Which ARM board to use?

[RishabhG]

Hi there,

I am an undergraduate electrical engineering student. I want to pursue a career in Embedded Systems. I have gained a certain degree of proficiency in programming 8 bit PIC16F MCUs. Now, I want to learn ARM.

There is a new trend these days of single board computers built around an ARM core. My question is which would be more beneficial to learn ?the ARM MCUs like the LPC2148,1768 etc. or the single board computers like the Raspberry Pi or PCduino or Udoo or any other Linux or android based board for that matter;considering the fact my aim is to become a professional embedded engineer .

Thank You
Rishabh

 

[Kpatel_IPR]

GO with LPC1768 + uCLinux and then switch to RPi with Linux.

 

[RishabhG]

Actually I meant programming LPC1768 in C. Installing uclinux on it would be a similar idea to RPi. Is it necessary for an embedded software engineer to know the register level coding or is it OK if he knows to use Linux without much understanding of the actual register level architecture?

 

[Kpatel_IPR]

Actually I meant programming LPC1768 in C. Installing uclinux on it would be a similar idea to RPi. Is it necessary for an embedded software engineer to know the register level coding or is it OK if he knows to use Linux without much understanding of the actual register level architecture?

When you use OS and device drivers then you don't need to know register level details, but if you have to develop device driver then you have to. so for beginners OS is fine for SW development.

 

[Jestin_cubetech]

start with lpc2129,2138,2148

 

[RishabhG]

Why are you suggesting LPC2148 over LPC1768? Which is better for learners?

 

[Jestin_cubetech]

LPC2148 suitable for basic C programming,RTOS application ,USB application.

LPC1768 is more complex for register level C programming.

LPC1768 not a good choice for ARM beginner.

 

[Mindaugasu]

Use any ARM Cortex microcontroller based board. Like M3 or M4 family. In my experience STM32F1xx series can be good choice. Try looking around what MCU has more tutorials to start with - will be easier to get in.

 

[Alpconsulting]

Go with lpc2148..ARM7 controller i used this for my project .

 

[andre_luis]

RishabhG


As you can see, most opinions here converges to the same core/manufacturer ( Cortex -M3 LPC1768 from NXP ) and I agree with they.
You will find a lot of examples of code on the Web, and will have no problem to buy this uC at any store around the world.


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