4 replies to this topic

[Dan D]

I'm as new as they come in the world of Gadgeteering, so please excuse my ignorance. I have been researching Arduino vs. Netduino and, having some C# and windows development background, have decided to start with Netduino. So that I understand before I jump in, The Netduino Plus looks like it is the best value. However, I've seen some very interesting peripherals, Touch Display Module for Netduino Go for example, that I want to make sure inter-operate with all the Netduino flavors. It would seem silly and illogical to me to spend so much time making a board to be inter-operable with Arduino, but then have shields that don't even operate inside the various Netduino incarnations. Also, while I'm here, what's with the lack of starter kits? There are about a dozen and one for the Arduino architecture, but there are few for the Netduino, and none that I can find, that includes the Netduino Plus. Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting started. Any help with my questions, which I am sure are just a product of lack of experience, will be very much appreciated.

[Chris Walker]

Hi Dan,

Welcome to the Netduino community. Let me see if I can answer a few question for you here...

So that I understand before I jump in, The Netduino Plus looks like it is the best value. However, I've seen some very interesting peripherals, Touch Display Module for Netduino Go for example, that I want to make sure inter-operate with all the Netduino flavors. It would seem silly and illogical to me to spend so much time making a board to be inter-operable with Arduino, but then have shields that don't even operate inside the various Netduino incarnations.

Yes, Netduino Plus is probably the best value. Netduino Go is the high-end board with the most capabilities (including support for go!modules like the Nwazet Touch Display Module). Netduino Go is very new so a few features of Netduino Plus are coming but not quite here yet. All of those will fill in over the summer.

Also, while I'm here, what's with the lack of starter kits? There are about a dozen and one for the Arduino architecture, but there are few for the Netduino, and none that I can find, that includes the Netduino Plus.

That's a good recommendation There's a starter kit for Netduino Plus planned for late summer, but today most of them include the basic Netduino. That said...it's pretty straightforward to pick up each of the starter kit parts.

Chris

[Dan D]

Hi Dan,

Welcome to the Netduino community. Let me see if I can answer a few question for you here...


Yes, Netduino Plus is probably the best value. Netduino Go is the high-end board with the most capabilities (including support for go!modules like the Nwazet Touch Display Module). Netduino Go is very new so a few features of Netduino Plus are coming but not quite here yet. All of those will fill in over the summer.


That's a good recommendation There's a starter kit for Netduino Plus planned for late summer, but today most of them include the basic Netduino. That said...it's pretty straightforward to pick up each of the starter kit parts.

Chris

Thank you Chris for the speedy reply and detailed explanation. It sounds like the decision to start with Netduino Plus over Go, or vice-versa, is an important one as they really are separate products with separate purposes. It sounds like, and correct me if I'm wrong, that Plus takes advantage of the compatibility of Arduino, which makes it flexible, while the Go takes advantage of a modular architecture, which makes it easy to use. The Go would probably not be compatible with sensors, shields, etc. from other architectures, if I understand correctly.

Thanks again!

[nakchak]

You do have the shield base for the GO, which when its out of beta should give a mechanism to interface to existing shields, as well as all the existing functionality found in a netduino (it doesnt have an sd or network socket though, as they will provided by separate upcoming modules) They are both very nice platforms though, and netmf development is awesome, if nothing else as i have found it has made me a better .net dev due to the tight memory constraints imposed in the embedded world. i.e. i would typically write an app with an expectation of 512+Mb of RAM, but in the netmf world your typically talking about RAM sizes in the Kb range, so you have to write tighter code, which you find your self doing in the full framework as well Nak.

[Mattster]

There's a selection of Starter Kits over at MakerShed.com