Raspberry Pi vs Arduino: A Beginning Maker’s Guide to Tell Them Apart
A whole year since I excitedly wrote about the best Raspberry Pi starter products, and I’m still met with a damn out of stock page on every seller.
Needless to say, I’m selfishly frustrated.
So much so that I’ve begun researching alternatives because I just want to make something before I arrive at my grave. My research eventually led me to a seemingly similar product — the Arduino.
At first glance, I thought, “cool, it’s a blue Raspberry Pi; I like blue!”
Unfortunately for me and my neanderthal brain, there are more differences between the two than just the color. For the disheartened beginner like me who cannot find a Pi and just wants to make something, it’s time to compare these two to help figure out when I can just use an Arduino instead.
Reddit Didn’t Help
Recently, I stumbled upon a cool tool that allows you to type in a word and see all the related subreddits that people are interacting with.
Like all lazy people, I thought my research problems were solved. I’d just type in the word Arduino, see the subreddit and related conversations, and be done with it!
Then reality smacked me in the face like a ship of salmon.
Turns out, the two communities aren’t as distinct as I thought. Instead, people that interact with one also tend to interact with the other. In hindsight, this should have been obvious. At the time, I was just hoping for an easy solution.
Discouraged but not ready to be down and out yet, I turned to my old friend — YouTube.
YouTube to the Rescue
Thankfully, my search on YouTube was far more fruitful. I found a couple of well-documented videos which explained the differences to a numbnoodle like me pretty clearly:
In addition to this video that went through the basics, the comments section was generally helpful — a nice surprise from YouTube. In an attempt to save you the hour-long rabbit hole I went down, here are the highlights that I discovered.
Raspberry Pi Overview
On a more technical note, the Raspberry Pi is considered a single-board computer with a microprocessor at its core. This means that, unlike the microcontroller Arduino, the microprocessor needs help from other chips to store and run code.
The way the Raspberry Pi was explained to me, and that made sense, is that it’s essentially a mini-computer. That means your Pi should be able to do most of the things you’d expect your laptop or phone to be able to do (albeit slower.)
As stated in the video above, Arduino and Raspberry Pi get compared because of the GPIO pins that allow it to interact with electronic components like lights and motors with some caveats.
So, it’s a computer that also can function as a light switch — nice!
While the extra functionality of the Pi opens up more options, it also has some drawbacks. The additional functionality means that the Raspberry Pi is more complicated and requires more power.
Arduino Overview
Unlike the Raspberry Pi, that’s a computer, most Arduino’s fall into the camp of being a microcontroller. Now, if you’re like me and aren’t familiar with hardware, you may be asking — what the hell is a microcontroller?
I’ll start with a formal definition from all3dp:
A microcontroller is a single integrated circuit that comprises various elements, including a microprocessor, timers, counters, input/output (I/O) ports, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), and some other components.
This means that the device can “store, run, and execute programs within the chip itself.” A bonus of this barebones approach is that the power requirements to do stuff are pretty low — like 9V battery low.
Additionally, you can think of a microcontroller as a specialist. It’s designed to interact with physical components and do it well. Still, it can’t do the computery things that are possible with a Raspberry Pi.
The Similarities
- Both allow you to control basic electronic devices like LED’s
- Both have several options for the physical dimensions allowing for compact projects
- Both can be programmed to execute tasks
- Robots
The Differences
- Arduino tends to be more C based, where Raspberry Pi tends to be more Python based
- Arduino executes commands more sequentially, the (well-programmed) Raspberry Pi can execute commands based on need/priorities or in parallel
- Ardunio can’t do some computer tasks — so no Minecraft server on big blue
- Ardunio I/O pins have a little more punch to them than the Raspberry Pi
- Ardunio seems to be a little more beginner friendly
Choosing Between Them
Truthfully, I’m still a little bit fuzzy on this point, but there was a YouTube comment that helped me understand the use cases a bit better:
Another truth that I stumbled upon is that sometimes these two boards will be used together. Especially in complex projects, they can be considered peanut butter and jelly rather than oil and water.
This was shown through one cool project I found where someone made a drone. The drone maker used a Pi for the brains and calculations but an Arduino for the motors.
So, unfortunately, the best answer is that your choice will depend.
If you want to make a cool, simple robot, then Arduino (or the new Pi microcontroller — confusing, I know) all the way. The Pi is best if you want something a computer can do — like a low-power web app or web interface for controlled electronic components. Lastly, you may even need both together for more daring and fun projects, as they both have their strengths.
