Here a partial list of the boards in my lab that i already played
https://electronicmaker.wordpress.com/development-boards/
I still recommend those 2 for a beginner, A7 isn't ideal, to much power hungry, and have MIPS that only 3% of applications need
Partial, even?
Quite an impressive list!
I also have a a number of Nucleos (32 and 64, F042, 072, 411) and Discos (F4, F429, F746) plus the odd TI MSP432s.
So, in my experience:
- The latest Discovery boards are very nice, if you need or want to experiment with their on-board peripherals.
But they lack free IOs, taken up by LCDs etc. - This is a problem especially with the F746 and F469 Disco, where not much more than the Arduino connector is available.
- Nucleo 32 and 64 are the exact opposite: cheap bare-bone boards, not much more than a break-out plus an ST-Link.
They are very easy to integrate in any project (personal examples: CEC to USB HID, PSU control and measurements, etc.) - Nucleo 144, though more expensive, strike a nice compromise: you get Ethernet and USB, and there's still plenty of available IOs
So, which horn of the dilemma is the right one?
I'd take both: if your budget allows, I'd go for a Nucleo 144 (not F303, F412 or F446, lacking Ethernet)
and a disco: e.g. F429, cheap but still quite powerful: LCD, MEMS gyroscope, and target USB.
Hello again...
Ok, I have been reading suggestions and of course there is always a bit of emotion when suggesting boards. Of course that each one of you loves the boards you have acquired. I'm also like that!
I want something that can last a few years, even if at the beginning I'm not using 10% of it's power/features. I want something that is 100% Linux compatible. I liked the DE0 Nano SoC kit even if is a bit more expensive, but I got the idea, not sure if correct, that that one is a mix of an FPGA and something else! Please clarify me on that!
Exactly. It's a dual core ARM plus FPGA. Double the fun, but double the learning curve; I am actually considering this, something like the
Snickerdoodle or other Zynq based boards.
But I would not get this to start on microcontrollers, as you are facing Linux on the ARM side.
If by 100% Linux compatible you mean "it can run Linux" then no Nuclo/Disco or similar (Cortex-M) would do, but if the meaning is "The toolchain must run on Linux" you will have no problems with them.
With the DE0-nano SoC, I'm not sure. The site and all the examples in the manual refer to a Windows environment, but Quartus SW is also available for Linux, AFAIK.