the native MCU. Expect your code to run a lot quicker (important for timing signals).

If you're done you can probably find a at-tiny AVR MCU that will hold your program with enought IO to interface the electronics. 

[2c]

[kolbep]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions.

Now I don't feel so bad abandoning the pic uC (at least for the moment).
But if something of mine will go public, I will either use the Bare uC, or a Pic uC.

Now I just have to finish all my (normal) work, so that I can get tinkering....

[commie]

Arduino software (in general) is a pile of horse dung (IMHO).

Tell me something, is the Arduino software platform a compiler or interpreter . I use Bascom AVR which is a compiler and a very good one at that so I have never had the need to migrate to any other platforms.

[retrolefty]

Arduino software (in general) is a pile of horse dung (IMHO).

Tell me something, is the Arduino software platform a compiler or interpreter . I use Bascom AVR which is a compiler and a very good one at that so I have never had the need to migrate to any other platforms.

 Arduino uses gcc compiler/linker and other tools so their users also have no need to migrate.

[tggzzz]

But if something of mine will go public, I will either use the Bare uC, or a Pic uC.

It is easy to use a bare atmega328 with Atmel Studio and the Dragon ICE/programmer, providing you are used to programming "bare silicon". The major issue is configuring the atmega328, which is pretty straightforward case of reading the data sheet. I haven't tried the same with ARM-based arduinos, so I won't comment on that.

Programming bare silicon has the usual advantages and disadvantages: you have to create i/o libraries, and you don't have to understand other people's i/o libraries.

[tggzzz]

Arduino software (in general) is a pile of horse dung (IMHO).

Tell me something, is the Arduino software platform a compiler or interpreter . I use Bascom AVR which is a compiler and a very good one at that so I have never had the need to migrate to any other platforms.

It is an ecosystem consisting of different processors on different form-factor boards, plus a wide range of i/o "daughter boards" and associated i/o libraries - all programmed in C/C++ inside two functions: setup() and loop(). There is a very simple IDE which compiles code and downloads it over a USB link.

Yes, that is a crude description, but it is good enough to answer your question.

[commie]

Yes, that is a crude description, but it is good enough to answer your question.

Yep, thanks for that.

[Kjelt]

There will be one day for (almost) everyone in this hobby where a buy "ready set go" solution will be preferred to the "lets design it from scratch" solution.
For me it was when I needed to control my gear through IP and I was already spending more then a month trying to get a STM32 IP library working, then I just bought a raspberry pi, learned Python in 1 day and the next day the project was done. BUT... there will also always be compromises from a "ready set go" solution. In my case I have to wait till the pi has booted and have to shut it down, instead of just flipping the power switch. Anyway, cheating is taking credit for something you did not do, so for instance getting a good grade while you looked up all the answers from your neighbour. Cheating with a Arduino is buying a ready made pcb, copying >80% of the software from the net and then claiming you are this great wizzard that did it all. That's cheating. Buying and using a prototyping environment for your own hobby is not cheating in my book.

[Jeroen3]

Cheating is not mentioning the GPL code and libraries used.

[Chris C]

I haven't used the PIC SD library, but in general I don't like their libraries.

Should I ever need SD function on a PIC, FatFs seems to be well-liked and easily ported:

http://elm-chan.org/fsw/ff/00index_e.html

[Muxr]

For one offs (non mass produced stuff) or open hardware, I use Arduino too. It's quick and easy, and it works. Don't see a problem with it.

Time is a precious commodity and if it can save you time I don't really see anything bad about it.

[GNU_Ninja]

If it works, use it. 

[@rt]

What customer cared how it worked before it was broken?

[westfw]

Eventually you have to decide whether you're more interested in logging your current/voltage data, or fiddling with fixing an SD card library to work the way you want...

[tggzzz]

Eventually you have to decide whether you're more interested in logging your current/voltage data, or fiddling with fixing an SD card library to work the way you want...

Precisely. Either is a valid objective, of course.