5 ms·

Why the Arduino Won and Why It's Here to Stay

42 points by india 16y ago

nyellin 16y ago
The full article is over at Make magazine. Link: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/02/why-the-arduino-won-and-why-its-here-to-stay.html http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/02/why-the-arduino-won...
Kilimanjaro 16y ago
Google should buy Arduino.
- ashconnor 16y ago
  What would they do with it?
  - jonsen 16y ago
    A Really Dumb Undertaking If No Objective
  - Kilimanjaro 16y ago
    Talent. Diversify. Community. Future. Ideas. Good will. Open source. Innovation.
    - mkr-hn 16y ago
      I'd be worried about Google if they based acquisitions on buzzword soup.
      - Kilimanjaro 16y ago
        I'd be worried if my CEO doesn't understand the internet of things.
        mkr-hn 16y ago
        You responded to a question with a list of buzzwords. You responded to a gentle ribbing of that list of buzzwords with another buzzword.
        JoachimSchipper 16y ago
        That particular buzzword doesn't usually refer to hacker-built one-off projects, like the tweeting coffee pot mentioned in the article.
- tesseract 16y ago
  Somehow I don't think Arduino is looking to be acquired. But if they were, I can think of a couple of companies that, unlike Google, might actually stand to benefit from such a move.
johnohara 16y ago
The Arduino is a nice, accessible platform which stands tall on the shoulders of some true pioneers. BDMicro (Brian Dean): http://www.bdmicro.com/mavric-iib/ http://www.bdmicro.com/mavric-iib/ (hmmm, interesting layout in 2004 vs the Arduino in 2005) The avrdude developers: http://www.nongnu.org/avrdude/user-manual/avrdude_2.html http://www.nongnu.org/avrdude/user-manual/avrdude_2.html (how "sketches" get to and fro) AVR Libc: http://www.nongnu.org/avr-libc/ http://www.nongnu.org/avr-libc/ Atmel MC's: http://www.atmel.com/products/AVR/ http://www.atmel.com/products/AVR/ avrfreaks.net: The unofficial support forum for avr's that has had its ups and downs over the years. Tons of projects. Not really sure what this guy means by winning. It might have been better to write about how many people are "discovering" the Arduino platform versus phrasing it in terms of victory.
- ladyada 16y ago
  i seriously doubt BDmicro was even seen by Arduino its Yet Another Dev Board. and avrfreaks is (if you read the article) the anti-hero. you missed the most important one which is Processing. by winning, 'this guy' means that it has become a standard development platform and test bed EVEN FOR people who do not in general use AVRs. not having a standard test bed for devices is such a massive annoying failure in electronics, its difficult to explain how much not having it sucks. its like you know how every programming language has stdin/stdout with print(f)? ok, then Arduino is the printf.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - johnohara 16y ago
    Disagree about processing. Agree about standards. The Arduino's standard for i/o headers, its development library for avr libc and avr-gcc, and its usb->serial interface for pushing hex files ("sketches") into the chip are where it shines. It's not a "printf" but rather an S100 bus if you will.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 16y ago
    having a standard test bed for devices is such a massive annoying failure in electronics This is a very well phrased description of a problem I've seen for a long time. I'm not an Arduino user: I prefer to use "raw" AVR devices in my own circuits. But something like the Arduino, like the BASIC Stamp before it, provides a sort of "language" to explain how to do things that was missing before. In the days of PC's with printer ports, someone asking how to blink an LED under computer control could be given a simple answer that would have them up and running quickly. Now we need to find out if it has a printer port, or maybe a serial port to use one of the control lines, or otherwise suggest purchasing a USB device to use instead... But with something like the Arduino available, the answer can be as simple as "buy this device (Arduino) from this vendor and run this code and your LED will blink." From the very beginning, the people involved are using a common vocabulary: the same development platform. And that has benefits that cannot be ignored.
brk 16y ago
Before the Arduino the Basic Stamo was the popular easy micro controller. After the Arduino will be something else. Before the Stamp was the Radio Shack 200-in-1 beginners electronics kits. The Arduino is a great gadget to get people interested in electronics and micros, but it's not a revolution either.
- ladyada 16y ago
  things don't have to last 20 years to be revolutionary. arduino has set the bar very high. basic stamp was good for a few years but it was closed, weak, proprietary and expensive. people should be happy/impressed/annoyed that in this case, open source is much better than the proprietary product and its still very young.
  - brk 16y ago
    For their time, the BS1 and BS2 were considered pretty open, powerful, and cheap compared to the other options out there (PICs with expensive programmers and steep learning curves, etc.). Being able to drive a 44780 LCD, read a rotary encoder, and do basic serial I/O in the same hobbyist project were well out of the grasp of the common hobbyist in the late 90's, but the BS2 made all those things possible for $50. Arduino hasn't really set the bar that high, it's the next/current evolution of something that has been going on ever since the commercialization of the first NP junction. Like the Stamps before it, the Arduino is a neat prototyping device, but not something you can build a 'product' around with any great scale beyond a hobbyist market. The biggest difference in that in its heyday the Stamp didn't have the full power of the Internet to make people aware of them. You mostly had usenet or publications like Nuts N Volts to expose people to the possibilities of simple micros. The Arduino has gotten great exposure because of the Internet, but in the grand scheme of things hasn't really done all THAT much. The article on Make references 100000-150000 Arduinos sold. Maxim has given away more PICs than that as free samples. Sure, the Arduino is neat and cool, but the fawning over it you see on sites like Make heavily skews reality. 30 years ago if we had the Internet this blog post would have been "Why the 555 won and why it's here to stay"
    - 16y ago
jws 16y ago
Edit: As ladyada points out, I missed the paragraphs where community is discussed in the Make article. So let's say not that I disagree, but I disagree with the emphasis. I disagree. The answer is not in unit sales, spec sheets, or software architecture. The Arduino "won" because of the helpful community that was developed up around it[1]. You could go to the forum and find everything from people reverse engineering some obscure interface to others that were wondering why about half their LEDs won't light up and getting a quick, helpful response that explains why one leg is longer than the other.. I think that made it possible for a less technical crowd to succeed with Arduinos and they paved the way for there to be a critical mass of internet articles to lure the rest. [1] I don't think the community was an accident. It came from the backgrounds and goals of the Arduino creators. I think maybe "provide the tools to teach people to implement their XXX" would sum that up.
- ladyada 16y ago
  why are you disagreeing when the middle of the article is all about the great community. its easy to say 'community!' the point of the article is that community isnt something that just -happens- magically because you have a forum, there are concrete (and sometimes technical!) things were taken care of first in order to allow a critical mass community to form.
- todayiamme 16y ago
  The entire community point is covered on the Make magazine article; it's really good; http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/02/why-the-arduino-won-and-why-its-here-to-stay.html http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/02/why-the-arduino-won...
trafficlight 16y ago
The Arduino Documentary is worth watching. http://vimeo.com/18539129 http://vimeo.com/18539129 The talked with the initial developers about the how the project came to be and what their goals were.

