If you've ever worked with Arduino y Raspberry PiYou will surely know that, depending on which project we work on, one or the other will surely fit our needs much better. So far everything is correct, unfortunately projects tend to grow as time goes by and new ideas arrive so surely we will reach a point where a mixture of functions of both cards would be more than interesting. This is where it comes in RandA.
Basically with RandA what we will achieve is to take advantage of the Raspberry Pi hardware power with the Arduino versatility and applications. In other words, we will finally be able to use, for example, the possibility of being able to install and use a professional multitasking system such as Linux, while Arduino can be used to connect a multitude of expansion cards developed by both Arduino and third parties, it is the first idea that came to me. goes through the mind.
How are both plates connected?
The connection between both cards is made through the using a USB connection or through a link via serial port so that the hardware would be fully integrated. In this way, although we lose a USB from our Raspberry Pi, the truth is that we will gain all the hardware present in an Arduino.
As a detail, tell you that RandA is compatible with both the new Raspberry Pi Plus and the previous version. It should be noted that RandA mounts a additional micro USB intended to power the two boards, something more than interesting, especially if we consider that the Raspberry Pi lacks an RTC system or a connection / disconnection process or StandBy mode, something that thanks to a special RandA software is now possible.
With this software, among other things, you can program the connection or deactivation of both Raspberry Pi and Arduino or adjust the necessary energy power that reaches both boards. This watch is managed at all times by Raspberry Pi via an I2C connection, it can be reprogrammed at any time both through Linux commands and through a web page enabled by the company in charge of developing RaspA.
How are programs developed for RandA?
As you surely know, the way to install programs on Arduino is done through an IDE installed on your own computer, while for Raspberry Pi you have to use, for example, a keyboard, mouse and monitor installed directly on the card itself, although, personally, I like to use either the Ethernet port or a USB WiFi adapter.
Thanks to the RandA development team this can be done much faster as all programs can be installed via a specific software developed by themselves. In addition to this, they offer development environments, management libraries and above all several examples already implemented and ready to be tested from which we can start working.
If you need more information about RandA, do not hesitate to stop by their Official Site.