10 replies to this topic

[JamesBrown]

I have been working on an Arduino Ethernet application and am to the point where the Arduino has no more memory.  Its out of gas on the side of the road.

 

I am interested in the Netduino Plus 2 but I have some questions before I make the switch.  Although I have coded in C# my fav is Delphi so I understand object oriented programming but I'm sure there will be a learning curve so I need to make an estimate of the job.  Any response to these questions will help me a lot.

 

1. I code using Visual Studio 2012 pro and the Visual Micro Debugger - Can I use VS 2012 for the switch and how do you debug the Netduino?  Is it something like plugging in Serial.Println?

 

2.The Plus 2 has a lot more memory than the Arduino Ethernet but how much is given over to run time stuff?  How much of a difference will the switch make for a memory hungry application like mine.

 

3. I use several Arduino libraries (SPI, Ethernet, SoftwareSerial, sha256, ublox GPS) are there equivalents available?

 

Regards.... Jim

[Nevyn]

Jim,

 

Firstly welcome to the community.

 

You are right about the learning curve but I think most of the curve will be learning what libraries are out there as .NET gives you a lot.

 

You can use VS2012, I'm using it with the NETMF 4.3 beta and it is working fine.  I have also used it with NETMF 4.2 and that worked for me as well.

 

There is no Serial.Println but there is a Debug.Print statement which can be thought of as an equivalent when you are debugging.  This has no real effect when the code is deployed in the field though as you need something like VS connected in order to read the output.

 

In terms of libraries you get a lot built in to the framework.  You can find the library reference here.  You certainly get SPI, Ethernet and Serial built in.  Not sure about equivalents for the other two libraries you mention.

 

Never really ported an Ardunio application to Netduino so I cannot offer any comments on length of time it will take.

 

One thing to be aware of is that the code on the Netduino is interpreted which can impact time critical code where a high performance is needed.  On the flip side, you do benefit from the massive library available to you in NETMF.

 

Hope this helps,

Mark

[Stefan]

Hi JamesBrown and welcome to the Netduino community!

 

As Nevyn posted, the main libraries are documented at the MSDN. Also, I've once written an NMEA GPS library (http://netmftoolbox....ardware.NmeaGps). Maybe that could be of use for your project? The only thing missing in that case would be sha256. I know SSL/TLS won't fit on the regular Netduino; the OpenSSL library is pretty big. I'm not sure for the NP2.

If it's just to calculate a hash, I haven't found a lib, but it could be done I suppose.

[hanzibal]

3. I use several Arduino libraries (SPI, Ethernet, SoftwareSerial, sha256, ublox GPS) are there equivalents available?

If you're only using softserial to implement additional serial ports on your Arduino, that would probably not be necessary as the Netduino 2 has three (3) hardware serial ports on board.

[Stefan]

If you're only using softserial to implement additional serial ports on your Arduino, that would probably not be necessary as the Netduino 2 has three (3) hardware serial ports on board.

 

Oh I missed the "Software"-part at SoftwareSerial.

 

But I thought the NP2 had 4 serial channels. If I'm not mistaken, the additional I2C pins can also be used as serialport. But I can't find it in the hardware specs.

Also, since debugging doesn't block COM1 (which it does on the Arduino), that's also an advantage.

[hanzibal]

Oh I missed the "Software"-part at SoftwareSerial.

 

But I thought the NP2 had 4 serial channels. If I'm not mistaken, the additional I2C pins can also be used as serialport. But I can't find it in the hardware specs.

Also, since debugging doesn't block COM1 (which it does on the Arduino), that's also an advantage.

Sorry, then four (4) serial ports it is then - even better! I don't own an NP2 myself and justed looked quickly on the specs.

Not blocking COM1 means no need for the prog/run switch typically found on Arduino breakout boards.

[JamesBrown]

OK - Thanks for the information.  

I have a + 2 on order and starting the process.

Regards...... Jim

[Verdris]

I hate to plug other boards on the Netduino forum, but if you're comfortable with Arduino, you could consider the ChipKit UNO32:

 

https://www.digilent...d=CHIPKIT-UNO32

 

I've used it in projects before to drive multiple sensors, especially SPI equipment with full 6-wire interfaces.

[JamesBrown]

Thanks Verdris.  I didn't know about ChipKit but I see that it doesn't have an Ethernet interface which is a requirement for me.

[NooM]

i started with netduino, and am currently playing with arduino, what you will notice: its very simmiliar (i had no problems switching the language)

the librarys are identical (not the same, but easy to adapt)

 

also you may notice its slow as hell (the netduino and netmf in gernal) - compared to an arduino (16mhz)

but i thinks thas ok, cos netduino/netmf offers such a nice ide and language and a bunch of cool libraries

 

iam doing "graphics proccessing" on the arduino and the logic (what to display where and such) on the netduino, this plays well

[Stefan]

Biggest downside of Arduino versus Netduino for me (although it's completely offtopic, so my apologies for that), besides the wonderful development tools for Netduino, is that the arduino only has 1 interrupt pin and just one thread. Sure, there are ways to work around that, but I prefer the easy way