Trinket vs Arduino for classroom use

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bridges_pdp
 
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Joined: Fri Oct 24, 2008 7:00 am

Trinket vs Arduino for classroom use

Post by bridges_pdp »

I would really like to introduce my students to some physical computing. I was leaning toward the Arduino Uno, but cost is a big factor and I would need 14 boards. Now, along comes the Trinket. I'm pretty excited about it and cost-wise it comes in about 1/3 of the cost of the Arduino. So, I guess my question is, would the Trinket be a good platform for the classroom or does the Arduino win out for flexibility (more pins, etc). I would really appreciate any thoughts on the matter.

Thanks,

Scott Bridges
Sonlight Academy
Port-de-Paix, Haiti

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pburgess
 
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Re: Trinket vs Arduino for classroom use

Post by pburgess »

Hi Scott. Aren't they adorable? I'm loving them, but there are some tradeoffs with the Trinket in a classroom environment:

First is software installation. Trinket builds upon the regular Arduino IDE, but then some tweaks to configuration files need to be made. This may be unfamiliar territory to beginners, and is time away from actual teaching. This might be ameliorated somewhat by providing students with your own pre-edited IDE for each OS (or maybe you have computers with the code already installed/configured).

Second is that Trinket is a subset of the full Arduino experience. Not just less RAM, flash and fewer pins...certain capabilities like the very useful Serial.print() aren't available, and the stock Wire library can't be used (need to install TinyWireM instead -- again, might use your own IDE package). The impact of this will depend on the class curriculum. If you're working through small programs only and doing basic tasks like reading a couple buttons and flashing a couple LEDs (using the stock analog & digital read & write stuff), then it's perfectly usable, and the knowledge will transfer directly to regular Arduino projects. For bigger projects though, you might feel the squeeze, and dwelling on the necessary workarounds might be counterproductive to the more basic material being covered.

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bridges_pdp
 
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Re: Trinket vs Arduino for classroom use

Post by bridges_pdp »

Thanks so much for your input. I realized that the IDE would require a tweak and, to some degree, how the other differences would impact as well but I don't think I had put it all together in my head. I teach high school sciences and I'm the computer guy (we only have 16 computers) so any software installation and tweaking falls to me and this would already be the first class to use microcontrollers, so I'll be relying heavily on tutorials to build the unit curriculum. I'm feeling that perhaps the standard Arduino/IDE and all the available tutorials might serve me better both now and provide more flexibility for the next couple of years. Might mean a bit less for me to have to stay on top of computer-wise as well.

I am going to pick up a couple of Trinkets for my own projects. Right now I'm thinking of a small device to log light and (somehow) dust deposition to educate more folks here about pv panel placement and how dust affects efficiency.

Again, thanks for your thoughts!

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