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by joezydeco 826 days ago
I don't totally agree with this perspective. Adafruit ships these in dev boards with a CircuitPython layer ready to go - you can have it up and doing something in 90 seconds if you're the Arduino type of hobbyist. You don't need to know a thing about the bootloader at all except maybe to hold down the bootstrap line with a pushbutton to reflash the system if it's bricked. The USB loader is incredibly slick and modern.

All this bootstrap sequencing is pretty typical for an ARM Cortex unit, and it's not as overburdened with options like, say, a TI Sitara. They're still unbricking with TFTP.

For $0.70 in onesies this is a pretty nice piece of silicon.
2 comments
anyfoo 826 days ago
I don't think the person you're responding to is "the Arduino type of hobbyist", though.

I feel the same, I didn't like Arduino's abstractions and how they hid what was actually going on. It has its appeals for people who don't care about the inner workings and just want to use a microcontroller to "quickly do something for which a microcontroller would be handy right now", but it won't get you much further than that, in my opinion.

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parl_match 826 days ago
Missing the point. There's a huge amount of us who are between "complete and bare metal understanding of the soc" and "using python". STM32 nailed it, RP2040 is gaining a reputation for complexity.
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joezydeco 826 days ago
I get the perspective. And I agree that RP2040 needs the equivalent of STMCube or even CubeMX. But they're not there yet. Are they banking on the community to provide that with the same amount of love that RPi got? I don't see that happening for multiple reasons.
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parl_match 826 days ago
I think their aggressive price point is at odds with their mission.

The mission used to be "unit of computing for education and makers at a super low pricepoint". This feels more like "create the lowest pricepoint possible".

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joezydeco 826 days ago
It's peculiar. I think the 'educational' mission of RPi flew the coop a long time ago when they found they were selling piles of Linux SBCs at or below a cost that was realistic. Now they're a COTS part used in industry. (Ever buy a $25,000 heat staking machine to discover that they used an Raspberry Pi as the primary control unit? I have.)

Arduino is now going through the same experience, they have a "pro" line where they're trying to compete with existing Linux SBCs in the industrial space like Phytec, Variscite, or Kontron. But they can't match on cost yet.

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