42 points by india 16y ago

The full article is over at Make magazine. Link: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/02/why-the-arduino-won-and-why-its-here-to-stay.html http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/02/why-the-arduino-won...

Kilimanjaro 16y ago

Google should buy Arduino.

ashconnor 16y ago
What would they do with it?
- jonsen 16y ago
  A Really Dumb Undertaking If No Objective
- Kilimanjaro 16y ago
  Talent. Diversify. Community. Future. Ideas. Good will. Open source. Innovation.
  - mkr-hn 16y ago
    I'd be worried about Google if they based acquisitions on buzzword soup.
    - Kilimanjaro 16y ago
      I'd be worried if my CEO doesn't understand the internet of things.
      - mkr-hn 16y ago
        You responded to a question with a list of buzzwords. You responded to a gentle ribbing of that list of buzzwords with another buzzword.
      - JoachimSchipper 16y ago
        That particular buzzword doesn't usually refer to hacker-built one-off projects, like the tweeting coffee pot mentioned in the article.
tesseract 16y ago
Somehow I don't think Arduino is looking to be acquired. But if they were, I can think of a couple of companies that, unlike Google, might actually stand to benefit from such a move.

johnohara 16y ago

The Arduino is a nice, accessible platform which stands tall on the shoulders of some true pioneers. BDMicro (Brian Dean): http://www.bdmicro.com/mavric-iib/ http://www.bdmicro.com/mavric-iib/ (hmmm, interesting layout in 2004 vs the Arduino in 2005) The avrdude developers: http://www.nongnu.org/avrdude/user-manual/avrdude_2.html http://www.nongnu.org/avrdude/user-manual/avrdude_2.html (how "sketches" get to and fro) AVR Libc: http://www.nongnu.org/avr-libc/ http://www.nongnu.org/avr-libc/ Atmel MC's: http://www.atmel.com/products/AVR/ http://www.atmel.com/products/AVR/ avrfreaks.net: The unofficial support forum for avr's that has had its ups and downs over the years. Tons of projects. Not really sure what this guy means by winning. It might have been better to write about how many people are "discovering" the Arduino platform versus phrasing it in terms of victory.

