Raspberry Pi & Arduino: What Makes Them Awesome!!!

Prepared By: Rukhiyah Adnan 1, Nor Hafiza Abd Samad 2, Siti Faizah Miserom3
Faculty of Computing and Technological Science, KPTM KL

Introduction

The Arduino and Raspberry Pi are example of the awesome devices nowadays.
They are cheap, almost the same size, and look very similar but they are different which
focused on different ideas. The main character of Raspberry Pi is it is a single-board
computer and uses an applications processor, running a Linux operating system, while
Arduino is an open source single-board microcontroller, without the typical operating system
style whose may be used to. For a beginner in embedded systems, it is preferable to get the
Ardunio first in order to get the idea of embedded systems before venturing into Raspberry
Pi. Figure 1 shows the example picture of Arduino (left) and Raspberry Pi (right).

Figure 1: Example illustration of Arduino and Raspberry Pi

Content

Arduino is a programmable microcontroller which only functions on what you

program it to have. This microcontroller can read data from sensors, compute the data, and
either send the data to a PC (or raspberry Pi), or output them to LEDs or LCD screens you
have attached and programmed. By controlling relays, you can control high powered
components via relays and control motors. By using Arduino, we can design many different
types of projects such as gaming gadgets, musical applications and interactive art
exhibitions and robotics as well. Different projects require different types of boards that can
be obtained from http://www.arduino.cc/.

Raspberry Pi has features a fully-fledged operating system loaded on an SD card

and attached with audio out, Ethernet port, HDMI and RCA video output which made it very
special device that enabled user to browsing the internet, playing games and etc. The simple
way uses it just plug in your keyboard, mouse and monitor. The Raspberry Pi projects are
more to software-based than hardware-based. Although most projects in Linux computer are
based around media centres, software hacks and graphics/sound and multimedia, it also can
do some simple hardware control with the GPIO pins.
Arduino vs. Raspberry Pi

Based on programming skills and type of project you can choose suitable device to
used either Arduino or Raspberry Pi. Arduino more suitable used for beginner which no
experience or minor knowledge in electronic and programming or at least familiar with
HTML, C, C++ and Basic while expertise should used Raspberry Pi. Since Arduino is based
on hardware, user are able to play with LEDs, LCDs, resistors, motors and more which
depends on project. It also has a lots of tutorials or resource on the web to guide used on it.
The analog inputs and PWM outputs add a whole spectrum of compatibility the Pi cannot do
natively. Plus the large about of I/O pins let you connect multiple sensors and feedback
components. But Arduino is not powerful as Raspberry because of no proper audio, video or
internet capabilities. However Arduino can send data to the Personal Computer (PC) or
Raspberry Pi which used to create program to read data and doing something. Raspberry Pi
more focuses on software project which goods in audio, video and internet capabilities and
just plug and play. No more need to attach external components if you are not interested into
electronic. However some projects are required external components such as sensors would
be used.

Comparison

Table 2 compares the two boards in details which helps us to make a good decision if we
are new to this field.

Table 2: Differentiate between devices Arduino and Raspberry Pi.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, although the Raspberry Pi with its great high-performance option and
suited in software-based projects while Arduino is a good general-purpose board and the
best choice for the hardware projects; however, it is a good potential to combine both
Arduino and Raspberry Pi in our projects in order to gain the varieties of functionalities
offered by both boards.