Arduino Vs. Raspberry Pi for electrical enginerring and programming?

[quentuz]

Hi i'm looking to get started into electrical enginering and programming.
Latley i have been looking around the web and found out that Arduino and Raspberry Pi makes an execelent candidate to start learning this stuff.
I'm intrested in connecting sensors, motors, servos, etc to the Raspberry Pi or Arduino and then obviously make it print/read/control the components.

I'm not sure how to get started on this, if i should get a book, what components/kit i should get, Arduino or Raspberry.
I'm also unsure where to buy this stuff i would need a site that supplies to eu.
Hopefully i can get some advice here.

[tempotempo]

its easier to start with an Arduino. At least in my opinion.

[quentuz]

[QUOTE=tempotempo;44988271]its easier to start with an Arduino. At least in my opinion.[/QUOTE]

I know the basics of python already does it support that and does the components aswell?

[woidoi]

no, the arduino programming language is very similair to C (with some added libraries to make it easier) which is quite different from python

[quentuz]

[QUOTE=scratch (nl);44988677]no, the arduino programming language is very similair to C (with some added libraries to make it easier) which is quite different from python[/QUOTE]

What about the raspberry pi?

[woidoi]

Raspberry pi is like a desktop computer in mini, running linux. I'd say stick with the Arduino as it's more friendly to people with which are really new in the area. Raspberry is great to progress into once you get done with Arduino.

[Chryseus]

I would advise against starting electronics with a Raspberry Pi, simply because chances are you'll blow it up at some point, it also isn't really that well designed for general electronics use, as for Arduino you can get Arduino Nano clones from places like ebay or dx really cheap.
For the electronics side of things avoid kits at all cost, these are practically always massively overpriced for what you get in them, get component packs from ebay or [url=http://www.bitsbox.co.uk/]bitsbox[/url] at the bare minimum you want at least:

#Selection of E12 series 0.25W resistors
#Selection of electrolytic capacitors
#Bipolar NPN transistors and N channel MOSFETs
#A couple of op-amp
#555 timers
#LEDs and diodes
#A cheap digital multimeter (never use these on mains)
#Breadboard and jumper wires
#Soldering iron (preferably temperature controlled)

There is a thread [url=http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1250138]here[/url] specifically for electrical engineering.

[quentuz]

[QUOTE=Chryseus;44989184]I would advise against starting electronics with a Raspberry Pi, simply because chances are you'll blow it up at some point, it also isn't really that well designed for general electronics use, as for Arduino you can get Arduino Nano clones from places like ebay or dx really cheap.
For the electronics side of things avoid kits at all cost, these are practically always massively overpriced for what you get in them, get component packs from ebay or [url=http://www.bitsbox.co.uk/]bitsbox[/url] at the bare minimum you want at least:

#Selection of E12 series 0.25W resistors
#Selection of electrolytic capacitors
#Bipolar NPN transistors and N channel MOSFETs
#A couple of op-amp
#555 timers
#LEDs and diodes
#A cheap digital multimeter (never use these on mains)
#Breadboard and jumper wires
#Soldering iron (preferably temperature controlled)

There is a thread [url=http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1250138]here[/url] specifically for electrical engineering.[/QUOTE]

What Arduino clones should i get? And why not get a proper one at first?

[Ddrl46]

[QUOTE=quentuz;44989325]What Arduino clones should i get? And why not get a proper one at first?[/QUOTE]

There is no difference between an Arduino clone and a real one, it's just a microcontroller hooked up to a few headers.

[quentuz]

[QUOTE=ddrl46;44989796]There is no difference between an Arduino clone and a real one, it's just a microcontroller hooked up to a few headers.[/QUOTE]

Oh okay, is there any books you could recommend me?

[Chryseus]

[QUOTE=quentuz;44990026]Oh okay, is there any books you could recommend me?[/QUOTE]

[url]http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/[/url]
And there is a bunch of electronics lectures and stuff on youtube.

[quentuz]

[QUOTE=Chryseus;44990580][url]http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/[/url]
And there is a bunch of electronics lectures and stuff on youtube.[/QUOTE]

Thanks

[TCWilliamson]

Don't buy jumper wires. They break all the time, are messy and you can never get the right colour. Instead:

[url]http://www.rapidonline.com/Cables-Connectors/Rapid-Equipment-Wire-Single-Core-1-0-6-Black-Reel-of-100m-01-0300[/url]
[url]http://www.rapidonline.com/Cables-Connectors/Rapid-Equipment-Wire-Single-Core-1-0-6-Red-Reel-of-100m-01-0335[/url]
[url]http://www.rapidonline.com/Cables-Connectors/100m-Reel-Yellow-1-0-6-Wire-01-0350[/url]

Will last you a huge amount longer.
You can cut to the length you want / need.
Allows you to be cleaner.
Cleaner = easier to debug.

best £15 i ever spent.

[editline]3rd June 2014[/editline]

Plus, you can store the wires you cut, allowing you to reuse them.
Its also so much cheaper in the long term considering how many meters of wire and how long the jumpers are.

Most of the jumpers actually have steel contacts with copper wire going between them from what i found (magnets stick to the terminals of my jumpers i brought)
these ones will have lower resistance too.

You can also solder to them allowing you to hook up pins of bigger semiconductors to breadboards easily should you need to.

You could strip them for just the tinned wire and use them as jumper wires on PCBs you make or prototype on protoboard.

I can think of many good reasons.

[quentuz]

[QUOTE=nuttyboffin;44992336]Don't buy jumper wires. They break all the time, are messy and you can never get the right colour. Instead:

[url]http://www.rapidonline.com/Cables-Connectors/Rapid-Equipment-Wire-Single-Core-1-0-6-Black-Reel-of-100m-01-0300[/url]
[url]http://www.rapidonline.com/Cables-Connectors/Rapid-Equipment-Wire-Single-Core-1-0-6-Red-Reel-of-100m-01-0335[/url]
[url]http://www.rapidonline.com/Cables-Connectors/100m-Reel-Yellow-1-0-6-Wire-01-0350[/url]

Will last you a huge amount longer.
You can cut to the length you want / need.
Allows you to be cleaner.
Cleaner = easier to debug.

best £15 i ever spent.

[editline]3rd June 2014[/editline]

Plus, you can store the wires you cut, allowing you to reuse them.
Its also so much cheaper in the long term considering how many meters of wire and how long the jumpers are.

Most of the jumpers actually have steel contacts with copper wire going between them from what i found (magnets stick to the terminals of my jumpers i brought)
these ones will have lower resistance too.

You can also solder to them allowing you to hook up pins of bigger semiconductors to breadboards easily should you need to.

You could strip them for just the tinned wire and use them as jumper wires on PCBs you make or prototype on protoboard.

I can think of many good reasons.[/QUOTE]

Thanks alot for this information

[DrLuke]

[QUOTE=scratch (nl);44988677]no, the arduino programming language is very similair to C (with some added libraries to make it easier) which is quite different from python[/QUOTE]

There is no such thing as the arduino language. It's C++.