ladyada 16y ago
i seriously doubt BDmicro was even seen by Arduino its Yet Another Dev Board. and avrfreaks is (if you read the article) the anti-hero. you missed the most important one which is Processing. by winning, 'this guy' means that it has become a standard development platform and test bed EVEN FOR people who do not in general use AVRs. not having a standard test bed for devices is such a massive annoying failure in electronics, its difficult to explain how much not having it sucks. its like you know how every programming language has stdin/stdout with print(f)? ok, then Arduino is the printf.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- johnohara 16y ago
  Disagree about processing. Agree about standards. The Arduino's standard for i/o headers, its development library for avr libc and avr-gcc, and its usb->serial interface for pushing hex files ("sketches") into the chip are where it shines. It's not a "printf" but rather an S100 bus if you will.
- HeyLaughingBoy 16y ago
  having a standard test bed for devices is such a massive annoying failure in electronics This is a very well phrased description of a problem I've seen for a long time. I'm not an Arduino user: I prefer to use "raw" AVR devices in my own circuits. But something like the Arduino, like the BASIC Stamp before it, provides a sort of "language" to explain how to do things that was missing before. In the days of PC's with printer ports, someone asking how to blink an LED under computer control could be given a simple answer that would have them up and running quickly. Now we need to find out if it has a printer port, or maybe a serial port to use one of the control lines, or otherwise suggest purchasing a USB device to use instead... But with something like the Arduino available, the answer can be as simple as "buy this device (Arduino) from this vendor and run this code and your LED will blink." From the very beginning, the people involved are using a common vocabulary: the same development platform. And that has benefits that cannot be ignored.

brk 16y ago

Before the Arduino the Basic Stamo was the popular easy micro controller. After the Arduino will be something else. Before the Stamp was the Radio Shack 200-in-1 beginners electronics kits. The Arduino is a great gadget to get people interested in electronics and micros, but it's not a revolution either.

ladyada 16y ago
things don't have to last 20 years to be revolutionary. arduino has set the bar very high. basic stamp was good for a few years but it was closed, weak, proprietary and expensive. people should be happy/impressed/annoyed that in this case, open source is much better than the proprietary product and its still very young.
- brk 16y ago
  For their time, the BS1 and BS2 were considered pretty open, powerful, and cheap compared to the other options out there (PICs with expensive programmers and steep learning curves, etc.). Being able to drive a 44780 LCD, read a rotary encoder, and do basic serial I/O in the same hobbyist project were well out of the grasp of the common hobbyist in the late 90's, but the BS2 made all those things possible for $50. Arduino hasn't really set the bar that high, it's the next/current evolution of something that has been going on ever since the commercialization of the first NP junction. Like the Stamps before it, the Arduino is a neat prototyping device, but not something you can build a 'product' around with any great scale beyond a hobbyist market. The biggest difference in that in its heyday the Stamp didn't have the full power of the Internet to make people aware of them. You mostly had usenet or publications like Nuts N Volts to expose people to the possibilities of simple micros. The Arduino has gotten great exposure because of the Internet, but in the grand scheme of things hasn't really done all THAT much. The article on Make references 100000-150000 Arduinos sold. Maxim has given away more PICs than that as free samples. Sure, the Arduino is neat and cool, but the fawning over it you see on sites like Make heavily skews reality. 30 years ago if we had the Internet this blog post would have been "Why the 555 won and why it's here to stay"
  - 16y ago

jws 16y ago

Edit: As ladyada points out, I missed the paragraphs where community is discussed in the Make article. So let's say not that I disagree, but I disagree with the emphasis. I disagree. The answer is not in unit sales, spec sheets, or software architecture. The Arduino "won" because of the helpful community that was developed up around it[1]. You could go to the forum and find everything from people reverse engineering some obscure interface to others that were wondering why about half their LEDs won't light up and getting a quick, helpful response that explains why one leg is longer than the other.. I think that made it possible for a less technical crowd to succeed with Arduinos and they paved the way for there to be a critical mass of internet articles to lure the rest. [1] I don't think the community was an accident. It came from the backgrounds and goals of the Arduino creators. I think maybe "provide the tools to teach people to implement their XXX" would sum that up.

ladyada 16y ago
why are you disagreeing when the middle of the article is all about the great community. its easy to say 'community!' the point of the article is that community isnt something that just -happens- magically because you have a forum, there are concrete (and sometimes technical!) things were taken care of first in order to allow a critical mass community to form.
todayiamme 16y ago
The entire community point is covered on the Make magazine article; it's really good; http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/02/why-the-arduino-won-and-why-its-here-to-stay.html http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/02/why-the-arduino-won...

trafficlight 16y ago

The Arduino Documentary is worth watching. http://vimeo.com/18539129 http://vimeo.com/18539129 The talked with the initial developers about the how the project came to be and what their goals were.