Head to head

A b o u t t he A u t h o r

uri ShA k ed

w: medium.com/@urish
t: @UriShaked
job: Consultant,
Blackberry
areas of expertise:
Web and cloud
technologies, IoT
q: if you could change one
thing about the industry,
what would it be?
a: In terms of IoT,
better established
standards/protocols for
communication between
different devices

HeAd tO HeAd

Arduino vs rAspberry pi
Arduino and Raspberry Pi are two popular platforms for building smart
hardware devices. Uri Shaked helps you choose which is right for you
ArduinO unO

rAspberry pi 3

The Arduino Uno (or Genuino Uno outside the US) is

Arduinos most robust microprocessor board. It has
a 16MHz CPU (the equivalent of a computer from the
80s) great for simple control apps, but not powerful
enough for image processing apps. It offers 2KB of
RAM and 32KB of program memory (Flash).

Raspberry Pi 3 is the third generation of the Raspberry

Pi, released at the start of 2016. It has a 1.2GHz CPU
with four cores, and also a GPU (graphics processing
unit), much like a modern smartphone or tablet. It
comes equipped with 1GB of RAM and up to 32GB
of storage space on a micro SD card.

prOgrAmming
Arduino is mainly programmed using C++, and has no
operating system your code is the only thing that
runs on the board.

This can be programmed using virtually any language

(Python is a common choice). It comes with a Linuxbased OS, and can run Windows 10 IoT and Android.

price And reliAbility

Arduino, in mass production, can be as little as $2.50
a unit. It is very reliable; the moment you turn it on your
code starts working, and a power loss should not affect
the code stored in the chip.

FAct File
AlternAtives
Raspberry Pi has a
notable $9 competitor
called C.H.I.P. It has
lower specs, but you
still get a fully featured
computer.
Arduino 101 is a new
version of Arduino that
has a Bluetooth low
energy chip built-in. The
next generation of the
board the Arduino
Primo will offer both
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
low energy, paired with
a better processor.

Raspberry Pi 3 costs $35-40 and you need to buy

a MicroSD card separately. Being inherently more
complex, it has many possible points of failure. A
sudden loss of power can corrupt the Micro SD card.

cOnnectiVity
None external modules are required for Wi-Fi and
Bluetooth. Both digital and analogue sensors are
supported, and it offers accurate signal timing.

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are included on board. Digital

sensors, as well as serial camera, LCD display, most
USB devices and HDMI display are also supported.

pOwer cOnsumptiOn And security

The Arduino has low power consumption it can be
run on a small battery for weeks. However, the board
is not powerful enough to handle encryption properly.

Raspberry Pis can run off a standard USB power bank

only for a couple of hours. The Pi supports secure
communication protocols, such as SSL and SSH.

Verdict
If your needs are simple, you care about power consumption and need to interface with
analogue sensors, then definitely go with the Arduino. But if you need to harness some
serious processing power, are interested in Wi-Fi/Bluetooth connectivity, or require some
encryption, then Raspberry Pi would be a better choice for your project.

february 2017 97